woodburner for hotwater - no room for header tank | Bathroom Advice | Plumbers Forums

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H

headscratch

Wondering if someone has experience of this - I have been around the houses to get an answer incl. solid fuel assoc.
Small one up, one down barn conversion - the water is coming from a bore hole with a 3600 litre storage tank. Borehole storage tank is high enough on hill to get water to cylinder upstairs but there is no room for a header tank. I want to run the hotwater from a wood burner (indirect system) - no need for central heating because barn so small. Where can I vent the cylinder to? Is it acceptable out onto the slates or can I vent it into the little supply tank for the woodburner boiler? The building inspector says the regs say it is acceptable so long as it's safe..... Can I use a fortec cylinder with cold water storage above with ball valve. Will this give me enough hot water to fill a bath? I plan to put a small pump from the cylinder to the taps & shower upstairs. :confused:
 
You require a seperate header cistern for your indirect side from the woodburner (Brass Ball valve, copper overflow pipe, Cistern constructed to BS4213 110degree) You also require a heat leak radiator for slumbering conditions. 28mm gravity circuit, minimum 22mm open vent. Very important get the correct size woodburner for the heating requirements. Not a job for the inexperienced as there are many more things to take into account.
 
The hot water vessel must be minimum 117litre BS1566:2002 minimum 1.2kW load. You can't vent through the roof slates, it will freeze and the cylinder may blow up. All of your proposed work requires building regulations consent. If you use a HETAS approved installer they will be able to get this consent through the competant person scheme, otherwise you will have to pay building control to get it certificated.
 
Re: woodburner for ho****er - no room for header tank

I appreciate your advice Reg Man - thanks - and I have taken some time to consider my options in the light of your guidance and to discover some more difficulties in what I am trying to do. I hope that you are able to help me further. The water from the borehole is acidic; not sure how acid but I'm thinking I need to go for a stainless cylinder and yes - header tank, because copper will corrode. I have 'made room' for up to 2000 mm of cylinder and header tank. The borehole is 8.5 metres higher than the base of the proposed position of the cylinder and is roughly 120 metres away connected by 50mm MDPE pipe - I understand that gives me 0.85 bar pressure with plenty of flow. I want to heat the water using solar thermal and woodburner with boiler, with immersion as back up. The woodburner will be directly below the cylinder - gravity fed 28mm: the solar panels will be on or near to the ground, less than 6 metres away(barn is listed so can't put panels on roof). I am hoping to use thermal syphoning to get water from panels to cylinder but am told this may be unnecessarily difficult and small pump will do the job better - I am trying to eliminate pumps as far as possible. I don't need any space heating other than the woodburner and some form of heat dump because the barn is small and well insulated. - The problem is that I can't source a vented indirect stainless steel tank less than 1600mm high with coils for the woodboiler and solar thermal that I can run the borehole water through so that I don't loose the pressure to my bath and 2 sinks. Am I being unrealistic with this set up? There seems to be companies making copper cylinders that can do this but not in stainless. I am planning to get a custom stainless header tank. Already paid building control so no extra cost there. You were so right when you said "there are many more things to take into account."!!
 
Re: woodburner for ho****er - no room for header tank

Suggest you give Newark Copper Cylinders a call Newark Copper Cylinders | Solar Cylinders, Hot Water Cylinders they can custom make just about anything, a few years back they custom built a twin coil, non-vented cylinder to fit in an unusual space (short and wide) for me, and even then the total cost was less than an equivalent sized off the shelf unit!

Great guys, really helpful. (they even do a thermal store with built in header tank as standard), and I'd be suprised if they can't accomodate your s/s requirments. (oops or maybe not! )

"Newark Copper Cylinder Co. Ltd. only manufacture copper hot water cylinders, as there are several key factors which we believe prove, that stainless steel is a greatly inferior material for this purpose"

Suggest you give them a call anyway
 
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