Possible to double up on water heating systems??

[Daryll]

Evening Gents....

Currently, we have a gravity water system, with a 250litre tank in the loft, 160litre HW cylinder, heated by a Vaillant (sp?) boiler. This feeds the house with HW including an Aqualisa Digital pumped shower which, I know from experience of my daughter using it , will empty the system in about 20-25 minutes.

We're now having an extension built, with a utility room, cloakroom, and master bedroom with en-suite, and obviously I'd like to put a decent, (possibly another Aqualisa), pumped shower in there. It needs to be pumped, as we're in a very low pressure area..just over 1 bar.

Obviously, the easy solution is not to run both showers at the same time, but when there are 3 of us wanting showers in the morning, the temptation will be there to have "just a quick shower".

But even with just one shower, we have to wait 30 mins for the system to refill and reheat, so having 2 showers will be even worse.

I wondered if it was feasible to have 2 HW systems...?? add another cold tank in the loft, and another HW cylinder somewhere to just feed the en-suite and cloakroom...??

I realise the low pressure mains will take some time to refill both tanks, but by that time everyone should be showered and it can take the rest of the day to refill if need be.

Anyone see a major flaw in this idea, or have a better solution..??

TIA

Daryll.

 

[hazetimesfive]

do you think its appropriate to let your daughter use 300 litres of water for a shower..

i think you should have a water meter fitted and then this problem will magically disappear all by itself.

 

[Daryll]

Thank you haze, for your un-constructive comment.

I didn't say whether we had a water meter, or not, and the thread was not about saving water, but supplying 2 showers with enough water.

For your information, I didn't think it was appropriate for my daughter to drain the system, on that one occasion, and she hasn't done it since.


So, back to the original question, is there a major flaw in my idea, or is there a better idea..?

 

[SimonH2]

You could add an extra cylinder - but you also have to heat it which means either an extra boiler, or a larger boiler, or longer reheat times. How old is the cylinder you have ? AIUI, there are modern cylinders with better reheat rates (higher output coils) and replacing the cylinder may be enough.

Oh, and fit a restrictor on the shower !

 

[Dan Robinson]

Some chicken wire on the shower tray hooked up to a battery and timer

 

[hazetimesfive]

what i was getting at was making better use of the water you have, you could use the immersion and boiler at peak times, or is your issue with the amount of CWS that you have... replacing the ball valve will probably help.

 

[hazetimesfive]

what i was getting at was making better use of the water you have, you could use the immersion and boiler at peak times, or is your issue with the amount of CWS that you have... replacing the ball valve will probably help.

 

[Daryll]

No problem haze...

Its a fairly new boiler and cylinder... both were replaced in 2010, and I fitted the 250ltr CW tank at the same time.

Isn't a HW cylinder just like another rad..?? my heating engineer reckons the boiler he fitted should have some spare capacity... i hope it does, as i don't fancy needing a new boiler to be able to heat the extension...

I have thought about replacing the ball valve on the CW tank with a 22mm one as I've read somewhere that can help refill quicker....ideally I'd like to replace the whole mains pipe with 22mm, but thats not practical.... and probably wouldn't help much.

 

[Blagard]

Yes you could fit another indirect cylinder and CWS.
With its own motorised valve and cylinder stat it can work on the same water heating program times ideally when the central heating is not required or totally independent with its own single channel programmer.

To incorporate into existing system your coil primaries would need to be plumbed back into the main circuits from the boiler before other motorised valves. If you have a Y plan now it would need changing to a S plan. If already an S plan it simplifies things a lot.

 

[mogget]

Depending on the output of the boiler, could this be an application for a large Albion Superduty cylinder?

If it's a large boiler, it could be set up to heat the water as it goes through, a bit like a combi, and the cold water tank should be up to it...

 

[lauriehurman]

Is it just me?

I love the idea of a "digital shower"

Laurie

 

[hazetimesfive]

digital showers are great

 

[Daryll]

digital showers are great

Yep, we love ours... just push the button to start, when the light stops flashing you know its up to the preset temp, and you can step in without getting frozen or scalded...



They're not cheap, especially the pumped versions, but I'd certainly have another... and probably will in the en-suite.

 

[GavThePlumber]

Possible to double up on water heating systems?

Yes