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stevejw
Hi everyone, newbie and complete novice here so hoping for advice to help stop us making a costly error!
I'm in the process of buying a new build house and the builder has informed us of a change of specification, away from an unvented (I think that's what it's called; pressurised cylinder in the airing cupboard) system to combination. The house is 4 bedroom with 2 en-suites (showers only) and a bath in the bathroom that we want a shower installed over.
The builders have told us they are installing a Valliant ecotec plus boiler (I'm unsure of output so have asked them to confirm which), with a thermo shower in the en-suite to bedroom 1 only and electric showers to the second en-suite and as the option for over the bath.
I'm hoping for some advice:
Is this going to provide acceptable performance for a house of this size?
Will the performance be notably poorer than a vented system?
Could they plumb for both combi and vented so I can get it changed later if I wanted (the thought of going back to 1st fix to install a different system fills me with dread!)?
Is it true that a combi provides either heating or hot water concurrently, but not both? Is that the same with a vented system?
Could we get one of the showers (say in the main bathroom) changed to a thermostatic and use both thermo showers concurrently?
I'm not that against having the white plastic box on the wall in the second en-suite as it's a useful backup in case of any heating issues, but am less keen in the main bathroom and am concerned about concurrent usage from any of the outlets (kitchen tap or whatever) in a house of that size with a combi.
Sorry for so many questions, but having had this dropped on us I'm concerned they're just cutting corners and cost-saving and as a result will leave us with a system that provides very poor performance; am hoping the experts out there can either confirm or ease my fears
Thanks!
Steve
I'm in the process of buying a new build house and the builder has informed us of a change of specification, away from an unvented (I think that's what it's called; pressurised cylinder in the airing cupboard) system to combination. The house is 4 bedroom with 2 en-suites (showers only) and a bath in the bathroom that we want a shower installed over.
The builders have told us they are installing a Valliant ecotec plus boiler (I'm unsure of output so have asked them to confirm which), with a thermo shower in the en-suite to bedroom 1 only and electric showers to the second en-suite and as the option for over the bath.
I'm hoping for some advice:
Is this going to provide acceptable performance for a house of this size?
Will the performance be notably poorer than a vented system?
Could they plumb for both combi and vented so I can get it changed later if I wanted (the thought of going back to 1st fix to install a different system fills me with dread!)?
Is it true that a combi provides either heating or hot water concurrently, but not both? Is that the same with a vented system?
Could we get one of the showers (say in the main bathroom) changed to a thermostatic and use both thermo showers concurrently?
I'm not that against having the white plastic box on the wall in the second en-suite as it's a useful backup in case of any heating issues, but am less keen in the main bathroom and am concerned about concurrent usage from any of the outlets (kitchen tap or whatever) in a house of that size with a combi.
Sorry for so many questions, but having had this dropped on us I'm concerned they're just cutting corners and cost-saving and as a result will leave us with a system that provides very poor performance; am hoping the experts out there can either confirm or ease my fears
Thanks!
Steve
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