The new home is missing heating equipment as per specifications and has low water pressure

Cessello

I recently bought a new home from a reputed builder in the UK. The day I went to collect the keys was the day I had access to see what was inside. I noticed that a ThermaQ Evocyl pre-plumbed cylinder was missing from my home. This is against the plan and the "Building Regulations and Construction Notes" they had given.

According to their documentation, it says for 4 and 5 bedroom houses, the heating system shall include a "Boiler Ideal Logic with ThermaQ Evocyl pre-plumbed cylinder". My house is a 4-bedroom house, and it has 3 floors. Recently, we had a scenario where the kitchen tap, first floor bath shower, and top floor tap and shower were all on. Then I noticed the top floor en-suit tap and shower were hardly getting any water.

When asked about this, the builder said they were investigating this. Two days later, they came back and said the drawing they provided was wrong. Which wasn’t making any sense since I can clearly see the water pressure and flow that I get on the top floor is not sufficient.

Do you have any suggestions in this case?

NSG666

So what do you have in your home? A different unvented cylinder or a combi boiler? Either way it's a big ask to expect the incoming mains water supply to be able to feed that many outlets at once.

Cessello

I have a combi boiler at the moment Ideal Logic ESP 1 35. 
Mains water supply (I suppose this is cold water) has enough pressure and flow when I run all outlets. Or at least a reasonable pressure. However hotwater is no were near this even without that many outlets open.

Cessello

NSG666 said:

So what do you have in your home? A different unvented cylinder or a combi boiler? Either way it's a big ask to expect the incoming mains water supply to be able to feed that many outlets at once.

Forgot to mention this earlier, I have a combi boiler at the moment Ideal Logic ESP 1 35 and it is a 4 bed semi detached house.
Mains water supply (I suppose this is cold water) has enough pressure and flow when I run all outlets. Or at least a reasonable pressure. However hotwater is no were near this even without that many outlets open.

BUFF

rated at 14.5l at 35C rise - doesn't seem much for a house with multiple bathrooms.

Ectophile

There's a limit to how fast a combi boiler can heat water.  It has to heat the water in from cold to hot in the short time it takes for the water to flow through the heat exchanger.  With the ground outside getting colder, that makes the incoming mains water colder than it was in the summer.

There may be a valve you can adjust to choose between an inadequate flow of nice hot water, or a really good flow of vaguely warm water.

BUFF

Ectophile said:

There's a limit to how fast a combi boiler can heat water.  It has to heat the water in from cold to hot in the short time it takes for the water to flow through the heat exchanger.  With the ground outside getting colder, that makes the incoming mains water colder than it was in the summer.

Yes, but there are more powerful combis than 14.5l @35C rise & of course there is also the limitation of what the flow rate from the mains is - pointless having a combi than can do 25l/min @35 rise (they do exist) if the mains can only provide 15l/min ...

However, if you expected to be getting a boiler + unvented cylinder & you get a combi only ...

ComicGeek

BUFF said:

rated at 14.5l at 35C rise - doesn't seem much for a house with multiple bathrooms.

It isn't much, but we have a lot of developers who use these throughout their schemes regardless of number of bathrooms. They seem to get very few complaints, but then I think most people don't expect to run multiple showers at the same time. It's a lot cheaper than a decent system boiler and unvented cylinder - the developers save a fortune on this and it also means that it's much easier to pass Bldg Regs SAP calculations, which in turn means worse insulation standards, poor air tightness targets and even more money saved!!

It also makes it harder to future proof homes, as most future alternatives to mains gas will need a hot water cylinder to reduce instantaneous heat demand. The quicker the government make proper future proofing a key issue the better - it's crazy that we're still building homes that will be difficult to convert to other heat sources.

Cessello

Ectophile said:

There's a limit to how fast a combi boiler can heat water.  It has to heat the water in from cold to hot in the short time it takes for the water to flow through the heat exchanger.  With the ground outside getting colder, that makes the incoming mains water colder than it was in the summer.

There may be a valve you can adjust to choose between an inadequate flow of nice hot water, or a really good flow of vaguely warm water.

Now I doubt that the builder might do something like this to convince me that there is enough pressure. How do I findout this valve? 

Cessello

BUFF said:

Ectophile said:

There's a limit to how fast a combi boiler can heat water.  It has to heat the water in from cold to hot in the short time it takes for the water to flow through the heat exchanger.  With the ground outside getting colder, that makes the incoming mains water colder than it was in the summer.

Yes, but there are more powerful combis than 14.5l @35C rise & of course there is also the limitation of what the flow rate from the mains is - pointless having a combi than can do 25l/min @35 rise (they do exist) if the mains can only provide 15l/min ...

However, if you expected to be getting a boiler + unvented cylinder & you get a combi only ...

What is the best approach to resolve this issue? I am still under a 2 year builder's warranty and a 10 year NHBC. Yesterday I got some updates that the builder gave me an old version of the drawing (which I was expecting them to say

Since they have misled me or provided wrong information and the fact is that there is a genuine issue here, how can I approach this if they refuse my concern here?

tacpot12

I would suggest you speak to the Legal Helpline provided by your home insurer. If you have legal expenses cover, there will be a Helpline number you can call. As them to look into whether the drawing is part of the contract you have with the builder, or not. If you have this cover, the helpline will be able to help. If you don't have this cover, you will need to pay a solicitor for their advice.