Private water supply no mains

[isolatedsmallholding]

Hi...first time poster....I am on a private water supply from a well. I have about 1.5m head on my water tank. I cannot raise it any more unless I put it outside up the hill...major plumbing job.

So I need pressure for a shower. A pump at the shower deos not get enough inlet water (hot) to run well/at all (tried that).....I am thinking of putting a whole house pump at the cold water tank to give me a higher pressure on the inlet side.

i.e. increase push on the inlet side rather than try and pull a weak supply at the shower.

Any advice please welcome.
Just to reiterate I have no mains water supply it is pumped into a tank that supplies water to cistern and cold water circuit.. I am on a typical gravity fed system otherwise in a 1850s building where the plumbing has been done previously by a knitter.

 

[FoxtrotOscar]

Surely a large vented hot water cylinder and pump is the answer here?

 

[isolatedsmallholding]

Thanks ...I have a vented hot water cylinder....this is supplied from the same head...so low pressure on output side of cylinder.

CWTank==cold water supply to shower===pump==shower head=>ok pressure as close to source
CWTank==hot water cylinder=========pump==shower head=>low pressure even when pumped

I think this might be my solution

CWTank==pump==cold water supply to shower===shower head=>
CWTank==pump==hot water cylinder====(pump?)====shower head

What do you think?

 

[Madrab]

If you have the cold water cistern 1.5m above the head of the shower and it's 1+m above the base of the hot water cylinder, a twin impeller pump sited at the cylinder should be able to supply a shower, if not a universal pump would be needed and as long as the pumped cold cistern can keep pace with the hot/cold demand.

Not sure why yours can't?

Where's the HW cylinder located in relation to the cold?

 

[isolatedsmallholding]

OK so sorry for not replying sooner..I have been busy plumbing.
I have solved it and am now quite clean!

I raised the CWT about a meter. But the tank wouldn't fill even tho water running in.
Discovered the breather pipe back to the tank had been disconencted and the breather had been fed outside for ease and was now lower than the cold water tank...Someone who knits did the original plumbing I think.
Water was peeing out of the breather pipe.

I raised the breather pipe and the tank filled. Yahoo!
Switch on the shower and ...nothing. Cold water pumped but hot water did not.
Coldwater tank and cokd water feed is by shower but HWtank is about 5m away..so thats 10m round trip back to shower in 22mm pipe.

I am thinking now that the 22mm hot water feed must be blocked.....but water runs fine out of bath taps in second bathroom 3m from tank and 8m overall from CWT
Not the case then.
It must be the return from the hwtank to the shower pump that is causing the problem. How to test this....? break the pipe and put a tap on it and measure the flow...hmm that looks ok.

So my conclusion was... I have very low pressure..remember no mains pressure.
So I think the shower pump is pulling faster than the system can supply.
So the next step was put a second whole house pump on the output from the HW tank.

Holy moly works a treat.
Interestingly the higher pressure seems to be "cleaning" the pipes of some debris which has got to be good.

So final answer was

CWT==COLD FEED ============SHOWER PUMP======Shower
CWT==HOT FEED======HWT===WHOLE HOUSE PUMP====SHOWER PUMP====Shower

When I moved here I thought I was living the dream...but living the nightmare....

Now I have to work out the spaghetti that is the house wiring.