Tap off water tank - increase pressure - etc validation

B

BERG

Hi,

I am renting a flat where all except the kitchen plumbing in the kitchen feeds of a Water Cylinder that is placed directly above the hotwater cylinder. There is a gas boiler in the kitchen that heats the water.

So here it starts:
1) The water storage tank is only about 30-40cm max above the intake of the toilet and taps (which are several meters away) it takes upto 15 min to refill the toilet.

2) There is a power shower in the ensuite bathroom. Where (how bad and not done by me) the pump is located underneath the washbasin. I tested and the powershower (aqualisa aquastream model) takes it cold water from the storage tank and the hot water from the HW cylinder.

So here are my questions:
1. How against regulations is this installation of the power shower in terms of electricity (just asking the obvious for easy start)
2. The powershower to be connected to a watertank that has a slow flow rate as can be seen from the toilet.

3. Can I (by a plumber) get the cold feed of the water tank to be capped off (it is a split tank with a seperation for the central heating part) and get the plumber to create a connection between by watermains and the capped of water pipe that feeds all else (except kitchen)? A plumber has quoted 100 pounds for this to do, but I want to sense check if it is wise to do. Especially related to point 2 as well.


FYI: interestingly if I look at the manufacturers website they state in general:
Can I pump mains water?
No! Water Supply Regulations 1999 (Water Byelaws 2000 Scotland) do not allow shower booster pumps to be connected directly to mains fed plumbing. Also this being the case, Pumped variants are not designed to withstand high pressure supplies.

However, contacting my water company, the state that within my flat after the first mains tap, one is allowed to do anything.

Hope some people can help me with the questions above and help me decide to:
1. Really start raising saftey concerns with the landlord
2. Decide to cap off and go for mains supply to toilet or not and not end up with a broken powershower as a result.
 
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Can't be bothered to read all your post but you can feed your toilet off the mains. ;)
 
2) There is a power shower in the ensuite bathroom. Where (how bad and not done by me) the pump is located underneath the washbasin. I tested and the powershower (aqualisa aquastream model) takes it cold water from the storage tank and the hot water from the HW cylinder.

Is the shower definitely an aquastream? Looks like this?:

aquastream.jpg


The pump on those is in the plastic body... Have you got a very high level basin or is the aquastream unit mounted well down low? Or is the box under the sink something else? :)
 
However, contacting my water company, they state that within my flat after the first mains tap, one is allowed to do anything.
A misquote. You cannot.
You can only pump your stored water, unless your cold water mains supply is a dribble.

If it's an Aquastream it may be put low down so it always gets a positive head supply. They're designed to go in wet areas, of course. Depends how old it is, but many are 24Volt.
I bet it empties yo tank a bit quickly?

Check the valve on your WC, it may need a bigger inlet hole or other type or be blocked up.
 
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Yes, it is that model, it is place relatively low, and yes again you are correct that the electrical part of it is place under the wash basin. The control unit, pump and dial are placed in the shower cubicle, but relatively low.

In terms of the misquote that you mentioned of the water company. This implies than that because both the power shower and the WC etc all feed of the same pipe of the water tank, I cannot that easily cap it off and feed it from the mains, since my power shower would then feed of the mains as well.

Correct?
 
even easier you can check that you have a low-pressure float valve in the cistern and no half-closed service valves.
 
That was partially my thought as well having to different input pressures.

Actually it is not too bad. The cold water tank is still about 1m3 so about 1000 liters, assuming part is for central heating and don't know what it looks like on the inside, I would guess there is still about 500 liters in there and it refills. so that lasts (theoretically) easily 20min.

The hot water tank is smaller maybe about 100 liters or so. Assuming that the cold water is relatively warm in the cold tank - room temperature. and we heat the warm water relatively high, if we would use 9 liter cold and 9 hot than it would last 10-15min.

Maybe the throughput is set to a lower value of only 12 liter I should test :)

But anyway, it seems to be that this is not an easy solveable problem with the toilet or?

----
The toilet has a silent refill thing in there that I put in 2 yrs ago. I must admit that if I take it off and let the pipe uncontrolled it takes about 2-3 min to fill up... so maybe.....
 
You cannot do what this cowboy wants to charge you £100 for!

That would pressure your hot water cylinder which is neither designed to withstand the pressure nor has the correct safety devices.

Only a real cowboy would do that because if he was a legitimate plumber he would be responsible for the damage caused when the cylinder spilt! that could be many thousands of pounds if you were on the top floor!

Tony
 
Hi Agile,

My hotwater cylinder is fed from the gasboiler in the kitchen which is connected to the mains. In addition the water tank has an internal split, so that the central heating system takes cold water from a small part of the tank. Hence I don't think the solution itself is the problem, it would be more the problem with the power shower...
 

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