Why do I have water tanks in my attic? How does my immersion heater work and feed into the system? Is it true that the cold water from downstairs comes from the mains, and is therefore clean, while cold water from upstairs taps comes from the tank in the attic and probably has bits of pigeon or bat in it?
Thanks very much!
In: Engineering
There are various ways it could have been configured in the past, and how it could have been adapted over the years. Most likely if you have a cold water tank in the attic it will be empty and no longer part of the system. A hot water tank is more likely to still exist, and may or may not have been replaced at some point.
Basically your hot water system has two parts that don’t touch: clean water in the tank which comes out of the tap, and horrible water that circulates in a closed loop through the boiler, radiators, and a coil in the hot water tank where it heats the hot water you see. So the hot water tank has a cold supply in the bottom to provide pressure/keep the tank full, a coil to provide heat from the boiler, an electric immersion heater element near the top to add extra heat/as a backup (optional), and a pipe coming out of the top and going to your taps, shower etc.
There are valves which divert the closed loop water from the boiler to the tank and/or radiators depending on demand. The exact setups of these vary.
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