Arrgh combi, conventional, water heater on 1 bar single mains over two flats...phew

[ripsoco]

Hi,

I recently bought a house which is split into two self contained flats.

The first floor flat has a hot water heating system and a separate boiler for heating. Ive been told this system is very old and probably wont cope with increased modern day demands on water requirements from showers and baths.

The ground floor flat has a combi and there is one mains pipe providing 1 bar of pressure across both flats :-( .

The first floor is being renovated for me to live in and id like to replace the boiler system that will accommodate a decent shower and fill up a bath (1800*800) in a reasonable time (not 30 minutes).

Is one bar enough to get decent flow rate from a shower?

My worry about putting a combi on the first floor is that if the shower on the ground floor flat is used then neither shower will get decent water flow, especially if they share the same mains into the house?

A bathroom designer/ fitter suggested that combi can run off 0.5 bar and still produce a decent shower and another bathroom sales person suggested that the worcester bosch combi can increase flow rate!

Has anyone fitting boilers found these statements to be true?

Am i better off with an unvented system in this scenario and if so will the 1 bar be enough pressure to split between an unvented system and combi and produce good flow rate?

How many stop cocks are there so i can check they are all open allowing maximum pressure from the thames water mains pipe?

Im guessing the best solution is to have thames water add another mains pipe so each flat has its own supply but this sounds like its a very expensive job.

Please let me know if you have any good ideas around this, im really stuck and dont know how to progress.

Thanks

 

[Puddle]

Re: Arrgh combi, conventional, water heater on 1 bar single mains over two flats...ph

You know what is needed as you say

''Im guessing the best solution is to have Thames water add another mains pipe so each flat has its own supply but this sounds like its a very expensive job.''

If you are going to the expense of doing the properties up and plan to live in the top one, doing the above imakes just plain sense, get Thames water in to do a survey and quote

For the benefits you will get the expense will be well worth it, things in life come at a cost and it will be money well spent

Would add pressure and flow rates are two different things

imho