Hotpoint Indesit Creda Tumble Dryer Fire Hazard

Naah, usually only the Water Company uses the "outside" stop valve, which is normally off your property, but on the pavement outside near your house. The important thing to remember that it does control and switch off your, and possibly other neighbours, water supply. The second stop valve in your house just control all water to your tank, taps etc.

 

Not in the Loft where it stores and supplies the water to your heater and taps??

 

Sorry, but I am. Do yourself a favour - cancel the order. Failing that, burn the bleedin' thing as soon as it is delivered, it will save it burning you in the future.

 

So you're using a



How to identify your hot water system
When you are considering installing, upgrading or revamping a shower room or bathroom it is important you understand what type of water system you have and what equipment you may use (or need to use) as a consequence.

Over the years as the technology behind heating and storing water has developed so have the various components and ancillary controls required to allow the system work correctly.

To be able to select the correct type of product for your installation it is essential you understand the type of water system to which you intend to connect.

In the UK there are two basic methods of supplying water to outlets in the average household scenario (these examples assume the property is supplied from a water main rather than a borehole, well or water storage tower).

Method 1:
A gravity hot water system
Probably the most common hot water system in the UK.

What is a gravity hot water system?
This type of system comprises a hot water cylinder (often situated in an airing cupboard) being fed with cold water from a header tank (often situated in the loft of a house).

The contents of a hot water cylinder is often heated either by immersion heaters (electric elements) or by an external heat source such as a boiler. But your cylinder may also be heated by other heat sources such as Solar, AGA, a ground source heat pump or energy an recovery system.

No matter which method is employed to heat the cylinder is is important to note that the cylinder remains open vented. This is to say the system is under nothing more than the pressure of gravity pushing water down from the header tank (which is open to atmosphere).

The system relies entirely on the height of the header tank above the outlet point to create pressure. For those of you who are interested in the physics, a 10 metre head of water will produce 1 bar of pressure at the outlet.





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Advantages of a gravity hot water system
A gravity system is about the safest type of hot water system you can install in you house. It is fully vented and therefore carriers none of the risks associated with it's unvented counterpart. A gravity hot water system can have it's pressure improved with the addition of pressure boosting pumps (such as a shower booster pump). Gravity systems are the ONLY type of systems that can have a booster pump fitted.

Disadvantages of a gravity hot water system
Biggest drawback is pressure. Gravity hot water systems are also know as 'low pressure' systems. Given that a 10 metre head of water produces 1 bar of pressure most household bathrooms would be lucky to achieve somewhere around 0.2 bar.

Pressure can of course be improved with the addition of a booster pump, but this involve additional expense, maintenance/replacement in time and then there is the matter of noise. Booster pumps can be noisy.

If you try to blend a mains pressure cold water feed with a gravity hot water feed (in a shower mixer valve for example) you can experience problems. Adding a booster pump to the hot supply can sometime help, but there are problems here too.

Cold water is sometimes delivered to outlets in a property from the header tank in a loft, although there are various practical, operational and health reasons why such a gravity feed is not always a good idea.

Conclusions about a gravity hot water system
Cheapest of the options to install, but generally suffer from poor pressure. Considered the most versatile because booster pumps can be added, but this of course incurs additional expenditure and brings with it the possibility of noise.

 

I can only endorse clueless's comment.

Only the other week we had a small leak in a hot water feed pipe under the kitchen sink. We didn't need to switch off the water at the mains because, being on the hot water side, we only needed to turn off the feed from the hot water header tank to the hot water cylinder. This stopped there being any pressure to force water out of the hot water cylinder. This was fairly easy as we knew which tap in the loft to turn off.

If we hadn't known where that was, we would have had to turn the mains off and drain down the whole system. When we first moved in I got a plumber in (only took 15 minutes) and got him to help me label all the different taps/stopcocks etc. and what they were for and when to turn them off - or just turn them a little bit either way, once a year, to stop them from sticking. The labels are written on a piece of card and hang by string from each tap.

Both our outside taps (house and summer house) need changing as they are leaking slightly (tried changing the washers but to no avail). So I really needed to know where the main stopcock was. It was a one minute job to turn off the mains.

Electricity boxes are all in the coat cupboard by the front door. Three consumer boxes and one mains electrical box. All have big levers that just need pulling down to isolate individual circuits or the whole lot (from the mains box).

Gas was in the same cupboard but when they had to change it, as it stopped working, it's now in a cupboard on the outside wall (with a simple lever for turning it off).

 

Visiting my daughter tonight and it turns out she is friends with the family whose house burnt down in Guildford (post #1) - so we know a bit more. They had been told by Hotpoint that it was OK to keep using the dryer providing it wasn't unattended (bad advice!). So they were in the house when it caught fire and were lucky to get out in one piece. Since then the Fire Brigade have told us NOT to use these dryers under any circumstances. Also their advice is if they do catch alight then get out of the house as fast as possible, don't attempt to fight the fire or stop to find a mains switch! @ARMANDII I asked them if there was any safety concerns about having appliances in the same room as the meter and consumer units and that caused them much amusement, there is absolutely no linkage between the two nor any regulations preventing that. The best thing they advise is to ensure you have working smoke detectors and an escape plan in an emergency.

 

Hi JWK, well, since this subject came up I checked again with my relative who's based in Manchester as a Senior Fire Investigator and he has again, quite strongly, said that having a Power Isolator in a room where there are appliances such as washing machines, stored gas bottles, etc is viewed by Insurance Companies as a breach of "safe" Building and Fire Prevention Regulations. He investigates every kind of fire incident where required from Industrial, Domestic and Arson and has to work closely with Government Departments, Police and other services, and has a somewhat weary and cynical view having seen so many circumstances where damage, destruction and, worse, death could have been avoided. He also said that if a policy holder was to inform an Insurance Company that Electrical appliances were being used permanently in a room where the Isolators were then that would be viewed that would be viewed as a higher risk since if there were a fire in that room you would not be able to cut mains power. We had quite a long discussion about it and his experience is that he has known Insurance Companies to disclaim responsibility on learning of such circumstances after a fire, or cancel a policy on being informed of electrical appliances being used permanently in a isolator room, or impose a high risk premium onto the policy that basically was unaffordable . So I can only repeat what he has said