Combi Boiler Installation - Water Orton, Birmingham

Mr D had a 4 bedroom property, each room had their own shower room, which was fed from the boiler. The current set up meant that all 4 showers could be used at the same time but Mr D had 2 very large cold water tanks in his loft spa but the pressure was extremely poor. 

Mr D also had very poor cold water mains pressure entering the property, even if Mr D upgraded his cold water mains pipe size and had a pressurised hot water cylinder, we still couldn’t guarantee that the system would perform the way needed it to.

Mr D planned to rent his property out to people on a short term basis but Mr D lived 40 minutes away from the property so he wanted the ability to control the heating system remotely and he wanted the system to be as efficient as possible.

We had to be quite creative in our approach to ensure this particular boiler installation performed. Due to the lack of space we needed to use a combi boiler, which typically wouldn’t be installed in a property with 4 showers.

The combi boiler we chose to install on this one is a hybrid type combi boiler, in that it runs as a combi boiler when one or 2 showers are being used but it has a 46 litre, pressurised, hot water cylinder attached to the boiler to boost the hot water when required.

This meant Mr D could enjoy the benefits of having a combi boiler and at the same time we could enjoy the benefits of a pressurised hot water cylinder system in case it was needed.

What that means is Mr D is guaranteed a constant flow of water that will never run out so long as the the amount of hot water being used was 14 litres per minute or less. A shower will typically use around 5/6 litres per minute of hot water. If more water was required then the pressurised tank would start supplementing the hot water supply with additional water enabling multiple people to use hot water outlets at the same time.

In order for this to work properly Mr D needed to increase the amount of cold water he had available. He was planning on having Severn Trent Water dig up the path and route a larger pipe into his house. This isn’t always a guaranteed way to get better water flow/pressure, so we advised Mr D to install a cold water mains booster instead. This was guaranteed to provide Mr D with sufficient cold water supply and pressure at a fraction of the cost.

This particular cold water booster is designed to fit inside a kitchen cupboard, which helped with the lack of space issue that we had. The way that this works is, a pump pressurises a small tank to a high pressure when no one is using the water. When someone opens an outlet that’s connected to the booster, the pressurised tank will push water out, as soon as the pump recognises the drop in pressure it will kick in to try and maintain the pressure within the tank.

This meant there is enough cold water supply and pressure to allow all 4 showers to be used at the same time for at least 10 minutes. Which we decided would be a very unlikely insinuation in this particular property.

We installed new pipework for the hot and cold water system and designed it in such a way to help even out the water flow to every shower by making use of a manifold type pipe layout. Without installing the pipework in this way we could have been left in a situation where showers closer to the boiler would steal more of the water before it would get to the other showers. With a manifold system the hot and cold water suppler is more better shared between more outlets.

Another benefit of combi boilers is that you’re able to install very clever thermostats. The thermostat we installed for Mr D was controllable from this phone but what made it extra clever was that it automatically adjusted the temperature of the radiators depending on how much heat was actually needed. This means that on a more mild day the radiators will run cooler than what they would on a more chilly day resulting in higher efficiencies and more comfort within the building.

"I found HydroHeat Boiler Installations through a contact of Facebook, they said for the system I needed, they’d be the company to take care of it for me. It was really important to me that I had a specialist company who could guarantee performance as I was planning on renovating the house to a high spec and I didn’t want any comebacks further down the line.

The first person I met was Ben, straight away I knew HydroHeat were the company I was going to be working with, Ben provided me with solutions that no one else mentioned. Everyone said I needed a big hot water tank in and needed to bring in a new cold water supply from the road, this would have meant losing out on space which I had intended for other purposes. Ben’s solution gave me that space back which I was very pleased with.

Another thing that I didn’t realise was that upgrading the cold water suppler didn’t guarantee that my system would perform, which no one else mentioned. The area is known for poor water pressure which is what I needed.

HydroHeat installed the whole system to a very high standard, they took care to make sure everything was doing right. They were very organised, you could tell they knew exactly what they were doing.

I felt as though I could trust them to just get everything done without me watching over them, a member of the team checked in with me to let me know how they were getting on as and when they needed to.

The thermostat they installed for me is excellent, it’s so useful being able to control the heating from my phone when the house is empty and then turn it back on again before a guest arrives, saves me so much time and hassle. The heating system and showers run perfectly, I often get feedback about how good the showers are which is brilliant.

I can’t recommend HydroHeat enough, they took a lot of stress away from this part of the refurbishment and did an amazing job.

Thank you HydroHeat."