Fitting Unvented Cylinder with Rayburn style Range.

[NGT]

Hi,

I have a SORN range (like a Rayburn) which is used to heat our water andCentral heating system. I'm not a plumber but I'm aware this isa vented system! There's a 175 litre copper boiler in an upstairs cupboardand a large and small water tank in the attic. The hot water in the house isrun by a 1.5 bar Salamander pump as well as the cold water in 2 of thebathrooms for taps and showers. The cold in the rest of the house is run offmains pressure which is over 3 bar. With the pump off the hot water justtrickles out of the shower heads as I assume it’s due to them being only about1ft below the tanks in the attic.


The pump haspacked up so my plan was to get a plumber in to install an unvented 250 litreCylinder, remove the pump completely and use the mains pressure which is twiceas much. The cylinder was ordered but when the plumber turned up he could notfit it as the existing tank didn’t have themo to turn off the Range. As we usethe range for cooking and heating etc we don’t want it keep turning off oncethe new water cylinder reaches the relevant temp!


Does anyoneknow if this type of system could be fitted? We discussed some options..

1. Keep existing copper tank solely for Range andadd the unvented cylinder for the hot water heated by electric .. Unfortunately this is too big tofit through the hatch in the attic.
   
   
2. Get a smaller copper tank and fit both tanks inthe same cupboard. This may cause 2issues.. the tank may be too small and heat up too quickly and therefore keepblowing into water tanks in attic.. lifting tank may also then not give the1.5m required for the return to tanks.
   
3. Lift the water tanks in the attic but these could onlygo up about 2.5ft. may not be worth the effort for what we’d gain.
   

I understand that radiators can be used for head loss off arange but don’t know any more than that.


thanks in advance!

Nigel.

 

[Pipes Plumbing]

It can be done, but only if it is done correctly. If done wrong you will have a VERY dangerous situation on your hands.

You'll be best of looking for a decent HETAS engineer with the H004 tickets, a G3 qualification and plenty of experience in doing this sort of thing. Please do not try and do this yourself, it literally can be fatal.

If you put a post in the looking for a plumber section giving your location and what you are looking to achieve, one of the members from here may be able to help you.

Good luck

 

[Millsy 82]

Is it a solid fuel range?

 

[NGT]

Thanks very much for this.. I'll start looking around.

 

[NGT]

It's oil. it's got 2 dials which operate the heating and oven but you always use a combination of both to get the right temp for the oven.

 

[Pipes Plumbing]

That makes it a million times easier... If it's the pressure jet burner driven one I think it is, then it is exactly the same as having an unvented cylinder fitted to a normal boiler.
So long as the person designing and fitting it knows what they are doing and holds the G3 tickets, you shouldn't go far wrong.