Hi, have got a question about shower pressure/flow in a loft conversion and would really appreciate some advice.
We have a small first floor converted flat and are doing a loft conversion with the bathroom moving up into the 2nd floor to make our kitchen viable (currently 6ft square). We have a 25kW combi boiler fed by the mains which delivers hot water to our existing shower at a flow rate that i've measured at 8 litres/minute.
Being just the two of us in the flat, and there only being one other small flat downstairs fed by the mains, we're ok with the loss of flow caused by other taps being switched on, and just avoid running water in the kitchen when having a shower. But my understanding is that by moving the bathroom up a floor, the flow rate to the shower will be less than it currently is because you lose pressure with height, at which point the effect of another tap being switched on by our downstairs neighbour might become more of an issue.
Firstly, is it possible to calculate what the reduction in flow rate is likely to be, based on the height increase? And what would our options be if it does turn out to be an issue? I understand we can't add a pump to a supply coming from a mains fed combi or system boiler. I've seen storage combi boilers discussed, with 25 or 50 litres of heated water - does this stored water get pumped out or does the pressure still come from the mains?
We have a small first floor converted flat and are doing a loft conversion with the bathroom moving up into the 2nd floor to make our kitchen viable (currently 6ft square). We have a 25kW combi boiler fed by the mains which delivers hot water to our existing shower at a flow rate that i've measured at 8 litres/minute.
Being just the two of us in the flat, and there only being one other small flat downstairs fed by the mains, we're ok with the loss of flow caused by other taps being switched on, and just avoid running water in the kitchen when having a shower. But my understanding is that by moving the bathroom up a floor, the flow rate to the shower will be less than it currently is because you lose pressure with height, at which point the effect of another tap being switched on by our downstairs neighbour might become more of an issue.
Firstly, is it possible to calculate what the reduction in flow rate is likely to be, based on the height increase? And what would our options be if it does turn out to be an issue? I understand we can't add a pump to a supply coming from a mains fed combi or system boiler. I've seen storage combi boilers discussed, with 25 or 50 litres of heated water - does this stored water get pumped out or does the pressure still come from the mains?
