I have a question about British houses

Ellie83

amcluesent wrote: »

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.

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

I think I need to contact the surveyor tomorrow as he only mentioned one cold water tank in the loft... Or likely he just looked quickly around and didn't think a silly foreigner would need more explanations than that :rotfl:

amcluesent

In my house the CH/HW 'feed and expansion tank' is quite small and tucked right into the peak of the roof, while the cold water header tank is pretty big and sits on the beams.

RenovationMan

If you have one a single tank in the loft then it will be the Feed and Expansion tank shown in amcluesent's diagram. The cold water to all of the taps (bathroom, kitchen) and to the toilet cistern will be directly from mains water.

The expansion tank is basically there to ensure that your hot water tank and central heating doesn't run dry if you have a leak or if your tank boils (and water goes out of the overflow).

Ellie83

RenovationMan wrote: »

If you have one a single tank in the loft then it will be the Feed and Expansion tank shown in amcluesent's diagram. The cold water to all of the taps (bathroom, kitchen) and to the toilet cistern will be directly from mains water.

The expansion tank is basically there to ensure that your hot water tank and central heating doesn't run dry if you have a leak or if your tank boils (and water goes out of the overflow).

I see! And if the EPC mentions that the hot water cylindre is directly fed from the main water system, does that mean that either the EPC or our surveyor made a mistake? Or is it possible to have both?

jimbog

The cylinder is probably made from copper and has good scrap value so make sure you don't give it away for nothing when work starts!

Starbrite

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.

My Dad was a plumber (retired now) he told me from an early age never to drink from the bathroom taps as a bird could get into the tank drown and infect the water........... I had nightmares over this and even now I will avoid drinking from the bathroom taps

The likely hood of a bird getting in there is slim but it's stopped me from drinking out of the bathroom taps :rotfl:

LandyAndy

Starbrite wrote: »

My Dad was a plumber (retired now) he told me from an early age never to drink from the bathroom taps as a bird could get into the tank drown and infect the water........... I had nightmares over this and even now I will avoid drinking from the bathroom taps

The likely hood of a bird getting in there is slim but it's stopped me from drinking out of the bathroom taps :rotfl:

:rotfl:That's exactly the reason I was told, as a child, not to drink from those taps.

pinkteapot

Just another voice to add that this type of system is extremely common in the UK - may even be the most common setup.

I never give a second thought to our cold water tank. We have one in the loft, then a hot water tank in the airing cupboard. The tank in the loft feeds most of the taps in the house and our electric shower. As a previous poster mentioned, the kitchen tap is off the mains which seems to be the norm. You can tell that's mains-fed as it has much higher water pressure than our other taps.

I've never heard of any maintenance work being needed on a tank. Only thing that happens every 5-10 years is that the ball-!!!! goes. This means that the tank doesn't stop being refilled from the mains when it is full. However, this is nowhere near as serious as it sounds as the tank will have an overflow pipe. If you look on the outside wall of the house, up near the roof, you should see a white plastic pipe sticking out*. If that starts dripping, it's usually because the ball-!!!! has gone. It's a very quick/cheap job to get it replaced.

* You'll probably see a couple of these - it's likely the toilet will have one as well.

Biggles

Ellie83 wrote: »

I see! And if the EPC mentions that the hot water cylindre is directly fed from the main water system, does that mean that either the EPC or our surveyor made a mistake? Or is it possible to have both?

It probably meant that it's the loft tank (which feeds the hot water cylinder) that is fed by mains water.

All hot taps will be fed from that, at a lower pressure than the cold taps. It is possible that cold taps in the bathroom are also fed from the loft tank, you can soon check by running the hot and cold on and comparing the water pressure.

As mentioned, the water from the loft tank is technically not potable (fit for drinking).

The central heating usually has a separate, smaller tank, as shown in the diagram. You'll probably see a couple of overflow pipes sticking out of the eaves, and another one, probably through the wall, for each toilet.

As far as maintenance is concerned, all you need do is keep an eye on the overflow pipes. If there's a problem, one will be dripping. If it's the loft tank, run plenty of hot water till the valve allows more water into the tank and see if it drips again. If so, you just need to fit a new washer in the valve (cost 2p).

Ellie83

LandyAndy wrote: »

:rotfl:That's exactly the reason I was told, as a child, not to drink from those taps.

Haha, thanks for the nightmares :rotfl: I understand better now why my mother-in-law told me not to drink from the bathroom tap when I first visited her many moons ago. At the time, I thought that the house didn't have any potable water and was appalled at such low sanitary standards! Now I understand :rotfl: