mains water pressure reducer

Yes on two grounds - the combi may well have an internal PRV on its DHW outlet. Failing that it may well require one on its mains cold inlet if the water pressure is above a certain limit - and 9 bar is probably over the limit.

It is good to have hot and cold at point of use similar to each other in pressure.

Secondly once you go above 3 bar or so you will have adequate performance out of most taps and showers, any any more is just more water hammer, flow noise, and wear and tear on taps etc.

When I installed my unvented cylinder, I did away with all the tanks etc. That meant that the cold water pressure at the taps and cisterns upstairs went from "feeble" (about 4' of head), to 6+ bar. When you flushed one of the loos it sounded like a jet taking off on full afterburner! (the worst culprit was one with a traditional ball valve on a brass rod)

So when I did the bathrooms, one of my goals was to tame everything down and make it quiet as well as work well and be easy to service.

So adding the PRV for the cold (the one on the unvented cylinder was not really in the right place to make it easy to derive the cold feed for upstairs from there), was a part of that solution. The other bit was trimming out all of the dead legs of pipe, any unwanted right angle fittings, and using full bore service valves everywhere. It made a

*massive* difference. You can flush and the cistern refills very quickly, but almost silently.
Reply to
John Rumm
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Looks very similar to the insert that came with my Mira "EcoFlow" shower head (the plastic insert bit) Shower was great without it but it vibrated quite badly. Fitted the insert in and it worked perfectly. Only recently taken it out.

PRV for me was a complete waste of time. Might be OK if you have 8 bar or so coming in but it just killed the water flow with incoming pressure of 4 bar. Only fitted it as thermal store said DHW coil should only pressurised to 3 bar so I ended up adjusting it when the shower was on rather than using it to reduce static pressure. No matter what I set it to, with now flow the static pressure always creeped up to mains pressure anyway.

Cheers - Pete

Reply to
www.GymRats.uk

I have a pressure regulator on the incoming pipe into the house - set it to 2.5bar Why not put one of those in .... fully adjustable

Reply to
rick

Cheap and easy first and if that plays up I will go to a full PRV

Reply to
ajh

A pressure regulator *is* a PVR surely?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Well, PRV anyway… ;-)

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I've ordered the bit of plastic with a hole in it as a flow reducer that fits into a compression fitting as a first step, as I am replacing the kitchen taps because a ceramic cartridge is leaking when fully shut (but not leaking when rotated on a few degrees).

Also now considering a Qooker on the grounds it shouldn't cost a lot to run at 10W losses once hot and I can dump it into the washing up at end of play if I power it off a timeswitch.

Reply to
ajh

In my industrial experience, it would be a PCV (Pressure Control Valve) and a PRV would be a Pressure Relief Valve.

Reply to
SteveW

Cheapskate:-) Our mains pressure varies a lot over 24 hours (end of a rural feed) so I fitted a PRV for the house intake. Creeps up a bit on no flow (set 3.5 it is now showing 5bar).

2 Retired folk, mostly at home plus visitors, ours is left on. Hot drinks, my powdered soup lunch, pre-heating for boiled vegetables.

Descale once/year.

>
Reply to
Tim Lamb

Doesn't that make it rather pointless (the pressure reducing valve that is)?

My problem with the rather high pressure of our mains water is that it pops connectors off hoses and forces its way past not quite perfect float valves. Unless a pressure reducing valve actually reduces the static pressure when there's no flow it won't do me any good at all.

I did always wonder how they managed to reduce the pressure, even when there's no flow.

Reply to
Chris Green

Better than the 10 bar it might reach:-)

I don't know where the pressure uplift comes from. I suppose cold incoming water is now trapped in the house piping with an uplift of say

10 deg. C

Might be less of an issue if your pipes are buried underground.

£28.00 or so. 15 and 22mm compression fit. Mind float valve washers are a lot less. Jubilee clips and plastic pipe are not something to leave unattended. >
Reply to
Tim Lamb

Personal Video Recorder? :-)

Yup, but a flow restrictor is a simpler beast...

Reply to
John Rumm

Needs must when the devil rides

Simple diy jobs keep me busy when other work is slack and makes a significant contribution to my disposable income.

Yes to all those things but I'll pass on powdered soup.

At this time of year I am very careful with electric usage; do you leave it on overnight? Have you ever tested how warm it is if left off overnight?

Our 100 ltr DHW tank loses most of its heat overnight via the un lagged outlet and the immersion boss.

How many times have you descaled it and how does one set about it? I had thought from an earlier comment that you had a water softener in front of it.

Reply to
ajh

Better than it sounds. Wide choice and little different from tinned except one packet does one cupful. Dip fingers of toast...

No. Save 1kW in 10 days!

We have a thermal store. Gas boiler and very well lagged so I guess most of the losses are in the 28mm feed pipe runs. Lagged and lost heat warms the house so not a waste in Winter.

Drinking water here is a separate feed. They supply a kit with instructions for the descale. The light tells you when a descale is needed. I've done it once after about 2 years use. Our water comes out of the Chiltern Hills!

Reply to
Tim Lamb

2.4kWh then in 10 days, still maybe worth having on a timer from 22:00 to 07:00 each day

I'll wait till the new year as it will need fitting then.

Reply to
ajh

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