Centarl heating is now on but less hot water for Baths & Shower

[Langers]

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum and I'm after a bit of advice even if the below does sound like a silly question.

I have conventional boiler system,hot water tank in airing cupboard and cold tanks in loft etc (Glow Worm boiler which is about 13 years old) and i've recently had to put the CH on.Now when i run a bath or a shower their isn't the same amount of hot water that i had when the CH was off. I usually start to heat the hot water up at 4pm for 2 - 2.5 hours via a timer and when the family arrive home the heating goes on at about 5pm. Once the kids have had a bath (6.30), the hot water for a shower is tepid (8pm), whereby in the summer (central heating off) there is plenty of hot water for baths and showers.

Could it be boiler capacity? (not too sure of how powerful it is) Or something else. The central heating comes on fine and the house is nice and warm but its the amount of hot water for baths & shwoers is the concern.

Any questions or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Langers

 

[jtsplumbing]

Do you have a fully pumped system ? or gravity system ?

 

[Langers]

Hello, thanks for the reply - I have a Gravity system (Tanks in Loft) but a pump attached for the bath and shower (next to hot water tank)

 

[jtsplumbing]

Gravity hot water will be slow when heating is on, pump pulling heated water away from tank, better to keep hot water on permanent now you are using heating, or get system converted to fully pumped, have you just moved into this house ?

 

[Langers]

Yes, recently moved in. Even though the hot water tank is on same level as bathroom (2nd floor, not in loft) will this make a difference?

If i keep hot water on permanently, won't that send my gas bill through the roof?

Thanks again for the reply.

Langers

 

[stevetheplumber]

cylinder position doesnt matter the pressure of your water is dependent on the height of the feed tank you may find you need to run the boiler at a higher temperature in winter and with gravity it will need to be on longer best to get the water on for 1 hour before the heating kicks in just realise tank is level with bathroom so low pressure and no standing showers
assuming its a one bathroom house the obvious upgrade would be a combination boiler

 

[Sparkgap]

Boiler temperature should be about 80C. I expect when the heating pump is running it's reducing flow through the cylinder but in most of those old systems they usually had an injector tee on the return so the pump would draw water through the cylinder and improve the warmup time. Perhaps it's been taken out or changed.
Best bet is to convert to fully pumped system.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Where is boiler ? on floor or wall, you can bet as its a gravity system boiler is more than 13 years old, most cost effective method to up-grade your system & speed up hot water heat up times is to get it converted to fully pumped, will need some alterations to pipe work and some new controls, depending on access to pipe work 1 or 2 days should do it, being has you have just moved in, money may not be there for full boiler/system upgrade, but converting to fully pumped will make system more efficient.