Sink/Bath switch

cloudz

What does indeed a sink/bath switch do? And the on/off button besides it?
I understand it heats the water, but what heats what if I switch to either mode?

2011

Your immersion is a stand alone system that heats domestic hot water (water for taps) electrically. The on/off switch turns it on & off. The sink position on the switch selects the smaller heating element and the and the bath position selects a larger heating element.

Be warned this is an expensive way to heat water.

cloudz

Thanks for your reply.

I saw a water tank located in the attic of the house that I am about to move into.
The sink/bath siwtch is installed on the first floor wall.
The house also utilises the gas.

Now
(1) Is the sink/bath switch using electricity or gas?
(2) Is the sink mode heating half of the water tank? And the bath mode heats the full water tank?
(3) How can I know if the water in the house can be heated by gas?

2011

cloudz wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.
Is the sink mode heating half of the water tank? And the bath mode heats the full water tank?

Not quite, but sink mode would be enough to wash your hands and the dishes and not much else. You will just about get enough for a bath from the bath mode. If you plan on using your immersion I would recommend that you get a timer installed. When the electrician is doing this ask him for advice on setting the thermostats. I think that you will find that a timer will pay for itself quite quickly.

2011

cloudz wrote: »

I saw a water tank located in the attic of the house that I am about to move into.

The chances are that this is not the hot water cylinder and therefore not where the immersion is situated. Please post a picture and we can confirm.

The sink/bath siwtch is installed on the first floor wall.

Normally this is for the immersion.

The house also utilises the gas.

This is generally a cheaper way to heat water. It is completey seperate to the immersion. The gas boiler burns gas to heat the water while the immersion uses electricity only much like an electric kettle.

Now
(1) Is the sink/bath switch using electricity or gas?

99 times out of 100 this is for the immersion so it is using electricity.

(2) Is the sink mode heating half of the water tank? And the bath mode heats the full water tank?

See my last post.

(3) How can I know if the water in the house can be heated by gas?

If you have a gas boiler and immersion you can heat it with either. My preferance would be to use gas.

cloudz

Thanks for your detailed reply, I will take a photo of the hot tank in the attic in the next post.

2011 wrote: »

The chances are that this is not the hot water cylinder and therefore not where the immersion is situated. Please post a picture and we can confirm.


Normally this is for the immersion.


This is generally a cheaper way to heat water. It is completey seperate to the immersion. The gas boiler burns gas to heat the water while the immersion uses electricity only much like an electric kettle.


99 times out of 100 this is for the immersion so it is using electricity.



See my last post.



If you have a gas boiler and immersion you can heat it with either. My preferance would be to use gas.

cloudz

I actually figured this out.
The heating system in our house utilises electricity and gas, both connecting to the water tank located in the attic area. There are different switches to control them.

I have one more question in realtion.
The gas boiler has a meter on the front panel, scaling between 0 and 5 (I think). I believe it tells the current water pressure which is very low, it is 0.5 (<1). How can I increase the pressure of the water?

I was told that there should be a valve to release for the heat system to improve the pressure of the water upstairs, right? Where is this valve usually located? And how can I find it?

Many thanks.

leeomurchu

That pressure gauge is just for the heating system pressure it doesn't have any bearing on the pressure of the water in your taps.

If the pressure is low upstairs you may need a pump installed to increase the pressure of the water from the taps

The valve you've been told about will be in the hotpress most likely but as I said it'll only be for releasing pressure on the heating system and it should do this automatically unless your system is badly air locked.

Bruthal

cloudz wrote: »

I have one more question in realtion.
The gas boiler has a meter on the front panel, scaling between 0 and 5 (I think). I believe it tells the current water pressure which is very low, it is 0.5 (<1). How can I increase the pressure of the water?

That is the pressure gauge for the water contained within the sealed heating system. 0.5 or a little above is normal for a system when not in use, and usually goes up a bit when running. Above 3 bar and a safety valve releases water from the system to outside the house, usually out the other side of the wall from the boiler.

I was told that there should be a valve to release for the heat system to improve the pressure of the water upstairs, right? Where is this valve usually located? And how can I find it?

Many thanks.

There is a valve to increase the flow through the hot water cylinder heating coil, used for balancing the system in cinjunction with the radiator balancing valves.

And the safety valve I mentioned already, and an automatic air release valve often in the hot press or somewhere near the highest point of the system.

You would have to describe the nature of any problem you want to fix, in order to enable posters to give opinions on the possible remedy.

cloudz

Thanks leeomurchu for your answer.

