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Hello, I've done a bit of research, and this forum has thrown up some new ideas that I think might help solve my problem – it would be helpful to hear some opinions on which might be the best way forward, or any other ideas! I've listed my ideas in order of what I think would cause least disruption to the current set-up.
The situation: One bedroom flat on third floor up (out of four), currently using 12 year old Worcester Junior Greenstar mains gas combi boiler for heating and hot water. The boiler fires up successfully and produces hot water, but this can suddenly run cold midway through running a bath or having a shower, even if there is nobody else in the flat drawing hot water from another tap. (The shower is one of those ones where you can switch the water supply to run either through the taps or through a mixer shower head). The building dates back to 1875, was converted to flats in the 1980s, is made up of around 24 flats, all on a shared water supply. The block does not have any sort of water storage in the basement, or any sort of pump to get the water from street level to the individual units. Logic makes me think that the supply to my own flat might be affected by people in other flats using water at the same time, so that the pressure decreases intermittently and there isn't always enough for my boiler to keep producing a steady flow of water.
Idea 1: The boiler is in the bedroom, floor-mounted against an outside wall. Would it be possible to install a small cold water tank directly above it to ensure that it always has enough pressure to operate? Would the flow from tank to boiler need to be restricted so that the boiler isn't dealing with too much pressure? Obviously tank could run dry if water was being taken faster than it could be replaced, but at least it would give the boiler a 'head-start' in terms of heating the water, and presumably if it does run dry I'm just back to the current situation of the boiler taking water directly from the mains? Alternatively, could a small cold water tank be positioned somewhere between the stopcock (under the bath) and the boiler, at the same level as the boiler. In this case, would it need to be pumped to the boiler, as it's on the same level rather than above the boiler?
Idea 2: Live with intermittent cold showers until the boiler dies and replace it with a storage combi boiler. There will never be more than one or two people in the flat at the same time, so this could be complete overkill, but it sounds like it could be a good solution for making sure there is at least 5 minutes' worth of guaranteed hot water for a decent shower. From reading another post, it sounds as though on at least some models (eg. Vaillant ecoTEC 938) you can fit a digital programmer so that you can switch the boiler into 'normal' combi boiler mode – only heating water on demand and therefore not paying to keep the water in the storage cylinders hot if it's not going to be used – and switch it to 'storage boiler' mode at times when you know you're likely to need a better supply of hot water, eg. you want a shower.
Idea 3: Hot water cylinder to supply hot water to bath taps/shower mixer head only (with taps for bathroom basin and kitchen sink still fed from combi boiler). Whilst there is a loft space above the bathroom, it wouldn't be structurally strong enough to put in a header tank. Does anyone know of a system that stacks a small cold water tank on top of a hot water cylinder of the same capacity, and would this effectively create a vented system? If this was in the bathroom (which would involve changing the layout and therefore significant work) would the hot water need to be pumped to the bath taps/shower mixer head, or would having the cold water tank above the hot water cylinder create enough pressure not to need a pump? Could the existing combi boiler be used to heat the water in the cylinder, or would it be better to heat it electrically with an immersion switch? If this set-up is possible, would it be better to position it alongside the boiler, which is in the bedroom? There's not much space anywhere in the flat, but at least if it went next to the boiler it would avoid having to alter layout of bathroom.
Idea 4: Same as idea 3, but just using a hot water cylinder which heats water electrically using an immersion switch directly off the mains (or uses the combi boiler to heat it?), so no cold water tank involved. I think this would then be an unvented system, so from what I have read I wouldn't be able to pump water from it - would this work if it is on the same level as bath taps, ie. provide enough pressure for a shower?
Thank you if you've managed to read this far, and extra thanks if you're able to offer any advice - I was googling at 4am last night trying to figure out a solution!
The situation: One bedroom flat on third floor up (out of four), currently using 12 year old Worcester Junior Greenstar mains gas combi boiler for heating and hot water. The boiler fires up successfully and produces hot water, but this can suddenly run cold midway through running a bath or having a shower, even if there is nobody else in the flat drawing hot water from another tap. (The shower is one of those ones where you can switch the water supply to run either through the taps or through a mixer shower head). The building dates back to 1875, was converted to flats in the 1980s, is made up of around 24 flats, all on a shared water supply. The block does not have any sort of water storage in the basement, or any sort of pump to get the water from street level to the individual units. Logic makes me think that the supply to my own flat might be affected by people in other flats using water at the same time, so that the pressure decreases intermittently and there isn't always enough for my boiler to keep producing a steady flow of water.
Idea 1: The boiler is in the bedroom, floor-mounted against an outside wall. Would it be possible to install a small cold water tank directly above it to ensure that it always has enough pressure to operate? Would the flow from tank to boiler need to be restricted so that the boiler isn't dealing with too much pressure? Obviously tank could run dry if water was being taken faster than it could be replaced, but at least it would give the boiler a 'head-start' in terms of heating the water, and presumably if it does run dry I'm just back to the current situation of the boiler taking water directly from the mains? Alternatively, could a small cold water tank be positioned somewhere between the stopcock (under the bath) and the boiler, at the same level as the boiler. In this case, would it need to be pumped to the boiler, as it's on the same level rather than above the boiler?
Idea 2: Live with intermittent cold showers until the boiler dies and replace it with a storage combi boiler. There will never be more than one or two people in the flat at the same time, so this could be complete overkill, but it sounds like it could be a good solution for making sure there is at least 5 minutes' worth of guaranteed hot water for a decent shower. From reading another post, it sounds as though on at least some models (eg. Vaillant ecoTEC 938) you can fit a digital programmer so that you can switch the boiler into 'normal' combi boiler mode – only heating water on demand and therefore not paying to keep the water in the storage cylinders hot if it's not going to be used – and switch it to 'storage boiler' mode at times when you know you're likely to need a better supply of hot water, eg. you want a shower.
Idea 3: Hot water cylinder to supply hot water to bath taps/shower mixer head only (with taps for bathroom basin and kitchen sink still fed from combi boiler). Whilst there is a loft space above the bathroom, it wouldn't be structurally strong enough to put in a header tank. Does anyone know of a system that stacks a small cold water tank on top of a hot water cylinder of the same capacity, and would this effectively create a vented system? If this was in the bathroom (which would involve changing the layout and therefore significant work) would the hot water need to be pumped to the bath taps/shower mixer head, or would having the cold water tank above the hot water cylinder create enough pressure not to need a pump? Could the existing combi boiler be used to heat the water in the cylinder, or would it be better to heat it electrically with an immersion switch? If this set-up is possible, would it be better to position it alongside the boiler, which is in the bedroom? There's not much space anywhere in the flat, but at least if it went next to the boiler it would avoid having to alter layout of bathroom.
Idea 4: Same as idea 3, but just using a hot water cylinder which heats water electrically using an immersion switch directly off the mains (or uses the combi boiler to heat it?), so no cold water tank involved. I think this would then be an unvented system, so from what I have read I wouldn't be able to pump water from it - would this work if it is on the same level as bath taps, ie. provide enough pressure for a shower?
Thank you if you've managed to read this far, and extra thanks if you're able to offer any advice - I was googling at 4am last night trying to figure out a solution!
