DIYbanter - View Single Post - heating / hot water

Roger Mills[_2_]

On 08/03/2016 07:49, wrote:
good morning

i have just gutted a four bedroom townhouse over threes floors - ground / first and attic.

i have therefore to decide what heating / hot system i should put back in as there is nothing right now - not even a copper pipe!! there is mains gas and electric.

it is of 1950's construction, so the walls are not very well insulated - the roof is well insulated. i am thinking of a radiator system as i am on a limited budget and underfloor heating will be too expensive.

water wise - there are three showers (1 on each floor and it is likely that at least two will require water at the same time. there is also a bath on the first floor but unlikely to be used much.

there's plenty of space to mount pretty much any system but i really don't know what's best - probably most concern is the demand for hot water - a simple combi boiler could not handle it. and i only want one electric shower as an absolute emergency.

i should say that i don't expect to live in the property for more than 5 years at the most so i do not want to pay huge amounts for a renewable energy system that takes years and years to re-coup the investment.

any advice gratefully received. thanks

I would use a conventional boiler - not a combi - to heat both the
radiators and a hot water cylinder. Install a *large* cylinder and
insulate it well.

Zone the heating system - probably one zone per floor - making four
zones in all including the hot water. [Depending on how the rooms are
used, some different zoning scheme may be appropriate - living areas,
sleeping areas, etc. regardless of floor.]

The primary system should be non-vented.

The DHW system could be vented - with with a large header tank in the
attic, or you could use a non-vented mains pressure cylinder. Only use
the latter if you if you've got *really* good mains pressure and flow -
otherwise bath filling - and particularly showers - will be limited by
what the mains can supply. I would tend to favour a vented (gravity)
system with large diameter pipes from the cylinder to the principal
usage points, and with booster pumps for the showers. [You'll need to
feed cold water from the header tank to the showers as well as hot from
the cylinder].

With a 3 storey house, you will inevitably have long pipe runs from the
cylinder to some of the taps - possibly making some sort of constant
circulation system worth considering so as to avoid having to waste a
lot of water before any hot gets to the taps. Alternatively, for
relatively low usage applications such as kitchen sinks, you might
consider an electrically heated device (Quooker, etc.) which stores a
few litres of boiling water in an insulated container under the sink and
supplies virtually instant hot water to the taps.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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