jim8flog
Journeyman Pro
Out of curiosity - are the caps on the bottom row automatic air bleed valves?
Mudball
Assistant Pro
No idea.. but a good question.. I will try and find out
SocketRocket
Ryder Cup Winner
The top row are the actuators that open the valve that allows hot water to flow around a circuit. When the heat control in an area of the house calls for it to warm a signal is sent to the appropriate actuator and a plunger pushes the valve down to open it and allow hot water to flow through the zone. When the required temperature is reached a signal is sent to the actuator that releases the plunger cutting the circuit off.
The bottom row are the flow adjusters that regulate the water flow for the zone.
I hope I've made that clear enough.
I've been using underfloor heating for seven years now and find it very efficient. The whole room becomes a radiator so you get a good heat spread. Once it reaches the set temperature which may take a few hours it shuts off and will stay with in a suitable temperature for a few days before needing to come on again, wall radiators lose their heating very quickly when turned off. I've found it to be very cost effective but like any heating system you need to set it up properly.
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rulefan
Tour Winner
I know it is an old thread but is the cost installing and running 'wet' cheaper or dearer that electric UFH?
chellie
Tour Winner
We have electric ufh in our kitchen. However, it's failed. We will have to remove the flooring and redo it at an expense. So we are not!
VVega
Assistant Pro
FWIW, 5 years - zero maintenance (touch wood).
Out of interest, what do you use to control it?
VVega
Assistant Pro
very dependent on how well the room is insulated. In my experience even a very well insulated room will loose its target temp within 12h if the stat is not set to maintain it over that period.
However the benefit of UFH is that it needs to come on only for a bit to hold the temp. So as long as your thermostat setting is not letting the room to cool off completely, it should maintain the target temp very efficiently.
VVega
Assistant Pro
Can’t compare directly but the UFH has a fair few more bits to it, manifolds, pumps etc. It also requires plumbing to the manifold as opposed to just having power cable. So I’d say installation is more complex.
The UFH circuit itself is probably cheaper as it’s just plastic piping compared to metal grid for electric.
Either way, the electric system is much dearer to run at the current prices.
SocketRocket
Ryder Cup Winner
I set mine at differing temperatures depending on the room, higher in the lounge, lower in bedrooms and bathroom. In the lounge I set a maximum of 21 deg and a minimum of 19 Deg so that it comes on when dropping to 19 and shuts off when reaching 21. You can also set different temperatures at various times of day.
Mudball
Assistant Pro
Unlike this thread, our UFH only went in Oct when we did the extension. We screeded the floor and tiled it. The rest of the downstairs is suspended floor and leaky. So our lounge feels like a tropical country while the rest is the Nordics. We just live in the lounge.
We don’t have any specific control for thr UFH other than the valve on e RHS of the pic.
when you say plunger what do you mean.. what are the red levels on the lower row? Should I worried that the red levels are at different levels for each loop.
I walked without slippers yesterday. Only in one set of lines have i felt cold/lukewarm tiles. These are the most further away from the manifold.
Whereditgo
Journeyman Pro
OK, so I'm not an expert on the Polypipe system, however, the blue caps on the top manifold will be covers beneath which is a means to adjust the resistance in that circuit as a mean to balance the flow through each leg and the system as a whole, the indicators on the lower manifold are displaying an indication of the flow rate through each leg, probably in litres/second (though they are not particularly accurate). It looks like the white plastic 'keys' on the LHS of the manifolds are bleed points.
You shouldn't generally need to bleed a wet heating system "regularly", but if you are, it is possible that there could be some air in the circuit that feels less warm. The pump should be switched off when attempting to bleed the system.
You shouldn't generally need to bleed a wet heating system "regularly", but if you are, it is possible that there could be some air in the circuit that feels less warm. The pump should be switched off when attempting to bleed the system.
Bunkermagnet
Journeyman Pro
Can it not be repaired?
