Which Boiler if my main pressure is low?

[Pierre Barriere]

Hello all,

I am stuggling to make sense of my central heating quotes. I want to replace my old boiler (electric) with a gas boiler and I thought a combi will free some space in the airing cupboard. I received two quotes from British Gas and another central heating company for a combi installation but my last specialist said a combi will not be a good idea as my main pressure is too low. I don't know what to make of this... He want me to install a normal boiler with a pump to increase the in-flux, is it a normal procedure? can you also install a combi with a pump? It it necessary?

Thanks for your help. Pierre

[tarquinlinbin]

You need to ascertain for certain what your mains pressure/flow is. Have it measured and documented. I think if you contact your water authority and report low pressure,they might just come and measure it for you but not sure. Either way you could buy a pressure/flow guage if you feel keen.

Consider retaining a storage system but maybe upgrade your storage vessel if its an old one. Dont discount storage as old hat. It has a lot of advantages over a combi. Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

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[John Rumm]

Flow rate is in many ways more important. That is quite easy for you to measure yourself. You just need a bucket of known capacity and a stopwatch. If you are not getting at leat 15l/min then a combi is going to be a non starter without a mains upgrade.

It is common to have a pump on the output of the stored hot water system, not on the input side...

Typically no.

[Ed Sirett]

...because it's illegal to pump water out of the mains.

If you don't have 15l/min at the kitchen sink cold tap then a mains upgrade or a storage system is needed.

If the mains is so poor that you can't get a loft cistern filled then you have a claim on the water supplier.

[Rob]

---- Original Message ----- From: "tarquinlinbin" Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 12:28 PM Subject: Re: Which Boiler if my main pressure is low?

BIG SNIP:

Hello tarquinlinbin

If you have the time I'd be interested to know what you think are the pros/cons of h/w cylinder compared to combi.

I've been considering replacing my current boiler with a combi so that I can remove the hw cylinder. I only have a small flat so storage space is highly desirable. Removing the storage tank would give me loads of extra storage space.

I have very good water pressure - almost too much! I have the stop c*ck backed off quite a bit to keep it at bay!

Thanks for any info.

Rob

[Ed Sirett]

This is covere at some length in the main FAQ.

Small flat. Good mains. Need the space used by the cylinder.

If the CW storage cistern is in the flat then a quality combi would be the way forward. If the storage cistern is outside the flat (i.e. reasonable HW flow/pressure) then a combi is likely a good idea unless you really like baths that fill quickly.

[Doctor Evil]

In an average British home, few advantages over a combi.

It is lacking, assuming all combi's fill bath in half an hour.

V good suggestion.

There are high flow combi's around that fill baths very quickly. Combi's can be fed off tanks as well; they don't care where the water comes from. In a flat if there is a large communal tank on the roof and enough head (pressure) a combi can be fed off the tank.

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