External Immersion Heater.

[rtcosic]

No2 son's house has a dreadful Heat Store.
It's a Gledhill BM225 and his wasn't fitted with an optional boss for an immersion heater.

Would retrofitting one of these be viable?

Where would it go - the cold water inlet and a strapon thermostat? Or is an additional dedicated circulating pump required?

When he had the solar PV installed he had a solar diverter fitted for such a future upgrade, so appropriate wiring isn't the
issue. It's more about the plumbing really. A couple of local plumbers who have seen it for other reasons both went

urgh, not touching, only replacing

Photographs of the monster showing the missing boss and the dataplates below:

 

[minimutly]

What's your thoughts, a second "tank" and pump, to get through flow when the heater is "on"?
Never seen such a thing in use, but see no reason it wouldn't work.

 

[rtcosic]

What's your thoughts, a second "tank" and pump, to get through flow when the heater is "on"?
Never seen such a thing in use, but see no reason it wouldn't work.

I don't know! I'm seeking suggestion and advice.

It would need to be cheap as an interim solution for a few years until the lot gets ripped out and replaced by a heat pump - when the hysteria dies down and the costs reduce.

Connect it in 'parallel' with the boiler and trigger it and the existing separate DHW circulating pump?Add a strapon thermostat?

 

[gaz1]

no dont fit an immersion heater as a seperate part your wasting your time the same with drilling a hole and fitting an emmersion heater as all the tanks are protected

either buy another tank and replace the tank with an emmersion heater to be used or not

or buy another tank that has them and connect them both up to run as one unit

the cheaper soloution is central heating with direct central heating pipes for it being the cheaper option unless solar is used

 

[minimutly]

I don't know! I'm seeking suggestion and advice.

It would need to be cheap as an interim solution for a few years until the lot gets ripped out and replaced by a heat pump - when the hysteria dies down and the costs reduce.

Connect it in 'parallel' with the boiler and trigger it and the existing separate DHW circulating pump?Add a strapon thermostat?

Yes maybe.
I don't have a separate strap on thermostat, there is one built in with the immersion, if the sun shines the water heats up until it gets to temp. You would need to decide how to control the pump, and maybe even fit a valve, the last thing you want is your dhw short circuiting the main tank through your mini tank.
Does the immersion controller turn down to a dribble, ie thyristor controlled? Problem there I think unless the controller has an auxiliary output to switch the pump - mine displays heating on/off, but I don't know if it can switch a pump or valve.

 

[rtcosic]

Mmm. Sounds like it's getting too complicated and 'experimental' for a quick fix interim solution. I'm backing out of this.
Thanks for the input.

 

[addjunkie]

What's your thoughts, a second "tank" and pump, to get through flow when the heater is "on"?
Never seen such a thing in use, but see no reason it wouldn't work.

I had a plate exchanger to get the heat from a back boiler log burner into mine. Pumped. Never seemed all that efficient. An extra circ tank would work, but for cost and complexity would it be worthwhile. Is there spare tank connection points.

Usually fitting new is the easy, cheapest fix it solution.

 

[gaz1]

you would do the same with extra tank thats fitted but you would have to pump both the coil and also the hot feed into the main tank when its hot enough

the alternative is just buy a new tank instead if you want a multifeed system into your cylinder tank