2 hot water tanks?

[crossy67]

Hello all.

This is my 1st post and hopefully the 1st of lots, not just question, I intend to help as much as possible if I have any info of use (unlikely but you never know).  Firstly I would like to thank Opal Fruit for his stunningly informative post about French plumbing, it answered so many of my questions I will certainly be buying you a drink if we ever meet.  Top man. 

Secondly thanks to every one else for the forum, it's very informative, only problem is I am finding some answers to some questions but finding more questions I didn't know I had lol.  I have spent 3 days reading and only scratched the surface.

We are in the process of purchasing a 3 story town house in Aubeterre with the intention of renting rooms out for B&B to provide a small income to subsidise a lot of other small incomes.  Hopefully we will be moving there early next year and initially want to install 2 en suites on the two bedrooms on the top floor.  We already have what looks like a large chauffe-ballon on the ground floor, I have not had much of a look at it as I am still under the iron sky that omnipresent over North Wales/Cheshire, but it looks big. 

I have been toying with how we would be able to get water to the 3rd floor but after reading Mr Fruit's post it would seem to me that as hot water is at mains pressure it should be able to make it's own way up there (in pipes obviously) making the plumbing a lot easier.  The plan is to create the two rental rooms using the existing hot water system and then if we want to create more rooms to rent possibly install another tank. 

Now this is the bit I need clarification on.  Would a 200ltr tank be ok to run what may be 4-5 showers a day?  If I were to install a second tank I would plan on having it on a separate switch so we would only use it when we had a house full.  Would it be a good idea to have the 2nd tank in series with the 1st tank so it could be used to fill the main tank with cold water when not turned on and doubling the volume of hot water when needed by feeding it's hot contents into the tank that normally supplies water?  This way I could use mostly the same plumbing and just insert another tank in the supply to the original one.  Obviously it would need wiring in properly.  Hope this makes sense.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on my brain wave.

Ian

[Rob Roy]

I don't quite understand what you plan in your last paragraph re feeding one tank from the other, but I'm sure someone else will and be able to advise. I was just going to tell you that we had a 4 bedroom chambre d'hote and my husband put one 200 ltr immersion in the cellar to feed the kitchen and one downstairs en-suite bedroom, then another 200 ltr in the attic to feed the three upstairs bedrooms - two with showers and one with bath and separate shower. We never had a problem with running out of hot water, even when all the rooms were full. It might sound a bit of an overkill, but this meant that in the winter we could shut down all the upstairs of the house and just use the downstairs for ourselves.

[crossy67]

Great, that's one question answered, thanks :-)  How did you get on with the Chambre d'hote, was it hard work and did you get many bookings?

My thought was to have one tank feeding into the other in series.  When you don't want much hot water the second one in the circuit is heated and the hot water is displaced by the cold water in the first one when demanded by an open tap.  But when you need lots more the first one is heated too so you will be filling the second tank with hot water.  Basically doubling the volume of available hot water at the flick of a switch.

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Your second tank could be a solar heated one, maybe.

[crossy67]

Have you seen the price of them?  I saw one on a ling to a company from here.  In the region of e2-2.5k, bugger me, I know they will save money and are eco friendly but I only need one for a month or two a year.  But do you understand the concept of two ranks?

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Maybe I'm a tad too sensitive crossy67 - but your reply leaves me disinclined to comment any further.

[Babbles]

for our chambre D'Hote we were told to calculate 100ltr per bathroom ( we actually only have walk in showers ) but no complaints about running out of hot water, we do heat it fairly hot and bought an A rated ballon that heats up the water quickly, so currently for the suites have 1 x 300 ltr tank which is on the ground floor an has no problem reaching the second floor without a pump, even though when the plumber told me it would be OK I didn't believe him but he was right!

[crossy67]

[quote user="Nearly Retired"]Maybe I'm a tad too sensitive crossy67 - but your reply leaves me disinclined to comment any further.[/quote]

Whoops, sorry if I offended your sensitivities, wasn't intended.  I was meerly pointing out that e2.5k for very occasional use was a tad expensive.  The other bit about the dual bolers wasn't meant as a skit, I was asking do you understand my poor attempt at describing in words what I see in my mind without the aid of a diagram.

Honestly, no offence intended.

Thanks for all the posts so far just need to check if I can feed the output of the back up ballon into the main ballon and use the existing plumbing to distribute it round the house.

[Nick Trollope]

TBH, whilst I understand what you are trying to achieve, I do have to ask why you think you appraoch would be better than the long-established method of doing it?

All you need to do is install a 300L ballon in the centre of the house (if possible, but anywhere will do). You will have plenty of hot water, at minimum cost.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

 

[crossy67]

yes, thinking about it just getting a second tank put in the loft would be a good solution.  I had the idea of another tank in series whilst asleep, it was one of those moments when you wake thinking "eureka" lol.

[Devon]

I have allowed for 2 hotwater tanks to be fitted. I have a 150lt tank for when there are up to 6 people at the house and a 300lt tank which will be used when there are from 6 to 12 people at the house. It wasn't a problem for the plumber and the sparks ran a seperate supply to each boiler. Two tanks require a lot of space and support obviously. I have a picture of the set up I could email you.

[crossy67]

Yeh, that would be great if you could please Devon.  Much appreciated. 

The tank is on a concrete plinth in a room with the heating oil tank so I am happy about the weight.