Esse cooker problems

[melmoth]

We have recently had an Esse woodburning stove installed - the plumber  has told us that the  hot water pressure is very week (less that a bar) and we need to install a secondary pump. This is expensive for us - around £270. I can't understand why the presure is so low - presumably the syatem (now converted to English style gravity feed because Esse is English and use non-pressurised biolers) works in England - or does evryone have these secondary pumps?

Any advice or common experience would be most appreciated.

Brendan

[Anton Redman]

Typically in France you need to install pressure limiting valves to reduce the pressure to three bar.

Is your house very high compared to the surrounding area ? 

[jondeau]

I'm not familiar with Esse stoves as such.........however I'm totally perplexed by the idea that a solid fuel stove can have an effect on the hot water pressure .

Perhaps you could post the details of your hot water system ?

JD

[melmoth]

In France everything is run on mains pressure. esse

boilers are not pressurised so the house system has to be changed to attic-tank

gravity feed - as the pipes are smaller bore in France (some of them) this can

result in very low water pressure.

cheers

[La Guerriere]

If you have a cold-water tank in the attic your domestic water hot and cold (except the rising main) can only be at the pressure corresponding to the height of the water tank above the tap. The size of the pipe doesn't come into it. You are lucky to get anything near one bar as one bar is (approx) 10 metres of head height.

[BIG MAC]

why not use the stove to heat an unvented mains pressure cylinder? if you were that bothered you could still have a header tank rather than make up unit on the primary side but for the domestic hot I cant see what odds it makes to go unvented and get the loverrly mains pressure...........It shouldn't affect the heat source at all

[jondeau]

I would have though that the plumber would have realised that 12-16mm pipe would not have been suitable to run a gravity system, after all 22-28mm is available in France.

To fit a pump on the domestic side is problematic.........it would be simpler to fit a mains fed cylinder as BIG MAC suggests.

 

In answer to your other posting.......If the hot water from your boiler was not circulating through the cylinder the boiler in your  Esse cooker would quickly overheat........and you would certainly know about that!

Gravity circulation works well if the pipework is correctly fitted. A very simple test will tell you if it is circulating.......if the flow pipe feels very hot at the boiler but cold at the cylinder then there could well be a problem with circulation.

[BIG MAC]

My brain is struggling to contemplate fitting a pump on the primary......even on the return in an overheat situation you can imagine the heat of the water coming up the expansion and melting the header tank like a crisp bag. Gravity circulation is a must in my opinion, pipe configuration needs to support this.

[melmoth]

Much obliged to all - problems seem to have been due to my ignorance! However plumber did his job and the system is up and running well - a great relief.

cheers

Brendan