To disconnect Cold Water Tank or not

[dave12]

Hi,

I am thinking of 'linking out' the Fresh water (cold) tank that is in my loft. My reason being is that I don't think its needed. Plus, our washing machine struggles to operate off a feed from the tank and I reckon that I would have more pressure straight off the main.

I'm not sure what pressure I have on the main, but a little test I done was to try to stop the water with my hand over the tap in the kitchen (mains fed) and it can't be done (water sprays everywhere). However, elsewhere in the house, its easily stopped.

So, is there any reason I can't put a flexi between the tank feed to the take off and test the house on mains fed water? Or am I missing something?

Cheers

 

[muggles]

Do you have a hot water cylinder? If so then this is also fed by your cold water tank and linking it out will stop your hot water flowing.

 

[dave12]

Hi Muggles,

I do have a Hot water Cylinder, but I think this is fed from a separate tank (might be wrong though). There are 2 Tanks in the loft space, both above the Hot water Cylinder.

I know the second one is not for the heating expansion tank as this is in a different part of the roof space. So assume it is for the Hot water. Would need to trace the pipes though

 

[Terry lambert]

If it's the case that you have seperate tanks supplying your hot tank and cold services.

If you disconnect the cold and convert to mains you will have an unbalanced supply to any mixer taps and showers, Main cold and gravity hot

 

[dave12]

Hi terrydoh,

That makes sense, although currently the kitchen Mixer tap is off the main and the rest of the taps in the house are separate Hot / Cold. Except for one of the Showers which comes off a pump. Would this be effected by the imbalance or would the thermal regulator in the shower even this out?

On another point. I wwill be looking to upgrade the heating system in 6 months or so. My plan is to install an un vented system. So would this then make everything balanced ie at mains pressure?

 

[Madrab]

A few significant changes would need to be made to balance the supplies as others have mentioned, never mind losing the 50 Gal backup you have if the mains ever fails.

It also depends on size of supply, flow and pressure rates, whether there is sufficient to supply the whole house without a drop when too many outlets are open.

 

[Agile]

You would need to only use the pump for the hot water and that will help to reduce the imbalance problem. But it would be better to repipe so both sides work in parallel on the hot as otherwise the pump will destroy the seals on the original cold side if run dry.

Another useful trick is to fit a pressure reducing valve on the mains.

But your toilet cistern(s) will probably have low pressure ball valves and these will be likely to leak if used on the mains although would probably be OK if you had a pressure reducing valve set to just 1 bar.

Some of these things seem simple but there is usually more involved than meets the inexperienced eye!

Tony

 

[dave12]

Thanks for all the replies.

Really interesting stuff. I had never considered some of the things you guys have spoken about. Probably because my last house was off the Mains and I never had any issues with mixers or the likes. Although the heating was off a combi as opposed to std vented system.

I think I might just install the hose as a 'temporary bridge' just to see how things react. If I find the shower doesn't work great or the mixers can't regulate then I'll revert back. But suspect, this will help the Washing Machine! Just as long as I won't cause any damage to anything.....

As I say, I will soon be upgrading the system to an unvented heating system so will have an opportunity to re-pipe things then.

Thanks again. I'll let you know how I get on

 

[StudWall]

Make sure that second tank isn't your central heating f+e