Options from current Warm Air Heating and Electric Immersion Tank

[bmouthboyo]

As the title really. My wife and I moved into an old 1970's bungalow that has a cold water cistern in the attic, a gas warm air vented heating system and an electric immersion tank that runs simply from an on off switch for the hot water.

We are looking in the future to redo the bathroom and like the idea of a power shower, however if it makes the costs too high we will stick with the electric shower, albeit feeble

I am not that familiar with all the different systems so wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction of where to start researching, estimated prices etc?

We do not have a bath and no kids so really hot water is for kitchen and showers only. Heating we are kind of happy with the lack of radiators and do not really want to start installing them as the current warm air seems well maintained and works quite well.

I am a bit stumped as to why the warm air heater doesn't also heat the water and feed the immersion tank? It seems silly when they are next to each other yet the tank uses electricity. IS there a possible avenue to get both running on gas?

Any tips or advice much appreciated.

 

[geoffm1066]

Your warm air system is similar to ours but without a separate water boiler to heat the water for the immersion heater tank, the introduction of these gas warm air systems in the 70's and 80's didn't consider power showers unfortunately. we are just going through a complete overhaul of the heating, hot water and shower systems in our 1980 house and have decided to retain the gas warm heating, wife refuses to have rads in the house, fit a gas water boiler for hot water only ( similar to a combi boiler but without rads attached ) this will provide hot water to kitchen, bathroom taps and to a new shower thus removing the immersion heater and electric shower.
An approved plumber will supply and fit the boiler around for the £600 mark including gas supply and electrics, flue out ect. The internal copper pipe work & strip out I shall do as much as possible due to the upheaval to get to the existing pipework with final connections and testing by the plumber.
We have lived with the immersion heater / gas boiler attached to the warm air system for many years but during the winter months the mains water is so cold that even a 10.5kw shower struggles to heat the water and produce an acceptable pressure.
Hope this helps.

 

[bmouthboyo]

Your warm air system is similar to ours but without a separate water boiler to heat the water for the immersion heater tank, the introduction of these gas warm air systems in the 70's and 80's didn't consider power showers unfortunately. we are just going through a complete overhaul of the heating, hot water and shower systems in our 1980 house and have decided to retain the gas warm heating, wife refuses to have rads in the house, fit a gas water boiler for hot water only ( similar to a combi boiler but without rads attached ) this will provide hot water to kitchen, bathroom taps and to a new shower thus removing the immersion heater and electric shower.
An approved plumber will supply and fit the boiler around for the £600 mark including gas supply and electrics, flue out ect. The internal copper pipe work & strip out I shall do as much as possible due to the upheaval to get to the existing pipework with final connections and testing by the plumber.
We have lived with the immersion heater / gas boiler attached to the warm air system for many years but during the winter months the mains water is so cold that even a 10.5kw shower struggles to heat the water and produce an acceptable pressure.
Hope this helps.

Ah sounds like a similar situation to us. I can't work out what the connection to between the warm air and the immersion is but occasionally we get warm water from the hot water taps without the immersion having been on. Have not been in the property long so not 100% but seems the warm air heater is linked to the water slightly? Although this does not always seem the case. Strange.

I guess replacing the immersion with a boiler should not be too hard if it is in the same position as the flue, gas and piping is already there. Is a boiler enough for a power shower pump? I wondered if our existing immersion would be good for a power shower? Does your boiler feed the immersion tank or just heat water 'live' so to speak?

Thanks

 

[geoffm1066]

I suspect your warm air system is the same as ours ( Johnson & Staverly ) with a Janus 3 water boiler attached to the side this is piped up to the immersion heater cylinder which by the sound of it still produces hot water or should do. When its working correctly it is more efficient than the electric immersion heater as it heats water to the whole cylinder rather the top half where the element screws in. There is a or should be a temperature control knob on the water heater this maybe turned down hence only warm water either way an heating engineer familiar with the warm air system experience would be able to sort it plus if you have no history of the last service I strongly recommend you find one and get a full service carried out.
A power shower requires continuous pumped water so a boiler with a pump on is required hence the path I'm looking at going down.
The other alternative is of course complete change of system, remove warm air system including immersion hot water cylinder, loft cold water storage tank switching over to a combi boiler system with traditional radiators, constant hot water to taps and a power shower.
I would but the wife wants to keep the warm air heating system as she does not want any radiators on the walls I suspect she doesn't want all the floors ripped up to run new pipe work.
But you can get a wall mounted gas boiler with internal pump for hot water only to taps bathroom & kitchen plus a shower Mr Central Heating has one for around the £300 mark.

Geoff