If I go for a combi will it need new pipes?

[girlsrock2]

Hi When we moved into our 1930's house last year it had only a big separate shower in the bathroom which we like but no bath (and no radiator in the bathroom either!). With 2 kids we need a bath - and some heating in there! There is a large airing cupboard in bathroom too, set into what must be an unused chimmey. (There are no fireplaces left in the property sadly). That houses the water tank (?),the pump for the shower and the central heating mechanism/timer etc. The boiler itself is downstairs in the kitchen. The gas central heating boiler is a British Gas reg serviced conventional one and replaced by last owners only 4 or 5 years ago. Would we be able to have the contents of the airing cupboard put in the loft to give room for bath and leave our current central heating system as it is (and just add a radiator in the bathroom) - or would we need a combi? And if we had a combi what added pipe work would we have to have compared to our current system. Help - this sounds a bigger job than I thought it would be?!

[Owain]

Possibly. By 'tank' I assume you mean hot water cylinder. However your system is probably vented i.e. you will have two water tanks in the attic (a big one for cold water to taps and a small one which is the header tank for the primary circulation system i.e. between the boiler, radiators, and hot water cylinder.

The HWC can go in the attic but needs to be *below* both the cold water tanks. It might be possible to raise the cold tanks on platforms.

You might be able to lift the HWC to ceiling level on a platform in the bathroom, if you have high enough ceilings.

The alternative is to remove the cold water tanks in the loft and install a pressurised system or heat bank. There'll be someone knowledgeable about them along real soon now.

Combis are not generally recommended for bath filling. You would need to check you have adequate mains water pressure/flow and gas.

Owain

[John Rumm]

Almost certainly... you will probably need to get the cold tank lifted higher into the loft so as to keep enough head to fill the hot water cylinder.

No need for a combi.

If you went for a combi, you would probably end up with less pipework all together...

A days work perhaps.... if you don't feel up to doing the plumbing yourself, you could make the plumbers job simpler by doing the woodwork. (i.e. plinth for a the cold tank - high enough up so that its base is higher than the full height of the hot water cylinder, and a solid boarded section of loft to sit the hot water cylinder on.