No, not the old ones that make your dinner, Lol.

 

Looking to get my boiler replaced and hopefully through the Eco 3 scheme and currently awaiting a visit for a quote or two.

It does seem that system boilers (high pressure) can be chosen using this scheme along with the usual combi boilers, but can anyone confirm this???

https://www.npower.com/energy-saving/ecoscheme/free-boiler/

Wondering if it may be down to the chosen supplier / installers or not??? Either type will be condensing, I know.

 

Done a lot of research too but cannot always find the answers so...

*Does anyone know if the hot water cylinder in a system boiler's configuration has to be fed from the mains (see above link) or can be left with the loft feed tank to push the hot water out.

I realise it possibly? makes sense that it is fed from the boiler, for economical purposes (ie pre heated slightly ???) but........

 

I ask as I have a power shower with both feeds gravity fed at present and if the hot has to feed off of the mains (direct from the new system boiler through the cylinder) then I suspect this will affect the cold supply to the shower that is only gravity fed.

 

Please note..... I realise *it may be a silly question but I only recently realised that 'system' boilers are also called 'high pressure' boilers.

 

If any of my info is incorrect please let me know and any input or sensible ideas gratefully appreciated.

I don't really want to have to buy a new shower tbh. Thanks.

 

 

Hi, new on the forum, and by no means a boiler expert, but I've been having a few issues with my system so have been doing a fair bit of research.

 

My system uses a hot water tank, mains fed and the boiler provides both hot water via this, and then heat via an underfloor wet sealed system.  From what I was told, my hot water cylinder needed to be mains fed, the rest of the system is kind of sealed with top up tanks and pressure vessals.  I've no basis for why the cylinder needed to be mains fed, I've got space in the loft for a tank.  However, I've got really good mains pressure so maybe this was part of the reason?

 

I know a good plumber if you need one, top quality work and won't rip you off.

 

Cheers,

Iain

Why not do away with the loft tank and hot water tank?

 

Don't know if this has an impact on the power shower though?

 

When we moved in our old house it had a loft tank and hot water tank along with a power shower.

 

We replaced the power shower anyway as it was broken.

 

But we also had a new Combi boiler fitted and the water and hot water tank were removed during the installation. Which also meant we gained some extra cupboard space and weren't heating up a tank of water all the time. Our energy bills fell dramatically.

You might wan to gve some forward though to Boris' comments about doing away with gas boilers.

It might be worth considering your options with other forms of heating water etc.

In a rented house we had a set up similar to yours, with a loft feed tank and the shower required a pump, which was noisy and unreliable.

This was replaced by a combi, which was fine when one shower was on, but useless as soon as anyone else used water (Tap, toilet etc).

 

That failed very rapidly and was declared not fit for purpose, so was replaced by a new system boiler and an unvented tank. This provided lots of hot water at approximately mains power and didn't require any additional shower pumps etc.

 

I'm not an expert, but I know the cold water feed tank was removed from the loft and I am fairly certain that the mains feed is what pushes the water out of an unvented/system hot water tank at near mains pressure. If I am right, then you have to use a mains feed to the system boiler.

 

The advantage of the latter system is, that since you're choosing your system now, you can pick up a tank that will take a boiler feed, an immersion feed (electric/Solar PV) and also a second feed for a heat pump or solar hot water.

 

Such a tank (or a thermal store) would allow you to use a gas boiler for now, or a hybrid boiler (as I imagine you don't want to go underfloor heating/oversized radiators right now) and have the option for a second heat source in the future. Additionally is you have solar PV, then a suitable controller can use any spare electricty to be used to heat water. The really smart ones look at your export price and decide if to sell the PV back to the grid or use it for hot water etc.

 

I am hoping our gas lasts a few years, so we can then have a look at options on this.

 

 

Edited 13 January, 20215 yr by cheezemonkhai

On 30/10/2020 at 16:46, Tilt said:

 

Done a lot of research too but cannot always find the answers so...

*Does anyone know if the hot water cylinder in a system boiler's configuration has to be fed from the mains (see above link) or can be left with the loft feed tank to push the hot water out.

I realise it possibly? makes sense that it is fed from the boiler, for economical purposes (ie pre heated slightly ???) but........

 

I ask as I have a power shower with both feeds gravity fed at present and if the hot has to feed off of the mains (direct from the new system boiler through the cylinder) then I suspect this will affect the cold supply to the shower that is only gravity fed.

 

Various marketing people call boiler types different things, but there are several main types:-

 

Boilers which have all the electronic timers & controls built in (System), or boilers without these (regular)

 

Boilers which have an internal heat exchanger to heat up hot water directly (Combi), or boilers without this. (see above)

 

Heating systems which have water storage in unpressurised tanks in the loft & are gravity fed to the taps (gravity/unpressurised) 

 

Heating systems which have no tanks in the loft & every hot & cold tap is at mains pressure with a mains pressurised hot water cylinder. (sealed system)

 

For those choosing an in line combi style boiler, I'd suggest they look at the relevant costs of replacement parts. The one we have fitted in our LA place was not  said to be in the cheap bracket, but spares are expensive.

However, there's a choice of shower options. If water pressure is adequate, then you may have the choice of electric or direct supply. (That's the advice my plumber gave me).

One day I'll get round to taking a photo of the plumbing in the pipe work in our heating cupboard so that fabrav can have a drool.