why do homes need water header tanks?

[bengasman]

It is essentially the same as installing a boiler on an old undesized gaspipe

It isn't.

Remind me what your qualifications/experience are/is to dismiss that out of hand?

 

[fatplumber]

It is essentially the same as installing a boiler on an old undesized gaspipe

Well on the continent it may be since they have to govern water down on entry to the property. In the Uk only gas tends to be governed and if your service is undrsized then you can put a bigger meter and goverrnor in. Uprating down stream pipes will then be effective. Not the same with water.

 

[bengasman]

Static pressure alone means nothing. If a little flow collapses the pressure, the supply pipe is obviously undersized or blocked.
That reduces to compensating for either watercompany or freeholder not providing a basic service condition.

I have never really looked into the legal nitty gritty, as there is nothing to be gained from it.
It will take ages to get watercompany or freeholder to budge, which is exactly what they are playing on. Stall, delay, deny and the difficult ( requiring spending) customer will often go away.
In the mean time the company might be sold, in which case they have earned more money, with bigger pay outs for management/share holders.

Or do you really believe that the persistent complainers get new pipes due to:
new policy
goodwill gesture
investment program
?

 

[bengasman]

Well on the continent it may be since they have to govern water down on entry to the property.

Not sure I get your point.
Don't care what they do on the continent.

 

[Norcon]

Remind me what your qualifications/experience are/is to dismiss that out of hand?

Can you remind me of what your qualifications are that enables you to dismiss gravity stored water out of hand?
OOh let me guess you are corgi registered or to be more specific a "gasman" who services boilers.
But no experience with installation of h&c water systems.
Oh dear..
There's four solutions to the question I posed earlier and you were unable to propose a single one.

Nuff said...

 

[Onetap]

The air gap might be less susceptible to siphonage, if you didn't have the tank in the first place, you wouldn't have antisiphonage measures on the tank. That is supplying a solution that is only needed because you created a problem.

Your argument is only a solution for the problem created by the tank itself, that does not provide an advantage of having a tank.

Weasel words. The storage tank supplies the same fittings as a mains system. The water storage system is virtually immune to any risk of back siphonage because water cannot flow back over the air gap. That is the advantage. That is why water suppliers will insist on a break tank in many installations where hazardous fluids are used, in laboratories, for example. There it is, a clear and indisputable advantage.

It has to be
technically better,
cheaper or more convenient do not count as arguments,
it applies to England only,
under legal circumstances,
which excludes situations where a tank is used because third party does not fulfill obligations.

That is not what you said. What you did say was;

I posted a reward recently for the first who can give me a reasonable/realistic advantage that open vent rubbish offers over mains/sealed.

Now that I have told you of several advantages of a vented system, you are retrospectively imposing terms and conditions to avoid honouring the offer.

The point remains, the open vented system is technically superior to the mains system at preventing mains contamination.

I'm still waiting for that pint.

The extent of your ignorance is quite awesome.

 

[Onetap]

I have never really looked into the legal nitty gritty, as there is nothing to be gained from it.
?

Then why don't you do so, instead of wasting everyone's time with your inane drivel. In fact, you don't need to bother because I can tell you where it is to be found. It is here;

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/consumerissues/rightsresponsibilities/waterpressure/prs_faq03_pressstandards

10m head at 9 litres per minute; utter carp. And, as Norcon has been patiently been trying to explain to you, if you increase the flow above 9 l/min, the pressure will drop off due to frictional pressure losses.

So what do you do when you have to design and install a system for a property at which the mains supply is 10m head @ 9l/min? And don't even bother asking the water suppliers to increase pressure and/or flow because they have no legal obligation to do so and they won't.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

I've been reading this thread and Norcon and Onetap remind me of bigburner/DrDrivel. Both of you seem to be penpushers with no real practical experience who think they know it all but infact know sweet f.a.

They both seem to have an attitude problem and may even be the same person-pathetic.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

onetap-fit an rpz valve to an unvented cylinder and its much better at preventing contamination than a cwst btw.

 

[Norcon]

I've been reading this thread and Norcon and Onetap remind me of bigburner/DrDrivel. Both of you seem to be penpushers with no real practical experience who think they know it all but infact know sweet f.a.

They both seem to have an attitude problem and may even be the same person-pathetic.

You couldn't be more wrong. I don't have a personal profile and neither does Onetap so you can search our postings unlike yourself.
But from memory you seem to be quite a stirrer on these forums.
I work in industrial refrigeration mostly as an installer.
That takes me through everything from gas, ammonia, and water system's installations. I've no need to bang on about my qualifications as I don't need the ego boost.
I don't frequent this forum very much as I don't have the time but its always amusing to see many of the rgi's displaying their usual ignorance.

 

[Onetap]

I've been reading this thread and Norcon and Onetap remind me of bigburner/DrDrivel. Both of you seem to be penpushers with no real practical experience who think they know it all but infact know sweet f.a.

They both seem to have an attitude problem and may even be the same person-pathetic.

Splendid; so where exactly are the errors in what I have written?
No practical experience?

onetap-fit an rpz valve to an unvented cylinder and its much better at preventing contamination than a cwst btw.

Much better you think? I know it is fluid category 4 for both back pressure and back siphonage, which only makes it equal to the, much cheaper, type AF air gap.

In addition, the RPZ valve has to be installed, adjusted and maintained by a suitably qualified person, which puts the cost beyond most domestic installations. I happen to know that from having installed one in a laboratory, as a part of the practical experience that I haven't got. And the most hazardous areas of that laboratory suite were supplied from a break tank with a type AA air gap, at the insistence of the water suppliers.

I have no clue who Norcon is, I just happen to agree with him in this instance.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

So Norcon because you install fridges (albeit large ones) it makes you an expert on water storage, heating and plumbing?

 

[obiplumbkinobi]

This is a proper ding dong toys are all over the place

 

[obiplumbkinobi]

enjoying this so much, I'll buy you all a pint, no prerequisite conditions!

 

[Axel]

Put a lid on it; the tank I mean.

Pain in the @rse to go into a dark loft, unsure footing, fibre glass etc.

One advantage of tank = chlorine has time to 'evaporate' (or whatever the process is called. Don't want to drink or bath in chlorine unneccesarily.

If a flat is on 4th floor with 15mm mains in and poor flow rate etc, it would be foolish to remove a working tank. I recently made a wise decision to keep tank feed on cold bath taps as pressure was not great when other bathroom & kitchen mains in use.

I miss the sound of filling tank in my house.

Unvented cylinders are a pain in you are not a plumber - what percentage of owners actually get a G3 ticket plumber in for annual service? TPVs are firing away all over the place from Megaflos with dissolved air bubbles. I wonder what the service life is on a TPV that fires 6 times a day?

Can put LSD in the water tank.