Chinese puzzle, one for the plumbers
A bit of back ground. Apparently this other "hot water" is used when the central heating water, has been heated to such a high temperature by the log burner, instead of it going back to the log burner it is used to heat water in a storage tank and this newly heated water is fed into the central heating when the log burner cools.
Normally a hot water tank has a coil in it for the heated water to go around and in turn heat the water stored in the tank. You then have a feed to the tank and a feed from the tank. This requires 4 pipes, feed to, feed from and 2 for the coil. Here is the Chinese puzzle. This tank only has 3 pipes. Possibilities:- 1. I have had a mans look (not looked properly) and the 4th pipe is there. 2. There is no 4th pipe and we have been lied to. 3. Other, what ever that is. I have emailed the manufacturer asking for a diagram to tell me what each point that seems to be for a pipe connection is for and to ask if 4 pipes is the minimum that should be connected. In the mean time, I'm open to suggestions. macafee2 |
Generally on an indirect cylinder you will as you say have a coil where the inlet and outlet are in line above and below each other. Then you will have an inlet into the cylinder usually low level at the back of the cylinder. The hot water outlet of the cylinder is at the very top of it, again usually with an open vented cylinder combined with a vent to the header tank ;)
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macafee2 |
If the water is coming out of the hot taps then it must be going in to the cylinder. :) they are usually the opposite side of the heating coil, low down near the bottom :) Have fun Ian
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It is a complicated, poorly installed and poorly designed system. We intend to remove the tank that has 3 pipes to it, even if a 4th is found we will remove the tank, pump and motorised valves. I will post an update once the manufacturer responds. Oh buyer beware! macafee2 |
Ah, you may find it is not an indirect cylinder then. the purpose of the indirect cylinder is to pass the heat from the central heating water to the domestic hot water without contaminating it.
It could well be that it is a direct cylinder that doesn't actually have a coil fitted in it just two connections to allow the water to circulate. sounds a real Heath Robinson affair. |
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How on earth can someone forget to connect a feed? macafee2 |
Are you sure that the 3 pipes on the tank aren't in, out and vent? And that it's actually an expansion tank for the closed circuit heating system to heat the hot water in the 'normal' hot water tank? Not sure how that would be cross connected with the gas ch closed circuit but I guess it's possible with temp sensors and servo operated valves. But importantly, if I'm right, it's there for a very good reason. That reason could be to prevent terminal pressure build up (prevent a steam explosion). The log burner cannot be simply turned off when the hot water system is at max temp like the gas boiler can. In the old days of back boilers with open fires the heat from the fire could be directed to effectively control how much heating went into the system. This isn't going to be likely with a coil from a log burner.
I'd definately suggest consulting an expert on log burner integrations with c.h systems before even thinking of removing the large tank. You need to be absolutely clear of it's purpose before you can judge if it's necessary or not. |
Where
Where is the feed from the log burner to the tank? is it around the flue or fed through the fire? How is the tank venting off the pressure? Heating water through a log burner leads to uncontrolled temps unless there's some kind of thermostatic shut off. A gas boiler has many controls to stop overheated water but you might not have these kind of controls in that system. Like Dave says, it sounds a bit dodgy in how it's fitted.
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Avulon, does any of the above make sense? You have had a very good thought, thank you for piping up, any more thoughts? macafee2 |
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