Hello! I have a question I wonder if anyone can help with...
I recently bought a 2 bed flat (one story, no gas) and the existing HW system is a gravity fed, vented Immersion heater (the storage tank is directly above the cylinder and there is an electric pump to boost the pressure on the hot water output.
The cylinder is fairly large and as the flat sits empty quite often, I'm looking at installing an electric Europrisma unvented heater (plus expansion kits etc.) as the HW only needs to supply 2 sinks (kitchen and bathroom, all other appliances have cold inputs only and the shower is electric.)
Having studied the existing plumbing on the HW cylinder and comparing with “typical” schematics online, I’m stumped.
It appears there is a rising main plumbed directly into the cold feed (i.e. the bottom of the HW cylinder (pic attached). Surely this isn’t correct as there’d be no need for the booster pump as I have quite high mains pressure?
2 possible scenarios:
1) This is actually the “bleed line” from the cylinder and I’m mixing up the rising main with the drain line?
2) The valve could actually be in the closed position and not feeding the cylinder at all (I didn’t verify if the valve is in the open or closed position and my flat is 3 hours drive away!)
Has anyone seen anything like this before?
I can’t get a plumber willing to take on a small job like this so I’m looking at installing the Europrisma myself (I’ve worked a fair bit with hydraulics so feel confident enough). Initially I’ll be using flexible hoses to verify the system is working ok and performing as expected, after a couple of months I’ll tear out the old system and fully commission the unit with copper piping. I’ve been googling flexible braided hoses and I believe they are fine up to 70-80 deg C, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem as long as I don’t buy from the “bargain bin”
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks a lot, sorry if this is a tad basic…
I recently bought a 2 bed flat (one story, no gas) and the existing HW system is a gravity fed, vented Immersion heater (the storage tank is directly above the cylinder and there is an electric pump to boost the pressure on the hot water output.
The cylinder is fairly large and as the flat sits empty quite often, I'm looking at installing an electric Europrisma unvented heater (plus expansion kits etc.) as the HW only needs to supply 2 sinks (kitchen and bathroom, all other appliances have cold inputs only and the shower is electric.)
Having studied the existing plumbing on the HW cylinder and comparing with “typical” schematics online, I’m stumped.
It appears there is a rising main plumbed directly into the cold feed (i.e. the bottom of the HW cylinder (pic attached). Surely this isn’t correct as there’d be no need for the booster pump as I have quite high mains pressure?
2 possible scenarios:
1) This is actually the “bleed line” from the cylinder and I’m mixing up the rising main with the drain line?
2) The valve could actually be in the closed position and not feeding the cylinder at all (I didn’t verify if the valve is in the open or closed position and my flat is 3 hours drive away!)
Has anyone seen anything like this before?
I can’t get a plumber willing to take on a small job like this so I’m looking at installing the Europrisma myself (I’ve worked a fair bit with hydraulics so feel confident enough). Initially I’ll be using flexible hoses to verify the system is working ok and performing as expected, after a couple of months I’ll tear out the old system and fully commission the unit with copper piping. I’ve been googling flexible braided hoses and I believe they are fine up to 70-80 deg C, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem as long as I don’t buy from the “bargain bin”
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks a lot, sorry if this is a tad basic…
