pressurised water system

beolight

hi all

just trying to get some information on whats involved in installing a pressurised water system rather than the tradition gravity system, i seen one recently in the eco house built by the german guys that featured on duncans show and it look like a neat system with no need for tanks in the attic

has anybody installed this system,how does it compare, what type of equipment is needed etc etc

or would i be better to stick with gravity fed system

stapeler

I recently added a Monsoon 3bar pump to my system. Tapped off from both hot and cold water supplies. Works very well hoverer if doing it again I would put in a larger hot water cylinder. The kitchen/bathroom tap water pressure is very high so I added two way switches at hotpress downstairs and bathroom upstairs. This allows for turning it on when using it for showers and off when not required.

stiofanD

Excuse my ignorance in these matters, but would installing something like this do the job? Or will this just pressurise the cold water supply and leave the water from the hot water cylinder unpressurised?

beolight

i am equally as ignorant

that looks like something you could add to an existing gravity fed system to convert it to a pressurised system

i am looking at new build and putting in a pressurised system from start and was wonderinghow it is configured etc

yop

We had a pressuried system installed in the house, it means we have high pressure on the showers and handbasins, highly recommend

bro'

Hi beolight, I 'm interested in this thread also..
Yop,
Did you also install an attic tank to supply your toilet cisterns or electric showers [if any]. Interested to know as i am installing a pressurised system and was planning on installing an attic tank aswell so no mains pressure or pump kicking in every time the toilets are flushed etc.

I know on another thread you mentioned an issue with your pressure pump kicking in frequently -was that sorted now or is there something to consider in the pressureised sytem setup.

yop

Hey,

Yes there is a tank in the attic to feed the toilets, these are not on the pressure pump,.
We have no electric showers, no point when we have a pressure system.

The issue seems to be disappearing, but I have been working upstairs these nights so cannot hear it kicking in if it does. It could be air in the system

AJL

Hi Bro,

I was talking to a plumber the other day. Because I am putting in solar panels as far as I know I need a pressurised tank. As such I need a pressurised system. he said the best thing to do is to put a tank in the garage and feed this to a pressure pump. The reason for the tank is that it is building regs. You must have a supply of water if the water is cut off for toilets etc. This tank is purely a holdibng tank and is similar to an oil tank.

bro'

Hi AJL,
I am installing Solar panels also with the pressurised system...I don't have enough space in the integrated garage for the water tank [ the ~700l dual coil tank is already going in there!] and also I dont want another pump to supply the toliets. The gravity fed tank in the attic is my preffered option with all other water supply from the pressurised system.

AJL

Hi Bro,

Who are you getting to put in the solar panels? Are they installing them or just commissioning them

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

stiofanD wrote:

Excuse my ignorance in these matters, but would installing something like this do the job? Or will this just pressurise the cold water supply and leave the water from the hot water cylinder unpressurised?

this system will pressure everything on the outlet side...
therefore...if you hot water cylinder is supplied from your attic tank(which it will be) then your hot water cylinder and all your domestic hot water will be pressurised.
so yes..your hot water will be pressurized.

stiofanD

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to install solar panels, so since I'll be replacing the hot water cylinder and the storage tank in the attic (an old glavanised steel one) I might add a pump to the storage tank too. I'd be concerned that it might be noisy though. Whats the best way to minimise noise transmission from a pump ?

bro'

AJL wrote:

Hi Bro,

Who are you getting to put in the solar panels? Are they installing them or just commissioning them

I'm using Solar Energy Ireland

http://www.solarenergyireland.com

and they are installing/commisioning the system

Viking House

stiofanD wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to install solar panels, so since I'll be replacing the hot water cylinder and the storage tank in the attic (an old glavanised steel one) I might add a pump to the storage tank too. I'd be concerned that it might be noisy though. Whats the best way to minimise noise transmission from a pump ?

