Combi boiler in loft - wasting loads of cold water on tap in ground floor

[Agile]

The immediate thing to do is put thick insulation on your hot supply pipe!

 

[foxhole]

Which is where having an open vented system, with a hw cylinder wins everytime. Less gas wastage, less water wasted and usually the hw will appear at the tap quicker with greater flow rate.

Depends entirely on usage, no point heating a tank of hot water only to let is go to waste.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Depends entirely on usage, no point heating a tank of hot water only to let is go to waste.

I agree, combi systems suit those who live irregular lifestyles, where the home , sometimes a small flat - might or might not be regularly occupied. A tank of hw suites families, and those at home regularly.

 

[foxhole]

Don

I agree, combi systems suit those who live irregular lifestyles, where the home , sometimes a small flat - might or might not be regularly occupied. A tank of hw suites families, and those at home regularly.

Dont agree combo is fine for a family of four , you need a large family to make use of a large tank of water .
Have recently moved from a property with large tank to a property with a combi and gas bill is now a few £ a month .

 

[Diver Fred]

My mate has the same problem. Either wash up in cold water or boil a kettle!

I'm a previous house water, on a meter, was our most expensive utility! Especially when you factor in foul water disposal (2.5 times the cost of potable water). Hot water was electrically heated but get hot water to kitchen sink, especially in winter would take around 10litres of water before warm (not Hot) water became available.

Considerably cheaper to boil a kettle.

 

[Diver Fred]

Depends entirely on usage, no point heating a tank of hot water only to let is go to waste.

Our Hot water tank is in the Airing Cupboard - if I took it out the wife would sterilize me by hand! Whilst I was awake!

 

[fixitflav]

Don

Dont agree combo is fine for a family of four , you need a large family to make use of a large tank of water .
Have recently moved from a property with large tank to a property with a combi and gas bill is now a few £ a month .

There are other reasons apart from efficiency on HW for choosing a combi or other system. Pros and cons for each, (for the customer and the installer). Personally unless there were good reasons otherwise I'd always go for heat-only with cylinder.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Don

Dont agree combo is fine for a family of four , you need a large family to make use of a large tank of water .
Have recently moved from a property with large tank to a property with a combi and gas bill is now a few £ a month .

I never mentioned a large tank of hw. We have a 100 some litre tank (120L ?), which is just enough for a bath, in winter, when the CW you add is at very it's coldest. When not used for baths, it will likely be used for washing up, hand washing and etc., if not used, it will be still hot the next day, and save reheating gas.

I used to run it available to reheat throughout the day, but when costs increased, I decided to limit it to 3pm to 7pm - to both save costs, and limit wear and tear on the boiler. The few pence worth of gas it costs, to reheat the tank doesn't really worry me at all, but as a purely academic exercise - I decided to drape an old bed quilt over the top of the yellow insulated tank, a few weeks ago. I didn't make any measurements, but the quilt does seem to have made a definite, and noticeable difference, to the temperature of the stored, unused hw next morning.

Anyone who comes here/ visits here, who are used to combi boilers, usually comment of how quick the hw appears at the tap, and how quick a bath can be filled.