Hot water and heating system for toilet and shower block.

[Mckenzie900]

Hi there,

I have a small campsite and I am about to update the toilet and shower block, there's currently three, 6.5Kw electric showers, no hot water and no heating with all the showers being coin operated.

I am wanting to put hot water into the taps and also put in some radiators. Ideally I would like to change the electric showers as it is quite a lot of electric and strain when they are constantly running.

I am looking for some new ideas for a system that would suit my needs and is efficient to run. Please can you give me some help?

Some points to bare in mind are;
- there is not a lot of boiler space within the building however there is a bit of space in the loft or building a small building to house the boiler may be an option.
- I may want to add to the system at a later date i.e. another shower block with 6 showers.
- In busy periods the showers are constantly running.
- there is no mains gas.
- I would like the showers to be coin operated.

Thank you all for your time and help.

Many thanks

Jamie

 

[NickDavies]

Hello there new member Jamie, lets get the discussion started, hopefully this will generate some feedback.

First off water hardness,if your site is in milton keynes you will benefit from a water softener, if it's in Dollar (Scotland) you probably wont, you can google water hardness or check your local water suppliers website. limescale will eventually ruin electric heating elements which can be an expensive nuisance to replace especially when demand is high. this is probably the best guidance I can give at this moment as there are a myriad of solutions and their applications which would depend on your budget........do you have a budget in mind? lots of people say "yeah I have a budget it's the cheapest", but cheapest is not best and rarely ever is.

you will probably be better advised by contacting a local plumber who can advise you on site and then if you are not sure or need some further questions answered you can refer his advice here.

I don't know if you have a calor gas tank, oil fired central heating or want or are minded to fit a heat pump/solar system, perhaps you could have a look at what other camp sites have done in respect of the washing facilities to see what the competition is like and use that for some additional guidance.

it's not much help but it's a start and I'm sure other members here will chip in with feedback.

 

[chris watkins]

What size electrical supply does the shower block / camp site have?

Is this what limited you to the use of 6.5kW showers? Could it cope with the addition heating load?

I know on a site you don't want high end luxury but the showering experience for your customers must be a poor one & collecting the coins a pain. Could you not add the cost of showering to the fee?

Bulk storage of hot water might allow cheaper over night electricity to be used & as Nick suggests, solar or other forms of heating the water to be added.

 

[Last Plumber]

What is mains pressure and What is the flow rate on the water main in that block.
If you Could find that out then more ideas will flow !

 

[Mckenzie900]

Hi there

Thanks for your replies so far, ok so to answer a few questions, we don't suffer from limescale problems so no worry there, budget wise I just wanted to explore what options I have then go from there.

Our electricity supply is quite limited and I wouldn't want to run any higher rated showers through the power line, ideally I would like to do away with the electric showers. I think I would also like to keep the coin operation as it will reduce queue time and over use.

As far as I know the water pressure is quite good.

Hope this helps

Many thanks

 

[Last Plumber]

Can you find out litres per minute and pressure ?

 

[quality]

I fitted out remote site ( fishery ) with a similar setup with only electric 60 amp max. 8.5 Kw heat pump (output)with a 500 liter un-vented cylinder. it may not fit your budget but this type of job will not be cheap regardless of which method you choose i.e. oil or lpg. You need a proper system to work reliably