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I'm currently researching instantaneous water heaters, and in that context I discovered that there are both unvented water heaters and vented ones. A bit more research shows that whole plumbing systems can be either vented or not. Whassa difference? Why would anyone choose one system type over the other?

Having eventually got around to organising myself to change the bottom element on my E7 water heater, I have found it is leaking. So that takes one unknown away. So are all Vented, E7, DHW cylinders basically the same. To the best of my measuring, mine is 1.5m high, 0.5m wide and with about 40mm of insulation. The elements are both on the same side with the feed pipe going in at the bottom and a few degrees anticlockwise, the drain is opposite. There are some pictures below. I have been to a couple of websites and they seem to be around the £300 mark. Is that about right? I am hoping to just get a direct swap as that will save any mucking about with pipes, but I could, fairly easily, extend the top pipe downwards and re-jig the feed pipe. would rather not though. It would give me less heat losses, a slightly cheaper cylinder (though not much) and a larger airing cupboard (which might be useful). (edit, seems the website does not like .png files)

Excerpt from a previous thread. A member asked..... I am looking at an HTG thermal store for a DHW & Heating upgrade, I will be using a gas boiler heating the TS only, together with PV and immersion heater. The TS comes with a solar thermal coil fitted as standard. The gas boiler would normally be connected directly to the TS but I was wondering if I could use this solar coil for the system boiler to obtain some fluid separation ? The size of our home with # of radiators/bathrooms etc. would suggest I need a TS of around 300 litres but if I view the store as a battery should I install a larger store say 400 / 500 ltrs to help with the gaps in PV availability ? I guess there is a risk of oversizing as the volume should be within the capabilities of the immersion / gas boiler to recharge it ~ any thoughts or advice would be welcome. The TS is presently required for 12 radiators, 2 bathrooms & DHW, I am hoping to take advantage of my PV power hence the TS otherwise a fair size combo probably would have been the way to go. I am also building extra ground floor space so I also have been considering UFH but from your previous advice I am going to need more insulation to even consider going down this road. I have a beam & block floor with only 40mm poly then wyroc so not good, I am able to put 75mm underneath the floor between the beams which would help ~ but still not sufficient although if I am using this space underneath the ground floor as a store should I be too concerned. I have had experience with TS excessive heat in a flat some years ago, it was located in the centre of the flat off the hallway and I did ask engineers how to reduce the heat output but they looked blank at me. The small gas boiler was set at max heat output for efficiency as per the operating instructions but after not getting any useful help from heating guys, I had to turn the boiler down to half heat which totally made our lives much better, so JSH I appreciate this problem..... I presently have a traditional copper tank upstairs about 110 ltrs and is generally heated by the PV system and overall meets our requirements as there is only two of us. I am considering putting the TS in the utility room and using the heat to make a drying room etc. The TS is stainless steel and comes pre plumbed with a high efficient external heat exchanger (46lts per min, we have high water pressure) I could also add to this TS a similar external heat exchanger for UFH so it would give me scope for going the UFH direction. The additional copper header tank can be installed above the TS , is there any requirement for this to be higher than the radiators in the bedrooms or will it be ok ?

Excerpt from a previous thread. A member asked..... "Starting our extension and renovation fairly soon so I am now looking at the type of heating system to go for. The house is roughly 100m² footprint and 450m³ volume. Insulation levels are expected to be better than building reg standard but not upto PH standard. Plan for heating and DHW in the house is as follows: UFH throughout with no rads, two towels warmers to be used though. One bath, two showers and four sinks (not decided whether both showers will be DHW or one electric yet but say both DHW for this example). Average usage of one shower and one bath per day From jsharris spreadsheet I figure that my worst month at minimum OAT heat input would be 1398kWh based on daily heat loss power of 1878W. Ideally we would like the boiler hidden from view and this could be house in either the garage or loft as both have ample space. We have both gas and electricity to the house so we are open to a wide range of possiblilities. Anyone have any thoughts on which type of boilers I should be considering? As far as manufacturers go I am willing to invest a little more for better quality (brands I have investigated so far are Valliant, Baxi and Ideal).