gixer1 Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 Gents, I am looking for some advice from the plumbers that maybe on here, I recently had all the hot water and radiotor piping in my house changed to hep2o and 15mm copper (from the original microbore which was on all the radiators and leaking like a sieve when I bought the house!) I also had a new hot water tank installed as the coil in the previous one was leaking and constantly dripping into the overflow tank in the loft. the house is a 4 bed bungalow and I am now considering having a pressurised hot water system installed due to the poor pressure at the tap and showers, the questions I have before I seek a quote are - Will the new hep2o and 15mm copper be suitable for the new higher pressure system? what materials will I need such as pump, new pressurised type hot water tank? what do you think the ball park cost for this job would be all in? Regards Gixer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 cheapest option would be the biggest combi you can get and get rid of all the tanks etc, then all cold supplies are on mains and the system operates at mains pressure. No effect on your heating circuit and is usually pretty simple to switch over. I've a 4 bed with 3 bathrooms and the combi does 16l a minute of hot water which is fine. In practice it isn't ideal if you have more than 2 hot taps on but how often does that happen. The trade off is as the water is heated on demand you never run out of hot water, showers are great and I've even fitted a reducer to one as it was using a huge amount of water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gixer1 Posted July 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 (edited) Thanks Alex, I should have mentioned in the first post the house has a Boulter Classic boiler which is Oil fed does this matter? also there is no gas in the area? I was hoping the pressurised water system would be a cheaper option than a combi, but also the house was originally fed from a well although this was changed recently to mains (although the water pressure isn't that impressive and the cold water never seems to be really cold if that makes sense!) Regards, Gixer. Edited July 14, 2009 by gixer1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 you can get oil combis but cost goes through the roof I would say you're looking at some form of megaflow system but I think they still need a certain incoming pressure to operate. If your existing system is in decent nick then you may just be able to fit a pump to it and gain your pressure that way and far cheaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gixer1 Posted July 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 I shall look into the pump idea... Thanks for the help Alex.... Regards, Gixer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piebob Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 Gixer, The lads gave me some great info in this thread (hope this link works) http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...5&hl=piebob I'm in a similar position by the sounds of it - oil, poor flow rate, tank has poor head-of-water but need to save more pennies to get it sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Mike Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 If you are going to retro fit a pressurised system you must be confident all your hidden pipework joints are in good nick or you will be having the carpets and board up for ever and a day when that needle starts dropping. I had a serious problem with hot water pressure and cold feed. A plumber who works for my company fitted a "on demand" pump to the hot water curcuit and plumbed all of the cold taps to the mains for £400 quid. Problem sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 I've got a Megaflow........reasonable pressure from the hot tap. Does surge a bit at first. Dont know anything about it though, installed when house built 5yrs ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daz2202 Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 Before even thinking about unvented or combi you need to check your incomming water pressure. If you only have 1 bar of incomming main then you cannot improve this without a pump! Oso and heatrae do make an unvented cylinder with a large water store as part of the unit but they are very expensive. To improve your water pressure you could just get your loft tank raised, 1 metre of head equals 1/2 bar of pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Holliday Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Before even thinking about unvented or combi you need to check your incomming water pressure. If you only have 1 bar of incomming main then you cannot improve this without a pump! Oso and heatrae do make an unvented cylinder with a large water store as part of the unit but they are very expensive. To improve your water pressure you could just get your loft tank raised, 1 metre of head equals 1/2 bar of pressure. Ditto that. Definately have a pressure & flow check carried our first. Any half decent plumber should be able to do this for you. If mains water is lacking in P&F then pumped stored water will be the best option. You don't need to go over board with the pump rating either. Don't forget, if you only have a small CWS tank/cistern then it will empty it in a matter of minutes. A pump supplying 1.5 bar of pressure will give a perfectly adequate shower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpowder Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 If you have a good cold mains pressure , the unvented domestic hot water cylinder is the best option, hep pipe is quite ok as the unvented cylinders have a pressure reducing valve on the inlet down to 3bar in most instances with a spare connection to take cold as a balanced pressure to showers etc. There may be more noise from water flow in the pipes with 15mm but no problem with adaquate supply with appropriate pressure as cited by in other answers. The stainless steel Megaflo is hard to beat in my opinion as a brand name . Blackpowder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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