In short, not much. It contains water. Yet it is an absolute essential in almost every home. To make things easier for the average Joe and the laymen, it’s the add-ons that do the business and heat the water. It may as well just be called a Cylinder because really that is all it is until the water within becomes heated.
There are two basic types of hot water system. Indirect and Direct.
An Indirect system will normally involve a Primary and Secondary circuit. The Primary is usually a coil of pipe that joins the cylinder from the boiler. This is heated directly from the boiler, which then runs off and then goes inside the cylinder, indirectly heating the water inside. The Secondary circuit is actually a cold water tank that refills the cylinder as the hot water is used, thus keeping the water flow constant.
A Direct system can be heated straight from the boiler or an immersion heater. With a boiler, the water is heated directly through circulation as the water is fed from the cold water cistern into the cylinder and then to the boiler. The flow pipe from the boiler discharges hot water directly into the cylinder, forcing colder denser water at the bottom through the return pipe back to the boiler. The hottest water, being lighter, is always at the top ready to be used.
Another form of direct heating is the Immersion Heater which uses a thermostat to control water temperature and is most often on a timer and used to help supplement a boiler system to save energy and cash. Immersion Heaters are also versatile in that they work with all types of heating system.
And that’s that really. There you go. Another handy hint from Dumb Plumb.
For more information on Hot Water Cylinders and all your plumbing needs, check out www.tradeplumbing.co.uk
Most hot water cylinders are heated via an external heat source such as a gas boiler or solar thermal. The heat is then transferred from the from the external heat source to the water inside the hot water tank.
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