Any experience with unvented cylinders and/or mains booster sets?

ThisIsWeird

ch_152 said:

I think I'm starting to understand this though. If my incoming water is at high enough pressure, it's able to fill the accumulator tank without needing to be pumped in. If my incoming water pressure is not good, it won't be able to fill the accumulator so requires a pump beforehand.

Exactly. That's how the Challis works. (The Grundfos is different - it fills a tank slowly from the mains supply, and then the tank's contents are pumped out on demand.)

I assume all the pipework after the accumulator likely needs to be replaced so that it can accommodate the higher volume of water coming out of the accumulator?

No, because it'll be driven at an equal or higher pressure than you currently have, so the existing pipes - regardless of what size they are - should be fine.

ch_152 said:

There's decent spot down in the meter cupboard (where the cold water enters the property) to fit an accumulator too - although would it be considered terribly unwise to locate a cylinder of pressurised water in the cupboard where the incoming electricity is?!

Sorry, no idea. They are fully sealed, so short of exploding you should be fine... I guess the meter and CU could be boxed over with an access door?

ch_152 said:

But you're right, a bit more investigation to do first into the flow rate and pressure. Will get someone to check the pipework and the stopcock etc.

Cool. Also ask them plenty of Qs to see how much they know about these accumulators/mains boosters.

 

ch_152 said:

Here's a stupid question. If everyone installed mains booster pumps which "suck" water at a greater rate from the supply to the building or development, surely that would cause issues somewhere upstream?!

Er...um...uh... that's uh, a stupid question - don't ask stuff like that. Until I can Google the answer :-(

I presume it's simply that there is more than enough capacity in the mains supply - it's a large pipe with a large flow going down the street. Houses are able to 'suck' a bit more from this without it causing any issues. But, yes, it's limited to 12lpm for a reason.