Power Shower on cold mains feed

[johnny avocado]

Well. Ive tried scanning through all posts but still need to clear up a few things... I'm installing a new shower, hot water from indirect 110litre cylinder at ground floor, cold water from mains feed at about 3 bar, shower at first floor level, shower head will be about 1.4m below base of header tank. Hot water cylinder one floor and about 6m away from shower. My problems are;

To get a guaranteed good flow from the shower I guess I need a pumped system due to low hot water pressure.

Pump would need to take mains pressure feed as there would be a tortuous route to bring a new cold feed down from the header tank.

Pump position would require to be close to the shower and some distance from the hot water cylinder, otherwise the pump would be feeding all the other hot water outlets in the house.

Can I site the pump remote from the cylinder and near the shower?

Can I connect the cold mains to the pump via a pressure reducing valve?

If so what type of valve?

Do I need a one way valve fitted to the hot supply to prevent backflow to the cylinder.

Do I need to increase the size of my hot water cylinder to cater for the flow rates in the pumped system?

Any help would be excellent.

JA

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Pump would need to take mains pressure feed as there would be a tortuous route to bring a new cold feed down from the header tank.

You cant pump mains water.... End of....!!!!



Its either go the tortuos route or get an unvented cylinder or venturi shower
.

 

[Softus]

Pump would need to take mains pressure feed as there would be a tortuous route to bring a new cold feed down from the header tank.

You cant pump mains water.... End of....!!!!

Hm. WRegs state a maximum of 12 l/m without permission.

johnny - you could install a venturi shower valve, such as the Trevi Boost.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Go on then Softus enlighten me. I am allways ready to learn something.

 

[Softus]

Erm, sorry - do you mean which regulation?

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Yes please.
I had a quick google and found this

Another google revealed this :-

Mains Pressure Hot Water
Under water bye-laws you may not add a pump directly to your mains fed system to increase pressure or flow rate. If the supply in your house is poor there ...
www.gasapplianceguide.co.uk/Mains_Pressure_Hot_Water_Systems.htm - 23k -

 

[Softus]

Water Regulations, Part II ("Requirements"), Section 5 ("Notification"), Table item 4(d).

This is, of course, subject to all of the other stipulations and caveats, e.g. approved CE marked fittings, no risk of contamination of supply (backflow prevention), blardy bla bla...

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Here it is in black and white just as you said Softus
The gas appliance website must be out of date or something.

Venturi shower looks to be the best bet then unless johnny avocado has plenty of money to throw at it

 

[Softus]

Here it is in black and white just as you said Softus

Nice one - I didn't have that link in my utility belt before - ta.

The gas appliance website must be out of date or something.

It's a commercial site, and I think its 'guidance' is just plain wrong, unless it's talking about Scotland, in which case I don't know.

You have to be careful when you read someone else's interpretation of the legislation. For example, the government publishes the legislation, but the same government department publishes information about that legislation that contains errors.

Oh, and note that the disgraced fat controller leaves behind this exquisite self-contradicting notice:

http://www.odpm.gov.uk/

He couldn't even get that right.

 

[Buzzark]

Johnny

You're easiest option is, as mentioned a venturi shower. This uses the power of the cold mains to pull the hot water through without a pump or any powered fittings.

Otherwise you're really looking at a cold and hot tank fed shower pump.

 

[johnny avocado]

Thanks for the answers. To keep the missus "on-side" I will look at the venturi, to get the system up and running. Might look at a longer term installation of separate tank feeding cold water at same head as hot.

Only problem here would be positioning the pump. Any major problems with shower pump near shower and about 10m from cylinder?

Also how effecive are venturi showers and any drawbacks in the installation of them?

Once again..cheers

JA

 

[Softus]

Also how effecive are venturi showers

Very.

...any drawbacks in the installation of them?

None that I've found.

There's a question mark over their longevity, because they're slightly more complicated than ordinary valves, but I believe Trevi give a 5-year warranty on the Boost, so you can't really lose.

Oh, don't buy a sh*te one though - the Boost is the only good quality one that I'm aware of.

 

[Buzzark]

I'd have gone with one of them except my wife wanted to be able to move the head vertically and I couldn't find any to do that.

 

[Softus]

I'd have gone with one of them except my wife wanted to be able to move the head vertically and I couldn't find any to do that.

Here's one.

 

[Buzzark]

lol - it's TOO LATE NOW!!!!!
Fitted a pump about a week ago. I suspect she'd not have liked the thought of me carving up the wall anyway.

Strange though, I shopped around all over the web and different places looking for the right thing, obviously I wasn't asking the right questions!
The NewTeam Jetstream seemed to be the only one anybody knew anything about.