Low pressure, fit a storage tank?

[craigap]

Hi

Our terraced house is on a shared water main with 5 other properties, which up until the last 12 months has been acceptable, just. However since then the pressure seems to have dropped around 25%. The main issue this causes is that we have our condensing boiler in the loft as this was realistically the only place we had available.

However the hot water runs really slow and takes an absolute age to fill a bath. The boiler was fitted just under two years ago and the pressure sits at just above 1bar when idle, so I don't this it's the boiler at fault.

I have spoken to UU about a dedicated mains supply which is no problem up to the property boundaries. However our kitchen (and subsequent cold water piping) is at the rear and the mains is at the front. Our living room at the front of the property has laminate flooring laid just over three years ago and is in really good condition. Skirting boards were fitted over the laminate so this would be a huge pain on the a*se to lift and relay for access to the void under the floor.

Therefore I was wondering if an option would be to have a small (25-30 gallon) tank fitted with a pump(?) in the loft to 'improve the pressure, specifically for the boiler.

Any views or advise on this?

TIA

Craig

 

[xr4x4]

What about the cold pressure?

Hot flow will be poor on a combi.

 

[dcawkwell]

Cold water accumulator tank approx 100 - 150 litres with
non return valve after the house stop cock.
Sorted. You need to measure the static pressure you are getting
at the cold main. Anything around 2 bar will be fine.
This will improve the cold and hot supply.

 

[craigap]

So are we saying that providing the storage tank is before the boiler, it will or won't improve the hot water flow?
Would any sort of pump be required/advisable to increase pressure from the tank or am I misunderstanding how the tank works?

The tank would be located about a meter to the side of the boiler in the loft.
The ground floor water feed is taken before it goes to the loft, but the pressure there isn't too bad, it's more the hot that is my concern.

Thanks

Craig

 

[dcawkwell]

So are we saying that providing the storage tank is before the boiler, it will or won't improve the hot water flow?
Would any sort of pump be required/advisable to increase pressure from the tank or am I misunderstanding how the tank works?

The tank would be located about a meter to the side of the boiler in the loft.
The ground floor water feed is taken before it goes to the loft, but the pressure there isn't too bad, it's more the hot that is my concern.

Thanks

Craig

It works as an unvented cylinder so stores a volume of water at pressure.
It will work better on the ground floor where pressure is higher I would think. If you get your plumber to measure the static pressure and it is approx 2 bar. The tank will provide a volume of water at that pressure.
No pump is required.