I'd appreciate advice about a problem with the CW tank in our attic. Getting all the information out in one go is a challenge, but here goes:
Our CW tank is in the attic of our listed timber-framed house. It supplies a standard HW cylinder (22mm copper pipe) and an electric pumped shower (15mm). It's plastic and is in fact 2x25 gal. tanks joined together. We don't want to remove the tank by changing the system to a combi-boiler because we get a fair number of power cuts and having a supply of HW is valuable to us.
The attic is becoming increasingly infested with cluster flies. If you don't know what they are, they're like houseflies, black, but clean! They don't look much but are not regarded as a health hazard. They get into the CW tank, under the lids or up the overflow; once they invade an attic they tend to come back year after year. Bits of fly anatomy come through the hot taps and clog the shower mentioned above (we do have other showers). We cannot keep them out of the attic as there are always routes in with the 500-year old roof we have. And we have to be careful because we also have bats!
The problem is how to keep the flies out of the CW tank. I've done most of my own plumbing for years and my plumber is on board with this problem, but we don't have any experience of dealing with this. I'm installing an industrial type electronic fly-killer in the attic and hope to drastically reduce their number this way. We also plan to drain the CW tank, vacuum out the fly residues, and cover the tank with a porous woven membrane to keep them out. And I'm wondering whether to try to put some sort of dry filter in the overflow outlet to stop them getting in.
Does anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks
Our CW tank is in the attic of our listed timber-framed house. It supplies a standard HW cylinder (22mm copper pipe) and an electric pumped shower (15mm). It's plastic and is in fact 2x25 gal. tanks joined together. We don't want to remove the tank by changing the system to a combi-boiler because we get a fair number of power cuts and having a supply of HW is valuable to us.
The attic is becoming increasingly infested with cluster flies. If you don't know what they are, they're like houseflies, black, but clean! They don't look much but are not regarded as a health hazard. They get into the CW tank, under the lids or up the overflow; once they invade an attic they tend to come back year after year. Bits of fly anatomy come through the hot taps and clog the shower mentioned above (we do have other showers). We cannot keep them out of the attic as there are always routes in with the 500-year old roof we have. And we have to be careful because we also have bats!
The problem is how to keep the flies out of the CW tank. I've done most of my own plumbing for years and my plumber is on board with this problem, but we don't have any experience of dealing with this. I'm installing an industrial type electronic fly-killer in the attic and hope to drastically reduce their number this way. We also plan to drain the CW tank, vacuum out the fly residues, and cover the tank with a porous woven membrane to keep them out. And I'm wondering whether to try to put some sort of dry filter in the overflow outlet to stop them getting in.
Does anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks
