Hi all. New to the forum.
I've got a traditional fully pumped open-vent system. I'm just about to replace the HW tank with a thermal store (using existing F&E tank in loft) with external plate heat exchanger, in order to provide lots of mains pressure HW.
Now, as I was doing final checks on what pipes are what etc., before ripping it all up, I noticed that the safety vent over the F&E tank is tee'd off the main cold feed out of the same tank right near the tank (i.e. no separate safety vent pipe running from HW tank vicinity).
Now this may be OK functionally for the current setup, but when I plumb in the new thermal store tank, which has cold feed connection at the base and vent at the top, I'm thinking that it won't perform too well, as there's nothing to force it to top-up with cold feed at the bottom only... (cold coming in at the top will mess up the stratification).
So unless I'm nissing something, my options are to either plumb in a completely separate vent in 22 up to the F&E (big job), or leave as is and put a check valve on the vent before it joins the exisiting single 22 from the F&E, but I'm pretty sure that this option could be construed as unsafe, if the check valve ever got stuck closed (possible?).
Any thoughts appreciated!
Cheers, Tom
I've got a traditional fully pumped open-vent system. I'm just about to replace the HW tank with a thermal store (using existing F&E tank in loft) with external plate heat exchanger, in order to provide lots of mains pressure HW.
Now, as I was doing final checks on what pipes are what etc., before ripping it all up, I noticed that the safety vent over the F&E tank is tee'd off the main cold feed out of the same tank right near the tank (i.e. no separate safety vent pipe running from HW tank vicinity).
Now this may be OK functionally for the current setup, but when I plumb in the new thermal store tank, which has cold feed connection at the base and vent at the top, I'm thinking that it won't perform too well, as there's nothing to force it to top-up with cold feed at the bottom only... (cold coming in at the top will mess up the stratification).
So unless I'm nissing something, my options are to either plumb in a completely separate vent in 22 up to the F&E (big job), or leave as is and put a check valve on the vent before it joins the exisiting single 22 from the F&E, but I'm pretty sure that this option could be construed as unsafe, if the check valve ever got stuck closed (possible?).
Any thoughts appreciated!
Cheers, Tom
