Raise temp of cold water tank

[homertimpson]

Temperature/flow of our electric showers is good at the moment, but, with the Scottish winter fast approaching that will soon come to an end.

Cold water tank feed becomes colder and colder - shower temp dial goes up to compensate - flow rate gets slower and slower

This may have the experts heads shaking - but can I stick an immersion coil into the cwt to lift the temp?
Sound drastic I know, but lifting the tank temp by a few degrees for the morning showers is all I want it for.

Cheers

Homer

 

[doitall]

Depends how much Legionella you want to breed.

 

[homertimpson]

Depends how much Legionella you want to breed.

As I said, the experts will no doubt be shaking their heads at my question

Only realistic option then is to change to power showers/pumped system from hot water tank to safeguard my health

Cheers

Homer

 

[doitall]

How about a blender valve on the cold pipe feeding the valve

Hot and cold in warmer out,

http://www.rwc.co.uk/prod-cat1.html

 

[Inky Pete]

Depends how much Legionella you want to breed.

How is raising the winter temperature of the cold water tank up to the temperature it is normally at all summer long going to increase the Legionella risk?

Legionella only multiplies in temperatures between 20 and 55 degrees, below that it is dormant, above that range, it dies.

Like the OP says, it's only a couple of degrees of heating he's after - just to compensate for the lower supply temperature in winter. Surely it's all about what the thermostat is set to.

 

[doitall]

Hello Pete.

There's a water reg about what temperatures the mains can be and includes the storage tank.

if one wants to put a heater in the tank to raise the water in the bottom to say 15c, then the water at the top could be 30c+

And even if you could get the whole tank at say 12c, as soon as you run the tap, shower what ever, the recovery will dilute it, so your back to square one, with an continuous cycle of heat and cool.

 

[Inky Pete]

I get the impression that the OP only wants to keep his cold water tank up to normal summer temps - that's not going to be much above 10 degrees - so easily satisfying the recommendation that stored water should be kept either below 20 degrees or above 60 degrees.

A circulation heater - such as is used in fish tanks - would eliminate the problem of varying temperatures from top to bottom, and would give very accurate control of the temperature throughout the tank.

Of course, as soon as water is used and the tank refills the temperature will drop until such time as the heater brings it back up again. But that doesn't increase the Legionella risk either.

 

[doitall]

Much easier to fit a blender on the cold feed to the shower.

 

[Charnwood]

I'm a little confused by 'tank' and 'electric showers'!

 

[homertimpson]

I get the impression that the OP only wants to keep his cold water tank up to normal summer temps

That's all I want - stick a heating option in that could run off a timer to "lift" the temp just enough to give 2 good showers in the morning.

The blender valve also looks promising - the shower is built in, the only cold feed is from the loft - would it go up there?

Homer

 

[doitall]

I'm a little confused by 'tank' and 'electric showers'!

OP hasn't got an electric shower.

He want to put an immersion heater in the storage tank to raise the temperature.

 

[Onetap]

Much easier to fit a blender on the cold feed to the shower.

Yes, but I think they usually have a high resistance and, since this is supplied from a cold water storage cistern, there probably won't be much flow. The OP's idea is daft; he'd be heating the cold water to all the cold taps and toilet cisterns. Chucking money away isn't something you'd expect the Scots to indulge in.

 

[doitall]

I get the impression that the OP only wants to keep his cold water tank up to normal summer temps

That's all I want - stick a heating option in that could run off a timer to "lift" the temp just enough to give 2 good showers in the morning.

The blender valve also looks promising - the shower is built in, the only cold feed is from the loft - would it go up there?

Homer

Can go where you like.

You'll need an adjustable one so you can run it at 15-20c.

 

[Inky Pete]

I'm a little confused by 'tank' and 'electric showers'!

OP hasn't got an electric shower.

Yes he has!

"Temperature/flow of our electric showers is good at the moment"

He's got electic showers gravity fed from a cold water storage tank. His problem is that the lower cold water temperature in winter means that his electric showers cannot give a decent flow rate at a satisfactory temperature for him.

He want to put an immersion heater in the storage tank to raise the temperature.

He only really wants something to take the winter chill off the cold water tank so that his electric showers perform as well as they currently do in summer.

 

[doitall]

That'll teach me to read the thread properly

Never seen an electric shower fed from a tank that didn't have a pump