Please help me understand my airing cupboard!

[klaise]

Good afternoon all

Would anyone be able to help a novice (me!) identify what all the plumbing in my airing cupboard is doing?!

I have a fair idea and have edited the photos below to try and help me understand.


A - Cold water feed to the water tank in the loft - 15mm
B - Vent for hot water - 22mm
C - Vent for heating - 22mm
D - Cold water feed to the central heating tank in the loft - 15mm
E - Help? Direction and purpose?
F - Help? Direction and purpose?
G - Help? Direction and purpose?
H - Help? Direction and purpose?



On the left hand side (out of shot) there is the 22mm pipe coming from the bottom of the hot water tank in the loft. This disappears behind this tank in the cupboard, where does this go?

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[AMW]

E - cylinder flow
F - heating flow
G - boiler flow
H - cylinder return

 

[AMW]

And the 22mm pipe would more than likely be a cold to your bathroom.

 

[snowhead]

Amendment to "D"

D - Cold water feed FROM the central heating tank in the loft FOR THE HEATING- 15mm

Also
"On the left hand side (out of shot) there is the 22mm pipe coming from the bottom of the hot water tank in the loft. This disappears behind this tank in the cupboard, where does this go?"

Cold feed to Hot Water cylinder, may have a gate valve on it in the cupboard to isolate Hot water.

 

[klaise]

Thanks to you both.
Snowhead: Yes my mistake, thanks.
AWD: Would you mind explaining directional flow?

Many thanks

 

[JCSPLUMBING]

E is coming from the boiler through the pump and 3 port valve into the cylinder coil.
F is going into the heating circuit (radiators)
G is the flow from the boiler going to the cylinder coil
H is returning back to the boiler to be reheated

 

[AMW]

And the 22mm pipe would more than likely be a cold to your bathroom.

Forget this post , as snowhead said it would be feed to cylinder was having a moment and forgetting it's handy to be able to fill a cylinder lol

 

[klaise]

Ah ok. So..

...the boiler heats the water and it travels through G, through the pump and diverted to the right through F for central heating. If there is too much heated water it is vented through C into a separate expansion in the loft.

...the boiler heats the water and it travels through G, through the pump and diverted to the left through E and into the tank which houses a cylinder coil. This coil heats the water in the tank and returns out of H to the boiler to recycle. The water in the tank is fed from the loft expansion tank, this is heated by the coil and is the draw through the top of the tank, through E and down into the bathroom.

This is the pipework coming into the bathroom under the bath.
There is 2 large pipe that just go along the width of the room and down, these must be to and from the boiler - G or H.
F leads to a radiator and through the rest of the circuit
E is the hot water tap and the cold mains.

 

[JCSPLUMBING]

Right here we go...
Hot water from the boiler flows through (G). Before it goes through the pump it is met by the heating open vent (c) and the cold feed to the heating system (d). It then travels through the pump and the 3 port valve. Depending on whats required by the cylinder thermostat or the customer heating controls it will either divert to the cylinder coil to heat the hot water stored (e) or to the heating (f). It can also do both if required. Then returns to the boiler to be reheated also picking up the return from the heating circuit (h). The hot water cylinder is fed by the large storage cistern in your loft through the pipe at the back. It is then heated by convection by the coil inside and comes out the top of the cylinder (b) the same pipe also goes into the loft space to the open vent over the large cold water storage cistern.

 

[joni os]

Congratulations to all responders. nice to see people being helpful, without taking the P or telling OP to call a plumber.

 

[snowhead]

Congratulations to all responders. nice to see people being helpful, without taking the P or telling OP to call a plumber.

It was a good Original Post.

Asking for help, declaring little knowledge of the subject.
Providing clear pictures
Asking for specific information.

Not the usual,, I've got no hot water, what's wrong.
Followed by sporadic bits of unhelpful information, despite pleas for pictures, till eventually the true story comes out.

 

[Masood]

Congratulations to all responders. nice to see people being helpful, without taking the P or telling OP to call a plumber.

It happens more often than you imply! As snowhead said, asking the right question and posting photos helps a lot!

 

[AMW]

It's what a forum is all about, you explain your issue fully and you will get the help and hopefully the answer you require.

 

[klaise]

Ha! Not the follow on responses I was expecting!
Couldn't have asked for more help really (well, unless you can give advice about fitting a digital shower with my set up!!!! :cyclist: :49

Thanks for all the help, very appreciated - I have learned a thing or two!

Klaise

 

[Dotty]

As the guys have said, sometimes we're expected to have a crystal ball to try and answer an original post. And more often than not we can gauge very quickly that an op might be about to get out of their depth, hence the advice to get someone in.

Plus there's legislative reasons which will give insurance companies acres of wriggle room.

This op was particularly concise and honest.

Thank you Klaise.