Shower with mains cold supply All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[boredcol]

Hi

I want to install a shower.
The cold supply is mains.
The hot is from tank in airing cupboard.

Can this be done ?
I believe the Venturi shower can do this but its not cheap.
Can I use any type of power shower pump arrangement.

Thanks
Colin

[bobtb007]

Hi Bordecol

Man you have askd the one question that needs so much more info first.

OK, do you want
1/ mains fed electric instantaneous shower?
2/ gravity fed, pump boosted shower?

Item one needs RCD protected electric mains
item two needs new feed from hot water tank via surrey or ******* flange connection and checks as to the available capacity of cold water storage (if not enough then new tank needed) and new cold feed from cold water storage tank

there are some other alternatives but we will need to start somewhere

Regards

Russ

[boredcol]

hi russ
thanks for reply , I'll try and narrow it down.
There is a cold mains supply feed in the room i want the shower.
There is also a gravity hot water feed from the tank in airing cupboard.
There is no way of getting any other pipework in that room
without destroying half the house.
A possibilty is a electric shower but it is a very very long run
of cable and trunking required so would much prefer to
utilise the existing hot water. Hope that explains it a little better.
Colin

[bobtb007]

The problem you will have will be the difference between the static head available for hot water (what is the vertical distance from the highest point of the shower to the underside of the cold water storage tank?)

If its less that 0.5m you will be struggling to get any good flow out of the shower without pumping the hot water.

It would be unadvisable to fit a pump to the hot water pump and have mains pressure cold water both serving a shower.

So, without seeing the project I cannot suggest a way forward to you. Having said that, believe it or not, there are always ways of serving a shower valve with pipeworl and it wouldn't mean demolishing half the house!, you would be surprised with how and where a decent plumber can get to things!

Are there options of running surface mounted pipes for instance, or using the loft space etc.

Im sorry I cant be more help than this but maybe a floor plan and some pictures may shed some light

Russ

[plumbbob]

hi russ
thanks for reply , I'll try and narrow it down.
There is a cold mains supply feed in the room i want the shower.
There is also a gravity hot water feed from the tank in airing cupboard.
There is no way of getting any other pipework in that room
without destroying half the house.
A possibilty is a electric shower but it is a very very long run
of cable and trunking required so would much prefer to
utilise the existing hot water. Hope that explains it a little better.
Colin

The model of shower you mention is probably the only type on the market that will work safely with unbalanced feed pressures and even this will need a dedicated feed directly from the hot water cylinder. You cannot use the supply already in the bathroom!

Questions.
Where is the airing cupboard?
Where is the header tank?

[boredcol]

Hi guys
thanks for your replies but I think the easiest option is going to be fit an electric shower. Thanks for your input.
Cheers