Underfloor heating without the heat

[russella]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of renovating my home (mid 30s semi detached), and am looking at installing underfloor heating downstairs. We've got a suspended timber floor, currently with foam insulation fitted between the joists directly under the floorboards, so I'm after something like the Speedfit Overfit system or the Nu-Heat floating system

But the catch is, due to limited funds, a growing family and a rush to get rooms done, I want to cut a significant corner - I'm looking to buy just stuff that needs to go under the floor now, get the room decorated over the spring and summer, then get the rest of the stuff towards the autumn, after the room's decorated and habitable. I'm just going to leave the pipe ends exposed where I'll be installing the manifold / pump / etc later in the year.

So really I've got three questions:

1. Has anyone heard of this approach before?
2. Am I going to have a hard time with suppliers because of this, e.g. a quick google suggests the complete pack prices are a lot cheaper than buying the parts separately!
3. What floating-type systems do people recommend, Speedfit, Fastfit, Nu-Heat, etc?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Russ

 

[ALEC1]

the best way to economise on UFH is to ditch the expensive controls from the manufacturers and run the whole lot off a boiler with compensation controls...either internal or external

 

[ALEC1]

no problem with what you propose, except ypu cant pressure test the pipe before the floor goes down...

given that pressure testing is to test the joints more than the pipes, I cant see a problem.....

The risk is always a nail goes through a pipe when the floor goes down...which is always after a pressyre test any way..

 

[DeltaT2]

There's no problems doing all the pipes first, if you get an experienced time-served Plumber/Heating Engineer with a good knowledge of UFH. They'll do a heat-loss calculation for your home, install the pipes, these can be standard cheap 15mm Pex pipes, pressure test these pipe & leave them on test for the floors being laid.

There's many factors to be considered, so you want someone that knows their onions. Be careful, there's lot of short course cowboys about, employ one of them at your pearl!!!

 

[Onetap]

the best way to economise on UFH is to ditch the expensive controls from the manufacturers and run the whole lot off a boiler with compensation controls...either internal or external

That won't work on it's own if he needs different temperatures for other zones, e.g., radiators upstairs or a DHW cylinder.

There's no problems doing all the pipes first, if you get an experienced time-served Plumber/Heating Engineer with a good knowledge of UFH.

He may not be able to afford someone with the experience if he's trying to do it on a budget. Get someone in for a quote. Otherwise do one of the manufacturer's courses (free?).

 

[JoeMar]

the best way to economise on UFH is to ditch the expensive controls from the manufacturers and run the whole lot off a boiler with compensation controls...either internal or external

That won't work on it's own if he needs different temperatures for other zones, e.g., radiators upstairs or a DHW cylinder.

i dont think he meant connect the UFH manifold directly to the boiler's F/R, the use of a pump/mixing valve was implied -

 

[Onetap]

i dont think he meant connect the UFH manifold directly to the boiler's F/R, the use of a pump/mixing valve was implied -

And I thought he meant to;

.... run the whole lot off a boiler with compensation controls...

That is, reset the boiler flow temperature,as required by the WC.

You can do that, if you run the boiler at a higher flow temperature when there is a DHW demand, temporarily shutting down the UFH.

It won't work if there's a simultaneous demand DHW or radiators, which requires a higher flow temperature than UFH. You'd need a pump & mixing valve set to supply the lower flow temperature.

 

[russella]

i dont think he meant connect the UFH manifold directly to the boiler's F/R, the use of a pump/mixing valve was implied -

That is affirmative - just to be clear, I'm not looking to do the thing "on the cheap", I'm really looking for a way of breaking up some of the cost so that I can do now the stuff that stops us getting our living room habitable, the space under our floor is accessible via a crawlspace, so the manifold, pump, mixing valve, etc can be fitted later on without having to heave up a floors or anything.

My primary concern is whether suppliers will be interested in me doing this, or will they only want to sell the whole lot in one go?

Thanks for the help so far guys,

Russ

 

[ALEC1]

yes you need a boiler that distinguishes between hot water and heating...and I was thinking mixing valves...although if the ufh is in a timber floor which has to run at high temperatures you could probably run it at radiator temperatures...

suppliers don't mind how you work as long as you buy! but choose a supplier like polyplumb where 15mm pipe is universally available..

 

[JoeMar]

hi

is this for a single room or multiple rooms? how many?

 

[DeltaT2]

the best way to economise on UFH is to ditch the expensive controls from the manufacturers and run the whole lot off a boiler with compensation controls...either internal or external

That won't work on it's own if he needs different temperatures for other zones, e.g., radiators upstairs or a DHW cylinder.

There's no problems doing all the pipes first, if you get an experienced time-served Plumber/Heating Engineer with a good knowledge of UFH.

He may not be able to afford someone with the experience if he's trying to do it on a budget. Get someone in for a quote. Otherwise do one of the manufacturer's courses (free?).

Free, but there not even worth that, these 'manufacturer's' course are cr.p!! Half the time is taken up listening to their sales pitch!!

 

[JoeMar]

for 'now' why dont you focus on buying the metal plates and the pipes and getting your floor down.

shop around for prices -

www.ufhtradedirect.co.uk is a good starting place.