Advice needed on heating system

[paul2]

I live in a tall four story, 5 bed house which we had re-plumbed when we moved in 10 years ago.

There is a cold water tank in the loft and the water pressure in the house is excellent at the moment.

However, the boiler has just packed in and we are going to convert the loft later this year.

If the boiler needs replacing (which i think it does) should I just replace it or get the whole system pressurised and lose the cold water tank in the loft at the same time?

Also any recommendations on boilers and pressurised hotwater tanks would be much appreciated.

The mains pipe to the house is a small 15mm pipe.

 

[simond]

This is a bit open ended.

If you plan to use the loft entirely for living space then there will be no room for a tank, also if you plan to fit bathrooms in the loft you are into negative pressure shower pumps, which I think are bad news.

So you are into unvented systems or heatstores, but in both cases you will require a tasty water supply, which at the very best means a new supply pipe, and at worst, an accumulator.

The best advice i can offer you is to get some advice from someone who has met you, seen your plans, inspected the building and taken flow and pressure measurements.

Your builder is not usually the best place to start, get a pro heating company round.

 

[paul2]

hi simond

thanks for your help and sorry to be a bit vauge.

There is space to keep the cold water tank in the loft (but ideally we would get rid of it).

Sounds like the alternative is going to be a lot of trouble thou, right?

 

[gas4you]

I live in a tall four story, 5 bed house which we had re-plumbed when we moved in 10 years ago.

There is a cold water tank in the loft and the water pressure in the house is excellent at the moment.

Do you mean the cold mains pressure is excellent, or the pressure off any tank fed taps is.

A loft this high will give good pressure from a tank in it.

 

[bengasman]

Not disputing the above, just pointing out that there really is no advantage to open tanks, not for heating, not for water.
Unless you have an unusually high hotwater demand, with a converted loft you will probably find the space saving brought by a combi of interest.
As you have only a 15 mm incoming mains, unvented cylinders are not really much good to you.

 

[Bambergaspipe]

I live in a tall four story, 5 bed house which we had re-plumbed when we moved in 10 years ago.

There is a cold water tank in the loft and the water pressure in the house is excellent at the moment.

However, the boiler has just packed in and we are going to convert the loft later this year.

If the boiler needs replacing (which i think it does) should I just replace it or get the whole system pressurised and lose the cold water tank in the loft at the same time?

It`s your call, have the loft space but you`ll have to convert to a combi simple as that, which by the way normally gives a poorer hot water flow to your bath than a conventional gravity fed hot water system, don`t bother opening more than one hot tap at a time because your combi will s*hit itself and deliver to one hot tap only.

 

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

On your house size by the sounds of it and if you have the cash go for a Mega Flow/Range Tribune mains fed cylinder with boiler (Guessing you already have a cylinder cupboard) .
You should then find that your water needs will still be met however this setup if all from new could cost a bit.

 

[bengasman]

On your house size by the sounds of it and if you have the cash go for a Mega Flow/Range Tribune mains fed cylinder with boiler (Guessing you already have a cylinder cupboard) .
You should then find that your water needs will still be met however this setup if all from new could cost a bit.

A megaflow on a 15mm? Bit of a waste of money.

By the way, a 40 kw combi may not feed two baths, it will certainly run two showers happily. depending on your watersupply of course

 

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

On your house size by the sounds of it and if you have the cash go for a Mega Flow/Range Tribune mains fed cylinder with boiler (Guessing you already have a cylinder cupboard) .
You should then find that your water needs will still be met however this setup if all from new could cost a bit.

A megaflow on a 15mm? Bit of a waste of money.

By the way, a 40 kw combi may not feed two baths, it will certainly run two showers happily. depending on your watersupply of course

I do appologise i never noted the 15mm mains but surely there would be a way around this rather than trying to fit a combi in a 5 Storey house where you would have to reason there is more than a bathroom and a kitchen sink.

 

[Bambergaspipe]

By the way, a 40 kw combi may not feed two baths, it will certainly run two showers happily. depending on your watersupply of course[/quote]


Overkill and pointless to be honest, you still won`t be able to open two hot taps and get the same flow rate.

How about an 80kw boiler?

 

[bengasman]

notgoodatfaultfind, you are not good a reading either, it is not a 5 storey house.

and what are the chances that 2 people want to run a bath at the same time?
Not sharing that is.

 

[Bambergaspipe]

By the way, a 40 kw combi may not feed two baths, it will certainly run two showers happily. depending on your watersupply of course

Overkill and pointless to be honest, you still won`t be able to open two hot taps and get the same flow rate.

How about an 80kw boiler?

let`s have two combi`s

 

[gas4you]

let`s have two combi`s

So you are BB then bamber

 

[Norcon]

Bengasman wrote

Not disputing the above, just pointing out that there really is no advantage to open tanks, not for heating, not for water

I have open an open tank in my loft. (It does have a lid though to keep the mice from going on their weekly swim)
One advantage I find is that it fills a bath in about 3 minutes flat.
And no influence from other users.

 

[bengasman]

By the way, a 40 kw combi may not feed two baths, it will certainly run two showers happily. depending on your watersupply of course

Overkill and pointless to be honest, you still won`t be able to open two hot taps and get the same flow rate.

How about an 80kw boiler? [/quote]

I have installed a number of 35, 37 and even a 42 kw recently, and provided the incoming mains is not restricted, they all give a perfectly fine shower using 2 showers at the same time, especially using a decent thermostatic shower.
Don't forget that a 42kw condensing boiler effectively pumps out twice the rate of an old 24kw, and no one says you can't run a shower on those.
Have you installed a wb 37 or 42 steamer with a decent mains yourself recently?