Can I feed harvested rainwater into a domestic hot water system?
Q. Why do the communal areas in my apartment block get so hot? It was 27°C outside my apartment last winter when it was 5°C outdoors. This is a common problem, particularly in new developments with good airtightness and thermal insulation in the external walls. Temperatures can be even higher in summer. Heat is lost from buildings through the walls, roof, windows and floor and by ventilation. Communal areas often don’t have any of these. To make things worse, the pipes that take heating and hot water to apartments usually run through the communal areas. Heating pipes at 70°C to 80°C and domestic hot water at 60°C to 65°C always lose heat to the surroundings. This means that there will be a heat gain to the communal areas. This heat must go somewhere, so the temperature of the communal areas rises until the air temperature is high enough to lose heat to the surrounding apartments. To solve this problem you need to either reduce the heat flow into, (or increase the heat flow out of) the
