Shower water pressure / pump location

[scubapete]

Hi,

I am planning a new bathroom and would like to know people's opinion

Current Situation:
Cold header tank (25gal) sited directly on loft joists.
Indirect hot water cylinder (25gal) in 'airing' cupboard where top of cylinder is approx 0.5m from ceiling.
Power shower (cold feed NOT an isolated feed from header tank, but branched from main feed)
Shower head approx 0.5 from bottom of header tank.

The questions I have assume I am replacing the power shower with a thermostatic valve.

1) I can raise the header tank to give a shower head of about 2m. Will that give a decent shower using an appropriate gravity-fed thermostatic valve? I have read that a head of 1m would give "reasonable flow rate and pressure", although I am dubious as this only equates to 0.1bar. What are people's experiences? I don't want to spend 5 minutes just getting my hair wet.

Alternatively,

2) If I leave the header tank where it is, are there shower pumps available that I can place in the loft so I can reduce the noise? It means the pump would be on a level with the header tank. Would this be a negative-head pump? Also, are there problems with feeding the hot-water feed up into the loft?

Thanks a lot.


(I've tried searching for answers on older posts, but have not found anything satisfactory - particularly for question (1))

 

[ChrisR]

a shower head of about 2m. Will that give a decent shower using an appropriate gravity-fed thermostatic valve?

Good pipes and a low pressure valve (eg Mira 88) will give you about 5 l/min of rather slow water.
Electric showers feel better because the flow is as low or lower, but the holes can be small and the water come out fast.

Box- on -the-wall pumped shower, best is prob the Aquastream, is pretty good, and the noise is oinly in the bathroom. The type starts at about £130. See showerdoc.com 's shop.