Greetings to everyone. This is my first post, after reading this board for few weeks. Here's my little plumbing/heating problem
I'm a foreigner and thoughout my entire life (last 9 years in UK included) I was lucky to always have hot water and heating provided by either district heating or high efficiency combi boilers. So forgive me my lack of knowledge and proper terminology, I don't fully understand what exactly I am looking at but I will do my best to provide you with full description...
I just moved in to my first own house I bought in UK. The house was built in 1936 and since then all the plumbing and heating was redone at least 3 times, last time it was "modernised" in early or mid 80ies, however the principles of the current heating system seem more dated than the house itself.
On the ground floor, in the old chimney shaft, where the fireplace used to be I have a gas back boiler labeled "Thorn Heating Ltd Housewarmer II S". Boiler has an outset radiant gas heater firefront, which is, without a doubt, the fugliest and most 1970ies looking thing I've seen since Margaret Thatcher's nervous hairdo. Boiler is operated by control board, clearly added later - a Wickes electronic device allowing auto 1 hour advance, 2 timer settings and manual on and off modes. The boiler provides hot water to taps, washing and central heating system of 5 single ply radiators throughout the house. One floor up, 1st floor level, is a hot water tank, roughly of 20, mayve 25 gallon capacity and in the loft I found black plastic container filled with cold water which seems to be providing gravity pressure to the whole system (I presume, never seen anything like it anywhere else, except for maybe 8th grade physics lab).
There are few problems I noticed over the last two weeks:
- Hot water storage tank is on the 1st floor, next to bathroom and approximately 1.5 meters below cold water tank in the loft. Hot water pressure is practically non existant. If I lay flat in the bath and open shower hot water will drool slowly like a broken watering can. Certainly not good enough to even consider it as means to keep daily hygiene. When mixed with cold water the shower is almost capable of washing down hair shampoo but it's prone to loose pressure on either side, so the slowly dribbling water is often either to hot or completely cold.
- There is no control over where the hot water goes. Central heating is a bizarre design where to turn it on I need to open valve in any radiator in the house, but there is no split or priority in the distribution - if any radiator is open, water goes into pipes and I have to wait around 40 minutes before any of the hot water reaches hot water storage.
My questions are:
1. Without major changes and ripping pipes everywhere in the middle of winter can I somehow gain control over water distribution, so I can manually switch central heating on and off with a button without running around the house and turning radiator valves off and on every time I need some hot water to wash dishes?
2. What can I do to improve hot water pressure? I am not a big fan of baths, but this is much worse - I'm talking complete lack of pressure in the shower.
3. Can I, in any way, change this fugly radiant firefront to something more pleasant to the eye but also providing heat to the room?
Hopefully someone will be able to help me.
I'm a foreigner and thoughout my entire life (last 9 years in UK included) I was lucky to always have hot water and heating provided by either district heating or high efficiency combi boilers. So forgive me my lack of knowledge and proper terminology, I don't fully understand what exactly I am looking at but I will do my best to provide you with full description...
I just moved in to my first own house I bought in UK. The house was built in 1936 and since then all the plumbing and heating was redone at least 3 times, last time it was "modernised" in early or mid 80ies, however the principles of the current heating system seem more dated than the house itself.
On the ground floor, in the old chimney shaft, where the fireplace used to be I have a gas back boiler labeled "Thorn Heating Ltd Housewarmer II S". Boiler has an outset radiant gas heater firefront, which is, without a doubt, the fugliest and most 1970ies looking thing I've seen since Margaret Thatcher's nervous hairdo. Boiler is operated by control board, clearly added later - a Wickes electronic device allowing auto 1 hour advance, 2 timer settings and manual on and off modes. The boiler provides hot water to taps, washing and central heating system of 5 single ply radiators throughout the house. One floor up, 1st floor level, is a hot water tank, roughly of 20, mayve 25 gallon capacity and in the loft I found black plastic container filled with cold water which seems to be providing gravity pressure to the whole system (I presume, never seen anything like it anywhere else, except for maybe 8th grade physics lab).
There are few problems I noticed over the last two weeks:
- Hot water storage tank is on the 1st floor, next to bathroom and approximately 1.5 meters below cold water tank in the loft. Hot water pressure is practically non existant. If I lay flat in the bath and open shower hot water will drool slowly like a broken watering can. Certainly not good enough to even consider it as means to keep daily hygiene. When mixed with cold water the shower is almost capable of washing down hair shampoo but it's prone to loose pressure on either side, so the slowly dribbling water is often either to hot or completely cold.
- There is no control over where the hot water goes. Central heating is a bizarre design where to turn it on I need to open valve in any radiator in the house, but there is no split or priority in the distribution - if any radiator is open, water goes into pipes and I have to wait around 40 minutes before any of the hot water reaches hot water storage.
My questions are:
1. Without major changes and ripping pipes everywhere in the middle of winter can I somehow gain control over water distribution, so I can manually switch central heating on and off with a button without running around the house and turning radiator valves off and on every time I need some hot water to wash dishes?
2. What can I do to improve hot water pressure? I am not a big fan of baths, but this is much worse - I'm talking complete lack of pressure in the shower.
3. Can I, in any way, change this fugly radiant firefront to something more pleasant to the eye but also providing heat to the room?
Hopefully someone will be able to help me.
