I have a question about British houses

LandyAndy

Ellie83 wrote: »

I didn't know that!!! :eek:

If only there was a way for me to know which taps are connected to this tank... Do you think a vendor would know such technical details? I suppose I could ask a plumber to come and tell us if we move in.

The kitchen cold tap will be directly fed from the mains. It is the only one you should rely on being connected that way although others may be (my utility room tap is as well).

Having said that we all drink, occasionally, from the bathroom cold tap and never suffered any ill effects.

inmypocketnottheirs

FWIW I wouldn't fit a combi. Give me a conventional system any day.

Slinky

There's millions of homes with this system in the UK, most people don't lie awake at night worrying about the tank in the loft (except maybe if you get a really cold winter's night). It wouldn't be a deal-breaker for most people purchasing.

amcluesent

Yep, gravity fed, low-pressure systems requiring a water tank in the loft are still common in the UK.

Until recently it was against regulations to install unvented, mains-pressure plumbing, so we have loads of cisterns and shower pumps in our houses and have to wait and wait for the lavvy cistern to fill up before we can flush again.

Ellie83

Thank you so much to all of you for your replies. I think I understand the system a bit better. I will just add extra insulation, just to be sure

I imagine it would be a bad idea to add insulation to the loft given that the space where the tank is based would be made even colder?

This forum is wonderful :T

motherofstudents

The cold water tank feeds the boiler and it is stored in the hot water cylinder. If you have a combi installed, it is usual to remove both the tank and cylinder.

Ellie83

picklepick wrote: »

I'd google 'removing a cold water tank' and read the responses. The water from tanks tend to be a much lower pressure than mains pressure and if you switch to mains you can discover that pipework isn't able to cope with the higher pressure and it will leak. Taps and shower heads etc might also need changing as can toilet cistern systems, apparently. So if you're thinking of changing it after you've purchased the house, it's something to consider.

Thanks for the advice. It indeed looks like a huge job :eek:

Ellie83

motherofstudents wrote: »

The cold water tank feeds the boiler and it is stored in the hot water cylinder. If you have a combi installed, it is usual to remove both the tank and cylinder.

So it doesn't go through the bathroom taps? Sometimes I wish I were a plumber/electrician/chartered surveyor/insert-any-useful-job-here

amcluesent

In an 'old style' system, the cold water 'header' tank is the loft provides, by gravity feed, the water to the cold-taps in bathrooms and to the hot water cylinder and hence to the hot taps.

The hot water cylinder content gets heated-up by a pumped CH and HW water circuit which goes through the boiler. The CH/HW is kept topped-up from another cold-water tank in the loft which also catches any overflow if for some reason the heating circuit starts to boil.

My house is like this and I just 'bounce' the ball-valves in the header tanks to make sure they are OK and open and close the valves every few months so the don't stick.

Obviously a mains-pressure combi system lets you strip out a load of paraphernalia from the loft!

Ellie83

amcluesent wrote: »

In an 'old style' system, the cold water tank is the loft provides, by gravity feed, the water to the cold-taps in bathrooms and to the hot water cylinder and hence to the hot taps.

The hot water cylinder content gets heated-up by a pumped CH and HW water circuit which goes through the boiler. The CH/HW is kept topped-up from the cold-water tank in the loft which also catches any overflow if for some reason the heating circuit starts to boil.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! Now I understand better. I found some diagrams on google but didn't have much luck understanding them. Now I do! Everything is so different from where I grew up, I have a LOT to learn