What's this about G3 and combi water stores?

[Jonathan]

"...unlike other wall-mounted combis with stores, its 15-litre store ensures there are no G3 Building Regulations installation restrictions. "

I suppose my question is a) is this water store worth the extra money (and space compared to the Turbo Max) and b) what's this about G3 regulations?

Thanks for any tips.

Jonathan

[Andy Hall]

Part G3 of the Building Regulations is all about domestic hot water production and storage.

You can look it up at

under Building Regulations and Approved Documents

Installation of a pressurised hot water system is controlled under this part if the storage is greater than 15 litres. There are specific requirements for safety in the design of the system, and the installation must be done by a trained and approved sealed system fitter. DIY is not possible.

For the purposes of this part of the Building Regulations, a system is exempt if it has storage of 15 litres or less. An approved fitter can self-certify the installation.

However, all boiler and DHW installations are now controlled under the energy efficiency part L1 of the Building Regulations. For a professional installation, a CORGI fitter can self certify the boiler installation. If you want to DIY it, then you need to contact Building Control at your local authority and organise a building notice.

Whether 15 litres of hot water in the boiler is useful is a moot point. All that it will do is give you water slightly earlier when you run the tap and for small amounts may not fire up the burner to replenish it.

To start to get a real benefit from this technique, a larger store would be needed, which some boilers have, but then you are looking more at a CPSU type of device - i.e. floor standing, washing machine sized. These are professional install only of course.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Jonathan]

Ah - thanks. All clear now. So it seems I can file the Aqua Plus with it's

15 litre store under "not worth the extra money."

Jonathan