We've just bought a big house in Dorset that needs a LOT of work to bring it up to modern standards. It currently has a typical gravity-fed hot water & heating system with a small cylinder (for size of house) run off a Stanley (AGA-type) stove/boiler. The radiators are museum pieces, connected to a single-pipe heating circuit that winds its way around the house.
As part of other works I'm having the old heating pipes and rads replaced with a modern 2-pipe circuit and new rads. In time we will replace the old Stanley with a modern boiler but it will stay for now.
I'm scratching my head as what's best to do about the hot water system. In my old house we had good water pressure and a big Santon unvented cylinder in the loft giving mains pressure H&C water (central heating was also pressurised). Here the pressure is a lot lower (planning to get proper pressure & flow-rate test done but kitchen tap suggests results will be unimpressive), the cylinder is on the first floor and there is a very noisy shower pump in the airing cupboard to pump water up to a loft bathroom (conversion done in 2003) and first floor shower.
Ideally I'd get rid of the old vented cylinder, shower pump and header tanks (in the roofspace) and install another big Santon in the airing cupbaord in its place (with 2 expansion vessels for water & heating circuit). However I'm concerned about the pressure and flowrate I'll get in the shower and the loft bathroom.
My questions are :
a) Is there any way of "boosting" the pressure of an unvented system (eg. with a pump either before or after the cylinder) ?
b) If not, how do people go about getting a good shower in a house with an unvented cylinder but limited pressure / flow-rate (eg. a standalone pumped shower heater run off a separate cold feed ?)
c) Does it make any difference at all to the performance of an unvented system whether the cylinder itself is installed on the ground, first or second floors ?
d) If I have an unvented water cylinder, must the central heating circuit also be converted to run unvented ?
Any advice much appreciated !
As part of other works I'm having the old heating pipes and rads replaced with a modern 2-pipe circuit and new rads. In time we will replace the old Stanley with a modern boiler but it will stay for now.
I'm scratching my head as what's best to do about the hot water system. In my old house we had good water pressure and a big Santon unvented cylinder in the loft giving mains pressure H&C water (central heating was also pressurised). Here the pressure is a lot lower (planning to get proper pressure & flow-rate test done but kitchen tap suggests results will be unimpressive), the cylinder is on the first floor and there is a very noisy shower pump in the airing cupboard to pump water up to a loft bathroom (conversion done in 2003) and first floor shower.
Ideally I'd get rid of the old vented cylinder, shower pump and header tanks (in the roofspace) and install another big Santon in the airing cupbaord in its place (with 2 expansion vessels for water & heating circuit). However I'm concerned about the pressure and flowrate I'll get in the shower and the loft bathroom.
My questions are :
a) Is there any way of "boosting" the pressure of an unvented system (eg. with a pump either before or after the cylinder) ?
b) If not, how do people go about getting a good shower in a house with an unvented cylinder but limited pressure / flow-rate (eg. a standalone pumped shower heater run off a separate cold feed ?)
c) Does it make any difference at all to the performance of an unvented system whether the cylinder itself is installed on the ground, first or second floors ?
d) If I have an unvented water cylinder, must the central heating circuit also be converted to run unvented ?
Any advice much appreciated !