. Thanks for that !
Short summary, viewed house, is small, in main bedroom is a cupboard with biggest hot water tank ever, gotta be 5 ft high.
Would be good to get rid for some some.
Is a hot water tank required by law?
If not, is there some electrical hot water heater thing that can supply hot water on demand?
A combi boiler won't need a tank, I had one in my old flat and it worked well, modern installs these days seem to be back to hot water
tanks...
Do a search for a combination biller.
Cheers
Ian
It's called a combi boiler.
Had one in my old house and took about 45 mins to fill the bath up. That was about 15 years ago - I'm guessing tech has moved on, but not sure
if you could run a shower off it ?
Check that the place has a gas supply first, as it sounds like its an immersion tank, and if theres no gas, then a combi boiler will be a waste of time and money
Lots of manufacturers are now offering electric combi-boilers ready for the changes to come in the Building Regs. Lots of advantages over gas.
Also how many bathrooms(inc ensuites/shower rooms)?
Most Combis only cope with 1. There are those who can cope with more, but they still need a cylinder, albeit a lot smaller and usually contained
within the boiler or close by, but adds to cost a lot.
Will also mean a heavy replumb of house as everything will be mains fed, so needs a good mains feed to start with, or you will get no pressure.
[Edited on 15-1-17 by loggyboy]
We've had combi boilers in our house since we moved in. The first one was a cheap unit that barely managed to fill the radiators (previous owners
were penny pinchers). When we had an extension built we had one that had much higher capacity (higher than we would need). It's been fine, and
can fill a bath very quickly with very hot water while still keeping the radiators warm.
The only issue we have is that we wanted it out of the way in the utility, which is the farthest point of the house. Which means any tap needs to run
for a few seconds before hot water comes out. That's not a weakness of the boiler, more the fact that there is a fair few metres of cold water
in the pipe to get rid of each time.
As mentioned ours needs a gas supply and a decent pressure water supply. It wasn't overly expensive, and the whole unit fits in a standard 600mm
wall cabinet.
Two other points. You can't have it in your bedroom (they spend their days and nights doing random clicks, ticks and 'brums' so you
wouldn't get much sleep) so it won't be a direct swap. And we actually miss having an airing cupboard. Our previous house had the immersion
tank in a cupboard with shelves round it for storing clothes, and we didn't realise how much we used it.
quote:
Originally posted by Barkalarr
It's called a combi boiler.
Had one in my old house and took about 45 mins to fill the bath up. That was about 15 years ago - I'm guessing tech has moved on, but not sure if you could run a shower off it ?
already has electric shower, has one bath and two sinks (bathroom and kitchen); not sure if gas is connected hence looking for something electrical that will replace the large immersion heater - another solution would be to fit a much smaller one.
quote:
posted on 15/1/17 at 09:47 AM
Lots of manufacturers are now offering electric combi-boilers ready for the changes to come in the Building Regs. Lots of advantages over gas
Electric combi-boilers have less parts to go wrong, don't require an annual gas check. The government keeps talking about no mains gas supplies to new builds, unless connected to a district heating system. How will you power a gas combi with out mains gas ?
If the property has no gas then the large tank is probably heated overnight using dual rate electric.
The idea of a large tank is that you can heat all the water you will need during the day using cheap overnight rates.
It probably has a second immersion heater which you can manually switch on to give it a boost if required (at the higher during the day rate)
If the shower is electric and you only need hot water for the taps at the sinks, then yes you can buy electric water heaters that sit under the sink
or worse looking ones that sit over it - often used for kitchen areas in office buildings. They'll probably mainly be used during peak periods,
so will be expensive to run.
[Edited on 15/1/17 by SteveWalker]
quote:
Originally posted by slingshot2000
Electric combi-boilers have less parts to go wrong, don't require an annual gas check. The government keeps talking about no mains gas supplies to new builds, unless connected to a district heating system. How will you power a gas combi with out mains gas ?
Ok, a landlord safety inspection isn't required each year in a private property, but an annual service is recommended. I was only suggesting that
electric combi-boilers are available as an alternative to gas. Other contributors have suggested using 2 electric immersion heaters plus the new
cylinder to suit, how economical would you suggest they are compared to an electric combi-boiler?
Manufacturers will not have done all the R&D on electric combi-boilers unless they thought there was going to be a developing market for them.
(Edited for a ghastly spelling error)
[Edited on 15/1/17 by slingshot2000]
quote:
Originally posted by slingshot2000
Ok, a landlord safety inspection isn't required each year in a private property, but an annual service is recommended. I was only suggesting that electric combi-boilers are available as an alternative to gas. Other contributors have suggested using 2 electric immersion heaters plus the new cylinder to suit, how economical would you suggest they are compared to an electric combi-boiler?
Manufacturers will not have done all the R&D on electric combi-boilers unless they thought there was going to be a developing market for them.
(Edited for a ghastly spelling error)
[Edited on 15/1/17 by slingshot2000]
. Thanks for that !
It does have two immersion heater, so ^^^ is spot on. I was originally going to mention thar but didnt think it was significant.
All makes sense, seems best option is leave it.
Interested in these electric combi. How do they rate to conventional Gas combi?
Our combi has struggled ever since I installed designer radiators that carry vastly more water. Average size, 5 bed, 3 bathroom. 20 rads. Our
biggest issue is cold water pressure is only around 13 lpm.
[Edited on 16/1/17 by BangedupTiger]