My friend has electric underfloor hetaing in his kitchen, under large floor tiles.The element filament broke so it stopped working. A chap cam,e, located the break then took up the neccessary tile and repaired it.
My friend then just relaid the floor tile after.
rulefan
Tour Winner
Do you know how he located the break.
Bunkermagnet
Journeyman Pro
I don't I'm afraid, but he was spot on.
Whereditgo
Journeyman Pro
Probably by measuring the resistance to earth on each wire and then calculating how far along the wire the break was.
Beezerk
Money List Winner
That’s some equipment to enable that lol. I did a quick google and there’s a few ways to do it apparently but you need the correct gear. One sounds a bit like a mega tester which would potentially do as you suggest. It’s all very clever stuff.
I take it there’s more than one cable or element in underfloor heating? I imagine trying to find a break if it was in multiple sections would be far easier.
SocketRocket
Ryder Cup Winner
The levels in the lower controls set the flow rate to balance each leg of the system, bigger areas will need more flow than smaller ones. Do you have a control box in different rooms so that you can set the desired temperatures or is the system in one room only?
Aztecs27
Money List Winner
This sounds like our house. We're just about to start work on a kitchen/diner extension (don't worry @Bratty - I'll post updates in the other thread
), and our current house is suspended floor and cold because it's been insulated awfully.How are you finding your UFH (wet presumably)? the extension is fairly large (7m x 4-ish), so from what we've been told by various people, using rads to try and heat that massive space would be less efficient than having the UFH ticking over on a constant temp in the winter months. ...but it is an extra £3600 on top of the quote for the builders to do it minus the cost of the radiators he won't be ordering)...Also, would need to take into consideration the cost of the radiators we would have had, which would have been expensive not basic ones, knowing my wife!)
Mudball
Assistant Pro
This sounds like our house. We're just about to start work on a kitchen/diner extension (don't worry @Bratty - I'll post updates in the other thread
How are you finding your UFH (wet presumably)? the extension is fairly large (7m x 4-ish), so from what we've been told by various people, using rads to try and heat that massive space would be less efficient than having the UFH ticking over on a constant temp in the winter months. ...but it is an extra £3600 on top of the quote for the builders to do it minus the cost of the radiators he won't be ordering)...Also, would need to take into consideration the cost of the radiators we would have had, which would have been expensive not basic ones, knowing my wife!)
Go for UFH. Our lounge extension is slightly larger than yours - but it has the kitchen, diner, TV etc.. there is no way we could heat it with conventional rads.
We went for a Wet UFH, because we have gas boiler for the rest of the house and could take a spur off it. Electric UFH would have been too expensive. Also, we did not zone anything in this space, the whole room is heated a the same time. Few things to consider
1) Most people told us that we should have some rads in the room because UFH takes time to kick in. So the rads will come handy if there is a cold spell. So we have 2 vertical/tall rads in the room. However, we have not switched them on yet. The UFH is very good and keeps the place toasty. Recently got bored with rads just sitting there so have turned them on, but not sure the rads make any difference in the large room. UFH any day
2) Insulation. I realised that most people who advised us to get rads in a UFH room did not realise that our extension is super insulated. Unlike the rest of the house, there is not much leak, so the UFH is very efficient and keeps it toasty.
3) If I could, I never want to go to conventional rads again. I think UFH is the way to go - esp when combined with wall insulation.
As a result, we now spend all the time in the extension. The original lounge is barely visited and is like a cold windy alleyway...
Tell your mrs that UFH is now GM Forum approved. If you really want to spend some money on rads... I would say, ensure that your extension is super insulated... we got 6 inch cellotex in the floor and roof, cavity is packed, windows and bifolds are well glazed. Then get one of the chic ceiling suspended fireplaces that look good on instagram but you dont switch on.
Aztecs27
Money List Winner
Exceptional reply! Thank you.
I think we’re 90% certain we’ll go with UFH (which will be wet). Should be able to feed off our current boiler and direct some residual heat into the new utility on the way to the extension too (so I’m told).