> The valve you've been told about will be in the hotpress most likely but as I said it'll only be for releasing pressure on the heating system and it should do this automatically unless your system is badly air locked.

Sorry about my uncomprehension. In fact, the water pressure upstairs is OK for the taps but low for the shower. I believe such a valve to release the pressure on the heating system will do the trick as the meter is fairly low. The decorator guy told me to release the valve should make the shower OK too. However, he hunted high (in the attic) and low (under the kitchen) to find such a valve but failed to find it. He left this task to me to find it.

In addtion, I don't believe it works automatically in the house I live since the meter is quite low. Probably air locked just like what you said.

But the problem is that I am not able to pinpoint its location. :-(

Bruthal

cloudz wrote: »

Sorry about my uncomprehension. In fact, the water pressure upstairs is OK for the taps but low for the shower. (

What sort of shower is it?

cloudz

robbie7730 wrote: »

You would have to describe the nature of any problem you want to fix, in order to enable posters to give opinions on the possible remedy.

Thanks for your reply. The nature of the problem is that the shower is fairly slow. And I was trying to find the valve to improve this.

cloudz

robbie7730 wrote: »

What sort of shower is it?

hmmm.... it is a typical shower, not sure how to describe this, but for sure not a electric based shower. I guess it links to the water tank in the attic. (But I could be wrong).

I will take a photo and upload here later on.

leeomurchu

If it's an electric shower then there will be a valve at the side of the cold water storage tank in the attic but that will have nothing to do with the pressure.

if it's a gravity fed shower and the pressure is low then I'd say you'll need to have a pump installed on it. Changing the head of the shower might improve the pressure slightly.

If you hold the shower head down low and turn it on does the pressure improve if it does it's gravity fed and the pressure probably won't get much better without installing a pump.

there'll probably be someone along who might have a better answer for ya just make sure any valves you see are open. righty tighty lefty loosey

Bruthal

Yea it sounds like a gravity fed shower. They will not have good pressure when the tank water surface is only a meter and a half or so above the shower head.

Has it always been bad?

You will need a pumped shower to sort that. Either a pumped electric instant shower, or a mixer shower, or a pump fitted to your existing setup.

This forum will have good suggestions for that.

cloudz

robbie7730 wrote: »

Yea it sounds like a gravity fed shower. They will not have good pressure when the tank water surface is only a meter and a half or so above the shower head.

Has it always been bad?

You will need a pumped shower to sort that. Either a pumped electric instant shower, or a mixer shower, or a pump fitted to your existing setup.

This forum will have good suggestions for that.

Oh, yea. It has been bad since the day I moved in last week. I know that installing the pump will sort it out, but is there an alternative way?

I am still not sure about the valve of improving the flow the heating sytem. If I find that secret valve that my decorator man couldn't find and release the pressure of the heating system, will the meter on the gas boiler increase? And will that improve the gravity fed shower upstairs?

Thanks for your all helps, guys. I really appreciate all your comments.

leeomurchu

cloudz wrote: »

Oh, yea. It has been bad since the day I moved in last week. I know that installing the pump will sort it out, but is there an alternative way?

I am still not sure about the valve of improving the flow the heating sytem. If I find that secret valve that my decorator man couldn't find and release the pressure of the heating system, will the meter on the gas boiler increase? And will that improve the gravity fed shower upstairs?

Thanks for your all helps, guys. I really appreciate all your comments.

Afraid not that valve for the heating will do nothing for the pressure in your shower as the heating is a sealed loop that passes through the hot water cylinder heating the water. I'm not sure if there's such a valve for a combi boiler as I haven't any experience with those but a combi boiler will heat the water for a shower straight away so it might be possible.

Do you know what kind of gas boiler you have?

you can buy a pump shower and fit it to the wall it'd be cheaper than gettiing an inline pump installed I think they're around €300 for the pump alone.

Bruthal

cloudz wrote: »

Oh, yea. It has been bad since the day I moved in last week. I know that installing the pump will sort it out, but is there an alternative way?

I am still not sure about the valve of improving the flow the heating sytem. If I find that secret valve that my decorator man couldn't find and release the pressure of the heating system, will the meter on the gas boiler increase? And will that improve the gravity fed shower upstairs?

Thanks for your all helps, guys. I really appreciate all your comments.

No is the answer to that. The pressure gauge on the gas boiler is just to show the pressure of the water in the heating system. This water is sealed in the closed heating circuits of the heating system. This gauge just shows there is enough water in the system, no leaks etc.

It has no connection what so ever to the pressure in your taps, shower etc.

The shower pressure is likely bad because it is a gravity fed one, with very little water head above it (height difference between shower head and supply tank water surface).