Power showers

[williamglossop]

I have a combi boiler at my gaff..... and its perfectly adequate..... single bathroom etc. However, I'm building an extension with an en suite and want a much more powerful shower...... preferably a pumped shower. I assume i'd need a hot water cylinder - a cold feed up to it and a power supply. I'm also aware that the work has to be carried out by relevantly qualified plumbers. But what kind of cost would be implied in this work? And what type of cylinder would i require. I know this is vague...... but just wanna know where to start with it.

 

[cross thread]

First point is how good is your pressure/ flow rate of the incoming mains

 

[williamglossop]

At the moment, I get 16 litres a min from the cold...... the house is fed on 15mm copper from the street but I'm in the process of fitting a 32mm mdpe pipe..... so hopefully that will increase.

I'm thinking of an unvented direct cylinder - just not sure it'll give me the kind of shower I want..... basically I wanna struggle for breath when the showers on

 

[BlueLoo]

Could you use the combi direct/indirect?

 

[williamglossop]

I'd be buzzin if I knew what u meant Bluey lad.....

I have a ecotec 32 boiler..... if that matters

 

[BlueLoo]

I'd be buzzin if I knew what u meant Bluey lad.....

I have a ecotec 32 boiler..... if that matters

I thought by power you mean using an immersion to heat the tank......


Direct= direct from the hw supply from the combi.
Indirect= use the combi to heat the tank.

My mother in law had a combi running a shower. Twas great until someone used the water elsewhere. Still, it did work. A decent thermostatic mixer would help.

I suppose a ****ing big tank heated by the combi and a big shower pump is what you want eh?

That being the case. The water rate from supply is irrelevant as the tank is the buffer.

I'd love that set up but would want a big tank. 250l at least.
And a shower timer....

 

[Madrab]

180/210L indirect unvented HW cylinder supplied by a cold mains of at least 20L/Min at 3 Bar dynamic. You won't need anything larger unless your more than 3/4 showers within the cylinder's recovery period.

Key is your cold mains supply, your boiler will easily deal with the HW cylinder and you can run the combi's separate HW to the kitchen if you wanted to.

Get the water transporter out and get them to perform a dynamic pressure and flow test on the mains as a starting point.

 

[ianmcd]

you want an Indirect unvented HW cylinder, not a direct one and you can keep the combi and use it for the kitchen sink as @Madrab says, the combi primary system wont even be ticking over with the additional cylinder to heat up

 

[williamglossop]

Can the water be pumped from a indirect cylinder, or is it just mains pressure

 

[muggles]

Just mains pressure if you get an unvented cylinder - you can pump in, but not out. If you want to pump it you need to install a cold water storage tank and booster set or an accumulator. Need to know your static & dynamic mains pressures and flow rate in order to specify the correct system. Do you know what your static pressure is?

 

[williamglossop]

No...... but I'll speak to United Utilities during the water main upgrade....... they'll come and measure it. Once I know that, I'll come back to u...... thanks for the advice

 

[muggles]

It's something you can measure now yourself, https://www.screwfix.com/p/rothenberger-water-pressure-test-gauge-10bar/53626

This will be useful for future tests too

 

[williamglossop]

Ordered one. Cheers again.

 

[williamglossop]

I assume the dynamic pressure will remain the same once that supply pipe is upgraded from 15 to 32? I believe its 25mm to the boundary then it drops to 15mm from the boundary to my internal stop tap.

 

[ericmark]

I fitted a power shower to mothers house in a wet room, no questions it was good, but need to be careful with plumbing so it can't take the cylinder below the hight of the immersion heater if fitted.

Latter a combi boiler fitted, and power shower then illegal and had to be removed, difference was very small. The power shower was fitted because the header tank was in the airing cupboard not loft, the shower was down stairs, and some times the RCD feeding it would trip, and mother never seemed to notice, pressure much reduced, but still enough.