Hi Stiofan

We usually make a box out of insulation and put the pump into it.
Works quite good.

digitaldr

I got a monsoon 3 bar pump and lots of other stuff from this shop on ebay. Excellent prices + cheap fast shipping. Also found PH ross plumbing supplies to be very good. BTW/tilesavers were abominable!

yoman

http://www.coppercraft.ie/phoenix_range/default.html

stiofanD

yoman wrote:

http://www.coppercraft.ie/phoenix_range/default.html

Interesting link yoman, but there's absolutely no info on that page about Coppercraft and where they are located. Do you have any info on them ?

stiofanD

Actually, no, I'm wrong. The info IS there, in the footer of the webpage, but its in black text on a black background, so strangely I couldn't see it! Extracting from the HTML source:
Coppercraft Ltd, Kylemore Park West, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10 • T : 01-626 5146/01-6265147 • F : 01-626 5813 • E: info@coppercraft.ie

311

To kill the sound of a pump,place it on a brick or something like a brick a couple of fire bricks from a storage heater.
The dead weight kills the vibrations.

Be careful when pressurising a domestic hot water system ,if it's not done properly your cylinder will implode.

towbar

Our supply will be a deep well and decided to go with a pressursied system with local store and pump in garage. If problems with well or well pump have a buffer of water.

Potable water tank (200 gallon) ~€400,
Grundfos MQ3/35 ~€400
Pressurised cyclinder 210l ~€900 (includes integrated immersion and all accessories, motorised valve, pressure vessel..)

Toilets will be fed from seperate tank in attic so toilets can be flushed even if power off however above pump has built in protection against hammer from ballcock in toilet.

Pocari Sweat

For ultimate fully pressurised domestic system without the need for an expensive grundfos whole house pressurisation pump, simply use mains pressure if it is consistently high and instead of a gravity fed header tank, use four to six blue 70 litre pressure vessels the sort you would get from a hardware store when coupled with surface well pumps, and link them together with maniflod tucked away in the eaves in the attic and using 1" feeds to link them branch off any 3/4 feeds from the manifold to baths, showers, etc and get proper pressure and flow from mains, without the cost of a pressurisation pump or risk of bird shyte and mice shyte collected in conventional header tanks.

Pocari Sweat

A stainless steel hot water cylinder, will take higher pressures than copper cylinders and last longer if there is a risk of a pH drop in water sources below 6.5.

311

There are heavy guage copper cylinders available ,the type that are used in ground floor apartments.A pump would be needed as hot and cold at the same time wont work on mains pressure consistantly.

Not all pumps are expensive .

Brian.

vallo

I am just looking into this at the moment -doing an attic conversion and over-garage extension so we have to move the boiler, hot water cylinder and cold water tank anyway plus we are putting a shower-room in the attic so we will need some form of pump at least for the tot tap in the sink and possibly for the shower, loo and sink as the CWT will be only about a foot higher than them (not a lot of gravity there).

I have one concern with the pressurised system though ... what happens when there is a power cut? Do you have any water from your taps?
At the moment we have an independant pump whose only job is to give us a power shower. It's a noisy thing under our bath. When the power is cut you barely get a trickle of water from the shower head.
Just thinking of future-proofing the house, when the energy crisis hits and black-outs become the norm!!

Glad to have found this thread - I like the idea of a CWT in the attic to feed toilets un-pressurised - hadn't thought of that.

311

In relation to a power cut ,you could easily put in a bypass going around the pump with a valve on it .When theres a power cut you would still have mains pressure feeding the house.

I haven't put a pressurised system in yet ,but I had a couple of ideas for some.
Theres a couple of safeguards you could take ,but it's down to the layout of the house.
If a road has bad pressure and people start putting pumps in some people wouldn't have any water at all ,theres regulations as to these pumps been put on mains coming in.

with storage systems you just stick on a negative head pump for an attic shower.

Brian.

vallo

Thanks for that.
Any other tips from anyone?

jfly57

I'm getting water-heating solar panels installed and just wondering does anybody know approximately the price difference between copper and stainless steel cylinders (capacity 200l, triple-coil).