Would you still have a tank in the loft if given the option?

Leaving aside the odd few moments in the year when the mains water supply is turned off in the street due to roadworks on maintenance, if you were to totally replumb your home would you put in a condensing boiler and remove the water tank in the loft so that everything in the house is on mains supply?

Surely the advantages out weigh the risks of potential leaks and flooding when freezing over in the winter?

Who still would have a tank and why?

 

Wouldn't take the gift of a mains only supply system so yes I'd retain my loft and hot press storage system.

An open vented system is less susceptible to back-siphonage and open vented systems are cheaper, have fewer mechanical safety devices and have less maintenance requirements.

 

You would still have a tank if you had a vented hot water cylinder. Combi boilers aren't sufficient for the hot water demands of larger homes and it is expensive to upgrade to an unvented system.
Having a condensing boiler doesn't necessarily mean removing the tanks. Having a sealed heating system would mean losing the small header tank and having a combi would mean losing both tanks. There's still a large proportion of homes with vented hot water cylinders requiring a tank regardless of whether the boiler is condensing or not.

 

We have a large house that is unoccupied at the moment as we will renovate it soon. I have gone into the loft but not near the tanks. We have a combi boiler that feeds a storage tank and the central heating. Is there a chance that this coyote be a sealed system?

 

Well if it's a combi the heating circuit will definitely be sealed. If you also have it heating a hot water cylinder it really depends on the type of cylinder. If it is a traditional vented style then it will be fed from a large cold water storage tank in the loft. If it is a mains pressured unvented cylinder then it doesn't need a tank in the loft. Sometimes they have been disconnected andeft in situ. Usually if it is a metal tank as they are a pain to cut and remove.

 

Given the higher water pressure for showers etc I don't think there's much debate. Certainly with an unvented cylinder there's more 'knobs,bells & whistles', therefore there's a high maintainace cost, but I think that outweighs the disadvantages of low pressure systems & the potential problems of burst pipes & flooding with a tank/tanks in your attic.

Modern combi boilers are infinitely better than they were when they first appeared in the early 80s. Granted even a 35KW combi will only supply one outlet at any given time, the performance of these units are more than adaquit for most small homes, where hot water demand is small.

Most homes have dishwashers & washing machines that heat their own water, most people will have a shower at 34-38*C & many homes have electric showers that also generate their own hot water. So our hot water requirements have vastly reduced in the last 30-40 years, so is there a requirement for heating & storing hot water?? For most homes I'd say no.

Vented hot water systems & tanks in lofts are a product of the Victorian era. We have moved on in our 21 centurary.

 

+1

 

combi's could easily belong in the victorian era with their crappy flow performance.
The op is considering 5 bathrooms and water harvesting. He should consider solar energy also.
So that means storage of some kind and certainly gravity imo.

Seems like were moving back to the victorian era.
The terms "energy shortage" and "water shortage" weren't even invented back then.

 

My dilemma is that we have bought a very large house at a good price as a project to undertake but we are only 2 adults and a baby. Though we plan to have more kids and live in this for our lifetime though I need to consider the needs of a larger family if we come to sell it. I'm mindful of having a mega flow system to heat that much water when we are mainly not at home and at work. But as I say that is our circumstances now and I should also think about the house when coming to sell it.

Does having two combo or condensing boilers make more sense (for the different areas of the house). There is an old decommissioned boiler on the loft room floor still in situ with the gas pipes and a newer Visemann on the first floor.

How much is a decent solar heating system and for what level of tank capacity would that support?

Also how much would a heating engineer cost to design and recommend a system?

 

Well we're on a mains feed thermal store. . On the 23rd there was a burst main.

Residual pressure kept things trundling along until it was bath time. . Then we reverted to Victorian hygiene until the morning when things are back to normal. . Although the water was yellow and gritty from the debris picked up in the pipes.


This took a few days to clear. But we knew about it straight away due to the manky water in the sinks and shower.


So most my neigbours on gravity systems gave the pipes a good rinse thanks very much. . I nipped to the shops for some bottled water. . Neighbours probably wouldn't have noticed that they were drinking all manner of shyte.


Well those who were actually drinking anything other than alcohol


TBH, I'm not sure what side of the argument this backs up, but I prefer direct mains powered systems as I hate pumps and like high pressure showers.

 

Dan - when you say thermal store that means you have a storage tank, but also gravity mains fed??? Confused. How can the neighbours not have noticed, their kitchen sink tap would have been off the mains for drinking and not the tank.
Are you a plumber, also near Watford?

 

Personally if I were having a house built for me, it would have neither a cold water tank or indeed a loft!

 

Most new build bungalows and two storeys nowadays have loft trusses fitted and stairway access. It would be stupid not to do so even if you don't intend on using it.

 

I have a large vessel in the garage that is heated by a gas boiler. (technically 15kw). This vessel has a 100kw plate heat exchanger on the side that uses the energy stored in the vessel to provide hot water.

The heating is traditionally coupled to this vessel as well, but I haven't done so for reasons I can't fully divulge here.

Both sides of my system are sealed/unvented.

Yes I am a plumber and Watford is in our catchment area.

 

Norcon - By loft trusses do you mean having a door to the loft instead of a ceiling hatch into the loft space or walkable areas in the Loft without centre beams in the way?

Our loft is part converted so I'm thinking if we should just get rid of all the tanks and have the house on the mains. Is it possible to have the whole house on a cold mains supply and have a mega flow system without a header tank in the Loft?