Hi
I know it has been done to death already, but...
I am extending my 3 bed semi up to 5 beds, 3 bathrooms with showers and a separate shower room, total floor area 200sqm. Obviously the insulation will be up to the latest standards, the roof is being replaced and the existing house has cavity wall insulation and DG.
We have mains gas and at least 35l/min water at the road and we are running a new polypipe from there. I am planning on fitting a water softener, I'm not sure if this has a material impact on flow rates?
Ideally we would like to have all of:
Mains H&C to all taps
Single zone radiator central heating with weather compensation control
Enough hot water volume to have at least one shower and one bath running simultaneously.
Enough hot water heat and volume to be able to top and hot up a bath.
I don't think a combi can meet this level of demand (at least on its own), I have seen suggestions of having a combi for the showers plus a tank for the bath - has anyone done this?
I would rather avoid an unvented tank because of the installation and servicing requirements.
One possibility seems to be a regular vented tank and pump the showers although obviously there are the noise and reliability issues with this approach.
A heat store, possibly with a plate heat exchanger seems another possibility but the system cost is excessive and I am not sure if this approach can be used in conjunction with weather compensation control and there also seem to be suggestions that the higher HW storage temperature is not compatible with the condensing operation of a condensing boiler and is thus less efficient.
Finally - possibly for another thread, decent energy savings seem to be achievable using mechanical ventilation heat recovery. Currently with my kids at home and my wife not working we heat to 21C all day and 18C all night so potentially there are decent savings to be made - does anyone have any experience with these devices?
Thanks for any suggestions.
I know it has been done to death already, but...
I am extending my 3 bed semi up to 5 beds, 3 bathrooms with showers and a separate shower room, total floor area 200sqm. Obviously the insulation will be up to the latest standards, the roof is being replaced and the existing house has cavity wall insulation and DG.
We have mains gas and at least 35l/min water at the road and we are running a new polypipe from there. I am planning on fitting a water softener, I'm not sure if this has a material impact on flow rates?
Ideally we would like to have all of:
Mains H&C to all taps
Single zone radiator central heating with weather compensation control
Enough hot water volume to have at least one shower and one bath running simultaneously.
Enough hot water heat and volume to be able to top and hot up a bath.
I don't think a combi can meet this level of demand (at least on its own), I have seen suggestions of having a combi for the showers plus a tank for the bath - has anyone done this?
I would rather avoid an unvented tank because of the installation and servicing requirements.
One possibility seems to be a regular vented tank and pump the showers although obviously there are the noise and reliability issues with this approach.
A heat store, possibly with a plate heat exchanger seems another possibility but the system cost is excessive and I am not sure if this approach can be used in conjunction with weather compensation control and there also seem to be suggestions that the higher HW storage temperature is not compatible with the condensing operation of a condensing boiler and is thus less efficient.
Finally - possibly for another thread, decent energy savings seem to be achievable using mechanical ventilation heat recovery. Currently with my kids at home and my wife not working we heat to 21C all day and 18C all night so potentially there are decent savings to be made - does anyone have any experience with these devices?
Thanks for any suggestions.