Hi All
I've just moved into a house that has hot water supplied by an electric
immersion heater. The small cold water tank is the top part of the hot
water cylinder. When running a bath the cold tank seems to empty far
quicker than it can refill from the mains. Consequently the hot water
starts to splurge out; still hot though.
Taking a shower which is fed from these tanks has woefully low pressure
and a piddly experience. I could put a pump on this but a shower would
then be short but sweet! And I could replace the cylinder with a loft
cold tank and standard hot water cylinder. There is also an electric
shower (10kW), but this too is rather poor.
So, I was considering a gas powered water heater to provide "continuous"
hot water at mains pressure. Several models seem to be available at the
£450 price point that have flow rates from 10 to 16 l/min. The central
heating is by warm air. Don't know how efficient these systems are.
My questions are (sorry, there are lots):
Do you need special gas pipework (wider) for these gas water heaters? I
couldn't find any reference to this in the installation instructions (or
didn't know what to look for). I will not be fitting it myself.
Are the following brands any good: Ariston, Rinnai, Main, Vokera. Any
others that may be a good choice?
Or can you use a normal combi boiler and simply not use the heating
part, or maybe just have a towel rail if it needs a minimum load.
Or maybe time to install a full radiator system. What's the current
opinion on rad location; under window or other wall?
Can you put a heater/combi on a stud wall? I think I read that they
might be noisy in this situation.
Thanks for reading and any comments.