Copper pipe on wall outside my bro's flat

[Mw Roofline]

My bro lives in the flat pictured below, he lives on the middle floor. The 5 windows you see on the middle floor are all his.
This random vertical copper pipe has appeared from the flat above running vertically in between my bro's bathroom and kitchen window. At the bottom it's just open ended a few inches off the ground.

I have no idea about plumbing but i'm guessing some sort of overflow or condensate pipe.

The thing is, it looks kind of ugly, there are no other copper pipes anywhere, just discreet plastic overflow pipes, airbricks and shower vents. I know some of you may be thinking just live with it, but my bro paid over the odds for this flat as they are in an affluent area with landscaped gardens etc and it just seems to spoil the building. It doesn't help either that no compo has been put into the hole at the top where the pipe comes out of the wall (you can't see on the photo but there is a good 2 inches around where the pipe comes out). It also looks like the pipe is coming from my bro's ceiling rather than the flat above.

Can someone tell me what it is for? And why couldn't it be discharged into an internal waste pipe?

My bro was going to mention it to the people above who he gets on with and are really nice people but I thought i'd check on here first so that if nothing can be done and it's all correct, he won't have to bother them.


Ta

 

[transam]

Pressure relief pipe from safety valve on boiler ??

 

[dcawkwell]

Most like the flat above has had a main pressure hot water tank installed.
This is pressure/temperature relief pipe. If the pressure or temperature
in the tank becomes dangerous the tank will vent via the pipe.

 

[Agile]

Really at the 2nd floor level it could have just been turned in towards the wall!

Particularly when its only a flower bed below.

Tony

 

[Mw Roofline]

Most like the flat above has had a main pressure hot water tank installed.
This is pressure/temperature relief pipe. If the pressure or temperature
in the tank becomes dangerous the tank will vent via the pipe.

What would it vent? Only water, only air air or steam (both)?

 

[Boilerman2]

It will be water at anything up to 100'c the biggest risk to your Brother will be in the winter when the PRV is dripping and the copper pipe blocks with ice, the water will then flood the airing cupboard in the flat above which will result in water coming through the ceiling into your brothers property this discharge pipe need insulating or up sizing somewhat!

 

[transam]

could be both ? if the pipe is from a combi or sealed heating system only for a short time however if it is from an unvented cylinder that blows than it could be more serious 1 litre of water will produce 1800 litres of steam multiply that by say 200 litres in an unvented cylinder

unvented cyllinders with relief pipes terminated against the wall IMO are not advisable , from a combi ect generally OK they also do a special fitting refered to as a mushroom ( I think ) for this purpose !

combi = prv pressure relief valve ! un- vented = temperature & pressure releif valve !

 

[dcawkwell]

Most like the flat above has had a main pressure hot water tank installed.
This is pressure/temperature relief pipe. If the pressure or temperature
in the tank becomes dangerous the tank will vent via the pipe.

What would it vent? Only water, only air air or steam (both)?

Could possibly vent hot water at 95 degrees.
If my memory is right then this should be taken down to
a drain where possible. Certainly down to the ground.
If the tank is hot and the temperature relief valve is opened it will
vent the whole tank at mains pressure hot boiling water will be come shooting out. Hence why it shouldn't be just turned to the wall.

 

[transam]

Boilerman 2 makes a fair point , if it is off a combi ( no tundish ) X Y & Z happen or are ignored pipe freezes boiler come's on well something might happen ???????????

 

[Agile]

On an UV at 95 °C it would only vent the precharge pressure times the precharge volume.

Its not totally correct to turn an U/V vent back to the wall but its often done in non critical garden situations like this.

An alternative which does meet the regulations is to connect it through a fanny trap valve to internal waste pipes.

Tony

 

[barkie1]

Is that a tee on the second floor I can see going into this copper pipe? If so this pipe seems undersized. Ie 3 prv's from 3 separate unvented systems (heating or hot water).

 

[Happyplumber]

The pipework is done to regulations and totally correct

using hep2 valve will involve using high temperature plastic fittings etc something which Agile has forgotten to mention,again Agile teling people nonsense as usaul,there is nothing wrong with the way that safety critical pipework has been fitted and far better then turing it back to the wall !

 

[barkie1]

Hp, pardon my stupidity? But I was aware that if you linked multi prv's you needed to upgrade to next pipe size to carry the flow at 'worse case'. Idealy you would want them seperate. Or have I understood that wrong?

Ps I can't see that pic too well so not even sure if it is multiple appliance's using a communal discharge pipe?

Thanks Barkie1

 

[transam]

Whats that above the small window to the right of the pipe ? pressure releif ?? if u look very carefully at 1 of those windows zoom in , some lady ( fit ) is undressing

 

[muggles]

ts not totally correct to turn an U/V vent back to the wall but its often done in non critical garden situations like this
Tony

Far from merely being 'not totally correct', I think you'll find that the method of turning the PRV back to the wall on unvented cylinder installations is only permissible where it is impossible to do anything else. This situation occurs in almost no cases at all. Also, in this situation, it would end up turned back in the firing line of an opening window and the fanning out of the hot water could cause it to discharge onto someone opening/closing the window or whatever. Highly inadvisable.

It could, as you suggest, be run internally to a stack provided HT waste pipe is used and the run is available.