How to improve shower in a house with no boiler?
Discussion
Calling any plumbers!
We have a beautiful hill farm in Snowdonia, but one of the minor downsides of such a property is the fact that the nearest mains gas/water supplies are about 4 miles away! The plumbing in the house has been cobbled together over the years but is basically centred around unpressurised cold water header tanks. We currently have a ground floor shower (8.5 kw Triton T90si power shower) that draws from the first floor loft cold water header tank. It's pretty feeble in terms of pressure, and this doesn't seem to change much from very low to very high output water temperature.
We would like to improve this shower. Because of the nature of the house, the traditional best option of a combi-fed mixer is off the cards, so we need to be a little more inventive.
I am wondering whether one option might be to install a single shower pump to boost the cold supply pressure from the tank to 2-3 bar. I would then replace the old power shower with a 10.8 kw electric shower (cabling is up to scratch). The house is primarily used April - October, with only light usage in winter, so one thing in our favour is that ambient water temperature in the tanks shouldn't be too low when the shower is most used. Does anyone have experience of this type of setup?
I guess the other alternative would be to install a hot water tank and electric boiler, and then pump both the cold and hot supplies to a traditional mixer shower? However I am concerned that the loft space may be inadequate for this, and I guess the cost would be considerably higher...
We have a beautiful hill farm in Snowdonia, but one of the minor downsides of such a property is the fact that the nearest mains gas/water supplies are about 4 miles away! The plumbing in the house has been cobbled together over the years but is basically centred around unpressurised cold water header tanks. We currently have a ground floor shower (8.5 kw Triton T90si power shower) that draws from the first floor loft cold water header tank. It's pretty feeble in terms of pressure, and this doesn't seem to change much from very low to very high output water temperature.
We would like to improve this shower. Because of the nature of the house, the traditional best option of a combi-fed mixer is off the cards, so we need to be a little more inventive.
I am wondering whether one option might be to install a single shower pump to boost the cold supply pressure from the tank to 2-3 bar. I would then replace the old power shower with a 10.8 kw electric shower (cabling is up to scratch). The house is primarily used April - October, with only light usage in winter, so one thing in our favour is that ambient water temperature in the tanks shouldn't be too low when the shower is most used. Does anyone have experience of this type of setup?
I guess the other alternative would be to install a hot water tank and electric boiler, and then pump both the cold and hot supplies to a traditional mixer shower? However I am concerned that the loft space may be inadequate for this, and I guess the cost would be considerably higher...
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff