Einträge mit dem Tag ‘Warm Water’

Maybe because I was a (not half bad) plumber many many moons ago, maybe because I always have to be different or maybe not such a bad idea after all, here is what I came up with in terms of water system and layout.

Tank no.1 & Battery no.1

Contrary to what you see on the layout plan at this stage, we will most probably have only two tanks apart from the warm water tank; one 60l main tank integrated into the frame and one 40l tank underneath one of the second row seats.

Water System & Layout

Both tanks can be filled (and will be vented) through one common filler neck and are connected and bypassed in case something goes wrong with one of the tanks. Water is extracted from the bottom of the main tank by means of a flow-jet water pump integrated into the plumbing upstream of the tanks. In addition there is a fine grain filter upstream of the pump and a pressure vessel downstream of the pump.

Basically what you are looking at here is a semi pressurised system, unpressurised (and open!) before the pump and pressurised (and closed!) after the pump.

Cold/fresh water is taken directly to the kitchen- and shower-taps respectively, plus to the warm water tank, which I conceptualised as follows:

• Cold water is fed into the tank via a dip pipe and through a perforated baffle plate about 2-3cm above the tank’s bottom. This is supposed to avoid unintentional and too swift blending of fresh/cold water with already heated warm water. Additionally to that, gravity should keep the cold and warm waters in check.
• Warm water is extracted right at the top of the tank, basically “pushed” out by the pump feeding fresh water into it at the bottom. This is very similar to most household geyser systems.
• The heartbeat of warm water preparation is obviously the heating element. I purchased this element, together with other nifty stuff, from Fritz Berger in Germany. The clou about this element is, that it heats water to 37-40 degrees only, while using minimal electricity. If I remember correctly from the manual, it will use 6-8 amps and take approximately 1-2 hours to heat up 20 liters. You obviously want this to happen while driving and have the tank properly insulated to keep the water at temperature until you need it.
• The interesting thing for me was that I can save the money (and weight) spent on the usual geyser units (Truma, etc.), plus save water due to the fact that you do not have to adjust/regulate water temperature at the tap (mixer) with the water running until you eventually get it right.

I will yet have to see, whether this will at all work as planned. But then, if I don’t try I will never know. I would be interested to hear what you think about this.

All the best

Tommy

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