High or low pressure system? How to know

chezybezy

hurrah moved in to the new house.
Bit of a simple one here, how do I know what water pressure system I have? I was looking at taps and they identify as needing high or low pressure systems. I assume this also applies to kitchen taps (as ours needs replacing) as well as my bathroom ones. I'm guessing this doesn't affect toilet choices?
I have a old back boiler system, there is a smallish looking black tank in the loft (presumably it's used), one room has an emersion heater cylinder that we used the first night via it's switch to have hot water. Now we've figured out the heating obviously I've turned it you off (but this could be an override switch) I'm unsure if this is part of the back boiler water system as Ive only known my last house's combi system.
I'm unsure if any of that helps.

Ectophile

If there's a back boiler and hot water tank, it's almost certainly low pressure. High-pressure water tanks do now exist, but not back in the era when people installed back boilers.

A cold water tank in the loft also means low pressure.

The cold tap in the kitchen should be full mains pressure anyway, regardless of the rest of the system. But the hot tap would be low pressure.

Edit: Low-pressure taps should be usable at high pressure. But high pressure taps on a low pressure system will give a disappointing trickle.

societys_child

As above, if it's mains fed cold, and combi boiler (hot), with no tanks, it'll be, or should be, high pressure

chezybezy

Ectophile wrote: »

If there's a back boiler and hot water tank, it's almost certainly low pressure. High-pressure water tanks do now exist, but not back in the era when people installed back boilers.

A cold water tank in the loft also means low pressure.

The cold tap in the kitchen should be full mains pressure anyway, regardless of the rest of the system. But the hot tap would be low pressure.

Edit: Low-pressure taps should be usable at high pressure. But high pressure taps on a low pressure system will give a disappointing trickle.

Thank you very very much.
I found some taps I love but they suggest "least 0.5 Bar of pressure, however we recommend 1 bar for optimal performance.". Does this mean they are unsuitable? Plumbing is not my forte.

chezybezy

societys_child wrote: »

As above, if it's mains fed cold, and combi boiler (hot), with no tanks, it'll be, or should be, high pressure

Thank you

casper_g

societys_child wrote: »

As above, if it's mains fed cold, and combi boiler (hot), with no tanks, it'll be, or should be, high pressure

If.

But it's not mains fed cold if it's fed from a tank in the roof space, and it's not a combination boiler if it's an old back boiler. And none of that is "as above" - it's the opposite of what the previous poster said!

societys_child

casper_g wrote: »

If.

But it's not mains fed cold if it's fed from a tank in the roof space, and it's not a combination boiler if it's an old back boiler. And none of that is "as above" - it's the opposite of what the previous poster said!

I referred to the previous post

The cold tap in the kitchen should be full mains pressure anyway

and included addition info.

Did you miss

with no tanks

on purpose, or just looking for an argument?

bris

Turn on a cold tap, cover it with you thumb, if it stops to a trickle its tank fed, if it forces the water out and sprays everywhere it's mains fed. Some times the old ways are the best.

DorsetLad

"I found some taps I love but they suggest "least 0.5 Bar of pressure, however we recommend 1 bar for optimal performance.". Does this mean they are unsuitable?"

As others have stated, the cold water will be at mains pressure (probably 2 - 4 bar) in the kitchen and this will be fine. The hot water will be at a lower pressure if the hot water pressure is provided by a tank in the loft. You can calculate this pressure by measuring or estimating the vertical distance between the water surface in the loft tank and the kitchen tap: each 1 metre vertically gives about 0.1 bar. So, if you live in a two-storey house with a loft and the vertical distance is 6 meters, the pressure in the hot tap will be about 0.6 bar.

You can check if the loft tank is in use by turning on any hot tap (or flushing an upstairs toilet) and seeing if the loft tank starts to refill.