Removal of cold water tank

N

neiltheseal

Registered User
Messages
38
I am thinking of removing my cold water tank and replacing with a pump (which has sensor) to pump mains water to shower, toilets, central heating etc.
Is there any reason for not doing that?
it seems to be very common in Ireland for everyone to have water tanks. Is it because that's the way we've always done it here and there's no particular reason for always having a water tank?

Neil
 
AFAIK it is illegal to pump the mains supply. We all have tanks because the mains water pressure in Ireland/UK is very low, when compaired to well most other 1st world countries!
 
The pump you are thinking about still needs a good supply of water. It may well burn out some Saturday morning that the mains is turned off and your toilet/shower is looking for water.

Usually you would just fit the booster pump inside your cold water storage tank.
 
You could put in a combi boiler which means you don't need a hot water cylinder or tanks in the attic any more. Mains water is fed (and heated as required) to all taps at whatever the incoming pressure is, so you need decent pressure in the first place.

We've just installed a Worcester condensing combi, the hot water cylinder is gone, and the tanks in the attic are empty and ready to be cut up. It's actually pretty disgusting to look in them :eek:

This link will tell you a bit about combi boilers - http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/index.php?fuseaction=site.articleDetail2&con_id=130817 - but as it's Worcester's site it's not independent advice.

The shower pressure is much better than we used to have (you need a thermostatic shower or the temperature can change if another tap in the house is turned on). Also it's great to always have hot water available, it's always such a pain to want a bath and find one of the kids has used up all the hot water!

We only have this in a couple of weeks so it's early days yet, but so far we're very happy. Hope this helps.
 
Hi TreeTiger,

Could you give us a ballpark figure on the price of the combi boiler and its instalaltion - sounds like an interesting solution and it would be great to free up the space used by the hot-water tank for us.
 
Boiler cost about €2000 for a Worcester 37cdi, that was a trade price. The more powerful 42cdi is about another €400 I think, but we were advised the 37cdi is fine for our house with rads in 4 beds, 1 bathroom, 1 shower room, sitting room, family room, hall, large kitchen/dining (2 rads) & utility room. I believe there are 2 smaller boiler sizes available.

As regards installation, I don't know as our overall refurbishment job is still ongoing and our plumber hasn't finalised the money end of things with us yet!
 
Definitely combi boiler is a great idea as it gets rid of the immersion.
I heard you can get a Combi boiler for 1200 Euro - PLM in Harold's Cross.
It would be nice to get rid of the cold water tank as well but it sounds like it's illegal.

Neil
 
neiltheseal said:
I heard you can get a Combi boiler for 1200 Euro - PLM in Harold's Cross.
Click to expand...

As I said there are smaller versions of what we got and they should be quite a bit less than ours. Be careful what you go for though, a cheaper one may not be as sturdy and you could pay more in the long run. Our plumber hadn't seen a Worcester combi before and was really impressed with it, I think if anyone wants him to install a combi he'll be recommending the Worcester ones from now on.

neiltheseal said:
It would be nice to get rid of the cold water tank as well but it sounds like it's illegal.
Click to expand...
Not sure where you got this idea from? All our tanks are defunct now and are going in the skip arriving next Monday!
 
Thanks for the advice on the combi boiler. It sounds like it's too important a thing to be picking the cheapest one.


Not sure where you got this idea from? All our tanks are defunct now and are going in the skip arriving next Monday![/quote]

Actually, I understand it now. It's illegal to pump the mains supply but if your pressure is good enough you can get rid of your water tank.
 
You have a few options. you could always fit the pump after your storage tank to increase presure to your hot and cold outlets. these pumps have flow switchs that monitor when the water moves e.g when you run tap/shower, and automatically turn on and off. If you have good pressure on your mains you could keep your boiler and change the hot water cylinder for a pressrised one i.e being fed cold water from the mains as opposed from your storage tank. the advantages of this over a combi is that if your boiler breaks down you have no hot water, with the cylinder you have a back up immersion. check out a company called megaflow.
 
Is a combi boiler available oil fired. I have own well and pump and so can increase/decrease pressure and would love to get rid of the hot press and water tank. Anyone know is this possible with oil fired central heating system.
 
We've had a Worcester combi boiler for nearly 10 years now and think it's great.
No tanks in loft, hot water when you want it and you are not heating water to stand in a cylinder to get cold again.
 
beaky said:
Is a combi boiler available oil fired.
Click to expand...
Yes. This link to Worcester shows their oil-fired boilers, combi, regular & system, the combis are in the first section http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/index.php?fuseaction=product.range&con_id=5084

I should probably point out that the one downside to a combi is that when a tap is running in one room, if a tap is run in another (or loo is flushed) then the pressure drops temporarily. For us it's a very minor inconvenience, far outweighed by the benefits.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top