What Hot Water/Heating System Is Recommended For This Setup

[veedee]

3 Bedroom Victorian Building is being converted to 4 mini studio flats (i.e. two on ground floor, one on first floor and one in loft area)

Each studio will have its own mini kitchen and ensuite

There will be one occupant in each studio (i.e. four in total)

15 radiators in total

What I want to know is what would be a good heating/hot water system to adequately supply this property?

Could I get away with a 30-35KW Combi Boiler? Or would I need something completely different?

 

[ianmcd]

what set up you use all depends on Hot water requirements

 

[oldbuffer]

1. A combi boiler will supply an absolute maximum of 2 normal showers, and one or both will go cold if another outlet is opened. With four independent showers this is never going to work.
2. You will need stored water to supply hot water.
3. If all 4 showers are going at the same time, each using, say 12 litres / minute, this will be (12 x 4) = 48 litres per minute. Of this you can probably count about 60% as hot, so you'd need roughly 30 litres per minute of hot and 20 of cold. An incoming mains feed of around 3 bar pressure and 30 litres / per minute (which is very high, often only 0.9 bar and 12 lpm).
4. Assuming 10 minute showers, you would need to store 300 litres of hot and 200 litres of cold. The cold could perhaps be replaced / augmented by incoming mains.
5. You will also need to consider how you zone your heating for four individual properties with different temperature / time requirements, and also consider where the boiler will be sited and to whom it will be accessible.
6. What you need to do is far from trivial. I'd suggest you contract a heating engineer to go through the options and design a system to meet your requirements. Expect to pay for this - its not part of a free quotation.

 

[Nige F]

3 Bedroom Victorian Building is being converted to 4 mini studio flats (i.e. two on ground floor, one on first floor and one in loft area)

Each studio will have its own mini kitchen and ensuite

All in one room ? Open living @ it's best - right on trend in London

 

[fixitflav]

3 Bedroom Victorian Building is being converted to 4 mini studio flats (i.e. two on ground floor, one on first floor and one in loft area)

Each studio will have its own mini kitchen and ensuite

There will be one occupant in each studio (i.e. four in total)

15 radiators in total

What I want to know is what would be a good heating/hot water system to adequately supply this property?

Could I get away with a 30-35KW Combi Boiler? Or would I need something completely different?

Where will the boiler be, in one of the flats or a separate room? Will each flat have its own roomstat and zone valve? Is heating included in the rent, or do you need some way of know how much gas each has used?

 

[veedee]

1. A combi boiler will supply an absolute maximum of 2 normal showers, and one or both will go cold if another outlet is opened. With four independent showers this is never going to work.
2. You will need stored water to supply hot water.
3. If all 4 showers are going at the same time, each using, say 12 litres / minute, this will be (12 x 4) = 48 litres per minute. Of this you can probably count about 60% as hot, so you'd need roughly 30 litres per minute of hot and 20 of cold. An incoming mains feed of around 3 bar pressure and 30 litres / per minute (which is very high, often only 0.9 bar and 12 lpm).
4. Assuming 10 minute showers, you would need to store 300 litres of hot and 200 litres of cold. The cold could perhaps be replaced / augmented by incoming mains.
5. You will also need to consider how you zone your heating for four individual properties with different temperature / time requirements, and also consider where the boiler will be sited and to whom it will be accessible.
6. What you need to do is far from trivial. I'd suggest you contract a heating engineer to go through the options and design a system to meet your requirements. Expect to pay for this - its not part of a free quotation.

That's absolutely brilliant. Many thanks for this thorough response

I spoke to a builder that claims to do this sort of stuff often. He recommended a Mega flow central heating system including boiler.

No spec and size at the moment

Per your advice, I will contact a heating engineer to get their thoughts as well

 

[veedee]

All in one room ? Open living @ it's best - right on trend in London

I'm far from stingy mate

Kitchen is outside of the living/sleeping area

Where will the boiler be, in one of the flats or a separate room? Will each flat have its own roomstat and zone valve? Is heating included in the rent, or do you need some way of know how much gas each has used?

All heating will be in a separate room

Ideally each room would have it's own roomstat

Heating and all bills included in the rent

 

[Gasguru]

DO NOT listen to a builder...they are often illegal gas workers, give poor advice, rip off gas installers etc etc.
It's like asking a dentist about a dodgy knee.

 

[fixitflav]

Ideally each room would have it's own roomstat

Each room will need its own zone valve too, but a heating engineer should be able to sort it