Hot Water Woes

whitelightrider

Ok folks, I need some advice before I lose my mind!
Built a house almost 7 years ago and have UFH on ground floor and rads upstairs. Boiler is a Firebird C35 and is stored in the Garage, along with all our water system and the hot water cylinder (300 liter solar cylinder, with no panels). Listened to too many people when building the house and put the cylinder out in the garage, and also didnt plumb or put in an electric shower.

So here's whats been happening. The Hot Water and UFH come on at 6am to 7am, and 5pm to 6pm each morning. House is lovely and warm. However we have very little hot water. I mean maybe enough for 1 shower, and its not always hot, more warm. If we put on the rads upstairs for 20 mins before the little one goes to bed then the hot water is gone from the cylinder and there's no chance of a hot shower, as my wife found out tonight and it didnt go down well.

We've our own well and with the water in the garage everything is pumped. Plumber didnt leave provisions for an electric shower in the house - my fault - so Im stuck between a rock and a hard place if I dont have hot water.

Would this be a problem with the design or something Im doing, or the boiler? It was serviced about 6 months ago.

corkgsxr

Is there a gate valve on the pipes going to the coil in the cylinder?



You could fit a mains shower to the cold supply and blank the hot. You just need to get the wiring to it. Should be workable without alot of damage

whitelightrider

corkgsxr wrote: »

Is there a gate valve on the pipes going to the coil in the cylinder?



You could fit a mains shower to the cold supply and blank the hot. You just need to get the wiring to it. Should be workable without alot of damage

Ive no idea if there's a gate valve on the pipes. Is there a way for me to check this? Sorry, Im not a plumber

Only problem is that its a pumped system to the upstairs of the house. We've no tank in the attic at all.

corkgsxr

Take a picture of pipes coming off cylinder. Particularly half way down

corkgsxr

whitelightrider wrote: »

Ive no idea if there's a gate valve on the pipes. Is there a way for me to check this? Sorry, Im not a plumber

Only problem is that its a pumped system to the upstairs of the house. We've no tank in the attic at all.

It's boosted to 3 or 4 bar that's enough to nicely run a mains shower. You just need to blank off the hot supply to shower

whitelightrider

corkgsxr wrote: »

It's boosted to 3 or 4 bar that's enough to nicely run a mains shower. You just need to blank off the hot supply to shower

My wife would be delighted if we could do this. We have power already run to the shower in one of the rooms already. We just blanked it off and put in the pumped shower instead.
Ill upload those photos now of the pipes.

whitelightrider

Ok, here are 2 photos of the hot water setup in the garage:





Dont think the photos uploaded:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/71325704@N08/15963546668/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/71325704@N08/16149055061/

corkgsxr

whitelightrider wrote: »

Ok, here are 2 photos of the hot water setup in the garage:

[IMG/IMG]



Dont think the photos uploaded:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/71325704@N08/15963546668/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/71325704@N08/16149055061/

The pipes near the middle with the white box on the lower and elbow off the higher.

Follow those two back, where do they go? Any valves on them 2 pipes

whitelightrider

corkgsxr wrote: »

The pipes near the middle with the white box on the lower and elbow off the higher.

Follow those two back, where do they go? Any valves on them 2 pipes

The one on the lower with the white box is where the immersion is. The one higher up with the green box on it is the hot water into the house with the circulating pump on it, also going into the house.

corkgsxr

The two Iv highlighted

whitelightrider

corkgsxr wrote: »

The two Iv highlighted

Bottom one is attached to the immersion. Ill head out to those in the morning and find out where they are going and whats attached to them. From what I remember I dont think there's any valve attached.