I am converting our house into 2 flats and intend living in the ground
floor one. Currectly I have a new oil sealed boiler for rads and a HW
tank upstairs. After the conversion I shall not be able to have a cold
water tank in the loft nor a HW tank upstairs so I am considering
installining a mains pressure heat bank system (Torrent, Gledhill or
Pandora??) in a ground floor cupboard and dispensing with both the hot
and cold tanks.

Has anyone any advice or personal experience on these systems and which
ones are worth looking at etc. The flat has a bathroom with bath and
elec shower, 2 ensuites both with electric showers and a bot water
supply to tthe kitchen. The showers will stay so the actual hot water
requirement is quite limitted. I am also interested in the likely hot
water flow rate (the CW pressure is good)

"Rich" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am converting our house into 2 flats and intend living in the ground
floor one. Currectly I have a new oil sealed boiler for rads and a HW
tank upstairs. After the conversion I shall not be able to have a cold
water tank in the loft nor a HW tank upstairs so I am considering
installining a mains pressure heat bank system (Torrent, Gledhill or
Pandora??) in a ground floor cupboard and dispensing with both the hot
and cold tanks.

Has anyone any advice or personal experience on these systems and which
ones are worth looking at etc. The flat has a bathroom with bath and
elec shower, 2 ensuites both with electric showers and a bot water
supply to tthe kitchen. The showers will stay so the actual hot water
requirement is quite limitted. I am also interested in the likely hot
water flow rate (the CW pressure is good)

You are going mains pressure downstairs, and what upstairs? Tank in loft
still? Are you renting the flat above or selling it?

- It may be worth getting large mains supply pipe run back to the street.
- Make sure the water mains, well "all" services", water, gas and
electricity, enter each property directly, and not via the downstairs flat.
- Have two stopcocks in the road outside. Having a water meter for each may
mean the cost is very low for this.
- The Torrent is good.
- The Pandora is good too and gives higher flowrates and no overflow pipe to
outside.
- avoid electric showers. like the plague
- put high density rockwool bats between the floors to suppress sound. Also
place hardboard over upstairs floors to prevent sounds via cracks. Silicon
seal all around upstairs skirtings/floor. If you don't do it now you will
regret it, it also keeps your heat inside your flat too.
- insulate under your floorboards, if you have them
- make sure the common areas around the building are defined in any lease.
- make sure the lease states no car parking in the front garden (if one
there)
- if splitting the garden make sure it is well defined in any lease.
- make sure the lease states that both are responsible for the main
structure of the building.
- make sure the lease states no one can deviate from styles of windows,
colour scheme etc. They may paint their windows green. I know of one
instances of that when some loony Irishman moved in and painted everything
green in his part of the house, in mock tudor style of house. It took a lot
of legal work to get him to paint it the right colours.
- make sure it states that all exterior paintwork is repaints at least every
5 years.
- make sure the lease gives responsibility to ownership of the main stack.
If it is holed in upstairs flat will both have to pay? Best have that
underground is both and each flat pays when problems inside their own flat.

All the above is from experience and experience of others I know, who did or
did not do the above, but realised they should have.

Has anyone any advice or personal experience on these systems and which
ones are worth looking at etc.

I have a Pandora and it works absolutely as it said on the tin. Some other
products use more advanced techniques, such as using pump modulation for
temperature regulation rather than a TMV, which would help stratification.
However, my 180L never runs out anyway, so I'm not that bothered.

The flat has a bathroom with bath and elec shower, 2 ensuites both with
electric showers and a bot water supply to tthe kitchen.

The showers will stay so the actual hot water requirement is quite
limitted.

Not only electric showers the spawn of Satan, but having 3 on one
electricity supply will strain the laxest of diversity calculations.

Design your hot water system to power the showers and then replace them, if
not now, but at least when they expire. Perhaps keep one as a backup in the
smallest en-suite, so you can wash when there is a gas main failure.

I am also interested in the likely hot water flow rate (the CW pressure is
good)

Usually a good static pressure is a good indication that the flow rate will
be reasonable, as it means the street pressure is good. However, thin
pipework and blockages could mean otherwise in practice.

Christian.

Christian McArdle wrote:
Not only electric showers the spawn of Satan, but having 3 on one
electricity supply will strain the laxest of diversity calculations.

Design your hot water system to power the showers and then replace them, if
not now, but at least when they expire. Perhaps keep one as a backup in the
smallest en-suite, so you can wash when there is a gas main failure.

But surely you would put an immersion heater in the Pandora for heating
water in this instance?

Design your hot water system to power the showers and then replace them,
if
not now, but at least when they expire. Perhaps keep one as a backup in
the
smallest en-suite, so you can wash when there is a gas main failure.

But surely you would put an immersion heater in the Pandora for heating
water in this instance?

Yes. Probably gas main failure wasn't the best example. However, there are
faults that could take out the heatbank but leave a electric shower usable.

Christian.

Thanks for your tips.

As far as - "put high density rockwool bats between the floors to
suppress sound. Also place hardboard over upstairs floors to prevent
sounds via cracks. Silicon seal all around upstairs skirtings/floor."
- I was going to use a 10mm system 10 sound proofing underlay as I
understand the the council also uses this product to keep down impact
sound. Airbourne sound does not seem to be too much a of a problem.

Upstairs is not a problem as that is on Economy7 and has a CW tank i
the loft. Downstairs I have an oil boiler and an overflow pipe would
not present any problem with a Torrent as it is on an outside wall, so
I still do not rreally know which one to go for (or if there is any
other choice)

I think the Pandora does come with an immersion