must all houses have a water tank?

messyleo

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moved into a new house and there is no attic in it, and no electric immersion heating, i.e. the only way to get hot water is through the gas central heating/boiler. i can't seem to locate a water tank anywhere in the house (there's no hotpress either so that rules that out!) does there *have* to be one in every house, or is it possible that the boiler just heats the wate straight from the mains, as everyone is telling me there must be one but i can't see it anyway (trust me the house is about 500 sq feet so there's not many places for it to hide!)
 
Turn the tap or shower on. If it causes the boiler to "fire up" as a result of turning the tap on and what comes out is hot water then you have a "combi" or combination boiler which is so called since is provides both space heating and water heating. Most of these are very efficient in fact!
 

....the cold water
supply to the bath or shower and the washbasin and
to other appliances in the dwelling should be from a
storage cistern.....

....The cold water storage cistern should have
an actual capacity of not less than 212 litres in the
case of a dwelling containing up to three bedrooms
and an actual capacity of not less than 340 litres in
the case of a dwelling containing four or more bedrooms....


from part g of the building regulations.

All dwellings should have a cold water storage tank.

The system decribed by Lakeview is suitable for the continent where they have a guaranteed water supply, with more than one water main supplying an area. In ireland we don't have such a system and our supply is subject to disruption, so we need the storage of water on site to tide us over any 'dry' spell. (ie burst water mains)​

 
We don't have more than one water main supplying an area here in England, but we have combination boilers and no cold water storage tanks.
 
NiallA might not have understood the difference between the "building regulations" and the "technical guidance documents" . The latter ones are for the guidance of the incompetent plumber who doesn't know how to deliver a satisfying job without a guidance. The former tells us what is necessarry, namely an adequate water suply. Pressurised systems ARE legal in Ireland. Calorgas and Firebird - two Irish companys- will both install pressurised water systems in Ireland. And all competent plumbers will do so as well.
Check the home pages of Calor and Firebird.
 
Is it possible that the cold water supply tank is situated in the garden with a pressure pump or gravity feed.
 
thanks guys - very informative. turns out it is a combination boiler so no water tank (& hopefully not a problem ;)) thanks again
 
Heinbloed
As I understood a water storage / break tank was necessary to prevent to possibility of back flow to the mains and the possibility of mains contamination. Either way an installation without a break tank is undesirable because if the mains pressure is low you could suffer npsh (cavitation) problems in your booster pump
 
One wouldn't use a direct connection if a booster pump was neccessary-the mains would be pumped empty and that would certainly be illegal. Imagine your neighbour turns his tap open and all there is is a hiss, the sound of a hoover.....
There are valves available that would prevent such an occurence (B&Q, from €5.-), but the installation of these in connection with a booster pump is no job for the average Irish plumber, a heating and plumbing engineer would have to do that. Or a Polish plumber, or a continental plumber in general. They are trained for the job.
Usually using the pressure from the mains would make a booster pump obsolete anyhow, but measure the pressure before you connect.The worst thing that could happen -if the pressure wasn't good enough- is that you wouldn't have (enough) water. A combi boiler would simply switch off to prevent overheating.
Tanks don't save water by the way. In summer, when the demand is at the peak, many people would let the content of the dubious tank run out by means of flushing before they trust the water quality, for example after a holiday or a long weekend away. This is actually recommended by most plumbers to protect against bacterial contamination. Warm water without chlorine in it (no pressure!) is prone to germ development, esp. in nutrient rich surface generated water as it is the case in most Irish suplies.
 
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