What would you do?

[RajK]

Hi

I have a terraced house with capacity of 5 to 6 students. The boiler ( a combi) has broken down and I need to replace. What do you other landlords do? Do you go with a combi and then electric showers or do you go for a system boiler with unvented heated cylinder. I want to get this right but all plumbers just automatically assume I want a combi. There is no way a combi can provide adequate flow to two showers at the same time?

Cheers
Raj

[Interlaken]

Will they all be using the showers at the same time?

A lot of this depends on how much you want to spend. In a house with 5 bathrooms I have used a combi to power kitchen and 2 shower bathrooms and the other 3 are supplied by a Heatrae Sadia megaflow 120 Litre- that is a stainless pressurised tank which is heated via same combi or can be dual fuel (electric) to give high flow of hot water.

[RajK]

I am assuming with six people and all trying to get out of the house at the same time on occasion there would be a need to use 2 showers. I only have one double width airing cupboard upstairs for all the equipment. I was also thinking of a system store boiler ie. with a tank built in to the chasis (at the bottom)

[Interlaken]

What about the roof space - could that be utilised - it would naturally increase the water pressure? The type of vessel you are describing might not hold enough water for the needs of the house - I would start with working out needed tank size first.

Also get your plumber to make the supply to the showers in 22 or 25 mm pipe to get a good flow rate

[the-smiths]

a large combi will give enough flow rate to run 2 showers - just don't skimp on it

[JK0]

I wonder if the house's water supply is adequate for two combi driven showers. Mine certainly isn't.

My HMO has a conventional boiler with an extra large 40 gallon hot water tank. Both thermostatic showers are driven by gravity from a 100 gallon cold water tank in the loft, the base of which is about 6 feet above the shower heads. This has worked well for the last fourteen years.

[Interlaken]

Good point JKO. I notice that water pressure does seem to be reduced in some areas these days.

Maybe RajK could think about installing a pump - slightly noisy but efficient.