John Orrett wrote:

Hi John, I think I was getting confused with a multipoint and a combi. In
our previous house(17 years ago now) it was a multipoint we had that gave
hot water on demand. Excusing the ignorance, but is it a combi or multipoint
we should be looking at?

Depends on what you are trying to achieve, and how much you want to spend.

I see you have several options, First cheap ones:

1) Ignore what the shop says, and install the taps of your choice with
no change to the existing setup. May just work fine.

2) Find an alternative tap that is designed for gravity feed and proceed
as per 1 above.

3) Do 1 above, and if the flow rate is not good enough, add a shower
pump to the pipework to boost the pressure.

Most of those could be installed and running for a few hundred (much
less if you DIY)

If you are looking to reduce the cost of water heating then:

4) Convert your hot water cylinder to be heated by the current boiler.
This will need a change/addition of a programmer a hot water cylinder
stat, and a 3 port valve. A bit of re-wiring and plumbing. Possibly also
a change in cylinder. The go with 1, 2 or 3 as required. This will make
the cost of heating the water lower and also reduce the time to heat.
Cost to have done 250 - 600 perhaps.

If you really want to boost the hot water pressure all round the house,
AND, you have the mains cold water flow rate as described in Andy's
post, you could look at either a combi or a multipoint.

5) The multipoint would be in addition to your current boiler, and would
let you dispose of the hot water cylinder, and probably the cold cistern
in the loft. These seem far less popular nowadays since most people
looking for Direct Hot Water (DHW) will go the combi route and get
heating into the bargain. Cost of this with the removal of tanks and re
plumbing etc could be 800 - 1200 perhaps

6) The combi will cost a little more (but not much) and will replace
your current boiler. It will then run the Central Heating (CH) and the
DHW. You will get running cost savings on your heating as well though.
A decent combi fitted will probably cost anywhere from 1000 - 1800 for a
decent performance boiler. Double that if you get BG to install it ;-)
With the combi setup you will also typically convert your CH to a sealed
system. See Ed's FAQ for details on this:

http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

As mentioned before either of these will require a decent flow rate from
your cold water main. If that is not available you may need to consider
other options or upgrade the main.

Knowing a bit more about your household and usage patterns might also
help tailor the advice a little. How many people, bathing how often,
showers how often, how many bathrooms in action at one time etc.

--
Cheers,

John.

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