Advice on choosing the right heating system

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Hi, new member looking for some advice, i'm a heating novice and have recently moved house. I am considering replacing the heating system.

The house is a 1914 detached dormer bungalow, 4 beds and 1 downstairs bathroom. We are a family with 2 young children. The existing heating system is a pretty old (>15 years). It's a conventional system with a non-condensing boiler and vented hot water cylinder fed from a cold water storage tank in the loft. There are two bedrooms upstairs. The cold water storage tanks are at floor level on this floor. There doesn't appear to be a working room thermostat, the boiler has a high or low thermostat setting, that appears to be it other than the timer for heating and hot water.

The heating system works fine but the hot water cylinder is quite small and running one bath means lukewarm water for half an hour or more while the cylinder reheats. There is no shower currently. Since the hot water is gravity fed and the storage tank is low the hot water pressure is poor.

Our mains supply is lead pipe I think, we get 4bar static pressure and a flow rate at the kitchen tap of around 16-17l/min, the pressure at the outside tap when the kitchen tap is going full bore is around 0.5bar. Using an additional tap noticeably affects the flow from an already open tap (subjectively), is this a useful thing to measure?

We'd like to have an upstairs en-suite shower room and a shower in the downstairs bathroom, both usable simultaneously at a decent flow rate. It would be good to be able to have a bath and still have hot water available.

Clearly the existing setup isn't going to meet our needs, but what would be the best approach to supplying decent showers and erratic demand for hot water? I'm willing to consider any approach, the key thing is to end up with an effective system.

Will it be possible to supply two decent showers with the supply i've got? If so would a larger unvented cylinder or a combi be the best approach? If not, should I be looking at a whole house pump or some other method?

Any advice would be gratefully received.
 
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For multiple outlets being used at the same time a combi Is not going to cut it. Even the bigger combis with the added storage tanks such as the Vaillant Ecotec plus 937 will struggle with two outlets opened at the same time. I would be looking at sticking in a condensing system boiler with an unvented cylinder. The flow rate from these are only as good as what is being put into them though. Thus, an upgraded mains in 25mm MDPE should also be considered. Call in a local RGI who has an unvented ticket, a good one should be able to spec a system that will suit your needs.
 
Maybe even one up from 25mm....

25mm is all we have coming in and even with 22mm throughout the system 2 showers are tolerable when run together.

Mind you there might be a restriction in the few feet of pipe work I haven't seen, but most of it is getting ripped out this summer. Will be sticking an unvented cylinder and a couple of small accumulators in :D.
 
Yes possibly even 32mm. Again an installer will be a better judge having assessed the property and needs required.
 
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Thanks for the responses. Would it be worth considering a thermal store or would this not work well with a condensing boiler (due to the poor condensing efficiency when the cylinder is at temperature)?

I think the cost of replacing the main might be prohibitive, there is around a 4 foot drop to pavement level from my garden and a fairly substantial retaining wall, I suspect a lot of material would need to be removed to be able to lay a new pipe in the first place, plus the charge the water company would apply for capping the old supply and connecting the new one.

I guess the ultimate fix would be to upgrade the main to provide a better flow rate, but are there any other means I could use improve the flow which might be more economical, an accumulator buried in the garden perhaps?

I've got a couple of engineers coming over the next few days so I'll see what their recommendations are.
 

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