Kitchen tap from a tank?

[Lumo]

I've just moved into a flat in a small block of 8 flats. All the water for the flat appears to come in via a pipe under the kitchen sink (shut off at floor level then up to kitchen cold tap and along through the wall to bathroom and heating, hot water comes back through the wall).

I had assumed that this meant the whole place must be mains fed (water pressure at all taps is high) - there is no cold tank in the flat. However after running a bath I can hear a tank filling above us (presumably in the loft space), witch stops five or so minutes later.

Doesn't this mean that the water coming in is all from a tank, and therefore so is the kitchen cold tap? Is this allowed? It's a late 1960s build.

 

[seco services]

your kitchen will be mains.
what heats your hot water ?
have you a copper cylinder in a cupboard ?

 

[Lumo]

Yes, there is a cylinder heated by immerser element and gas boiler which also does the CH. But there is no sign of a stop cock or anything near the boiler.

 

[seco services]

no your mains stopcock is under the sink.

 

[Lumo]

So is the hot water tank is fed from somewhere other than under the kitchen sink? How would I turn off the water to it should something leak?

Is it definitely not the case that a house in the UK would have been plumbed with a kitchen tap fed from a loft tank?

 

[seco services]

you must have a drinking water tap. that is your kitchen tap fed straight from the mains.

have you got two plastic tanks in the loft, one small, one large ?
the small is for the heating the large is the supply to the copper cylinder in the cupboard.

is this what your cylinder looks like ?
http://image.bizrate.co.uk/resize?sq=160&uid=66694378&mid=82610

 

[Lumo]

Other than being able to hear a tank fill after running a bath I'm not sure what's in the loft as I don't have access.

The hot water cylinder looks just like that, it's next to the boiler and on the other side is the small tank for the CH.

If the pipe under the kitchen is for mains why does it run through the wall to the bathroom? (I can't see what it's connected to as the pipes are concealed) Could the cold there be mains too, but why do that if there is another feed from the loft to the bathroom/hot tank?

 

[seco services]

yes i would say yourbathroom cold is mains and all your hot water is gravity from the cylinder.

 

[Lumo]

Yes, after some more tests this does seem to be the case. Thanks for your input. I grew up abroad for a while where having a whole block of flats fed from one massive tank (including all kitchen taps) wasn't uncommon at all so I wasn't all that surprised to think that might be the case here.

 

[Kes]

What are the UK regs regarding supplying drinking water from a storage tank? There are such things for sale (just a plastic tank with a better fitting lid) and appliances such as the Grundfoss pressure booster use a storage tank.

 

[kirkgas]

years ago i worked on flats in Glasgow that were completely plumbed from storage, we quite often got calls that feathers were coming out of the taps, caused by a dead pigeon getting drawn down the outlet as the tank lid was off, we systematically changed them over to mains as we fitted new kitchens in them but there were originally hundreds with storage throughout