Leaderboard

What about just dropping in a programmable light bulb a lot simpler and cheaper, you can then program it via your smart phone when to turn on and off. The below can do it according to their blurb but there are dozens of models on the market now. http://easybulb.com/en/

When I say to the builder I'm currently subbing to, "I'll be back in an hour with the parts" he asks if that's a builders hour or a plumbers hour...........so when I said later let's assume I meant a day later OK Source : I would recommend Telford. S/S : A no brainer for me, deffo yes. Plumbing : If there are rads and they are regular steel, then there is the problem of corrosion contamination which you'd ideally want to design out where possible / practicable. I'd probably say run the towel rads from a coil, via a dedicated 2-port manifold, and run the space heating ( ufh ) direct from the body of the TS via a second dedicated manifold. Benefits therein of being able to select the time and temp of each application to suit yourself, eg being able to run the towel rads when the heating isn't necessary but warm towels would be nice. C/V/P : Room stats to Ufh control, ( multiple stats for multiple zones if required ). Time clocks for towel rads control. 2-port zone valves to achieve both previous. Pumps on manifolds will suffice regarding flow to the manifolds from the TS. With a TS, I assume you'll know you'd be using a system boiler and not a combi as the TS would typically then provide dhw ?

As per my last then Any rigid pan connector can be cut to make it 'short', but a flexible one cannot, thus forcing you to make the connection sub-floor level if you chose the latter.

I have more or less the same set up with a 350l TS feeding the ufh downstairs and rads on the first floor. I use a pellet stove for my heat needs as well as PV for prob 5/6 months of the year. We also questioned if we would need an electric shower as a backup but in truth the water is usually hot enough during the summer with excess PV and the stove would be on maybe every 2nd day during the winter so the TS is rarely cold. I heat the water in the TS to 65 degrees and have a manifold system to feed the rads and then the same for the ufh where it gets mixed with cold water to go into the system at 32. Put the rads in as if it isn't as warm upstairs as you hope your life won't be worth living!!! Can you not connect up the stove up to the heating system to use as backup option. Extra cost wouldn't be that much.

The plumber might tell you that rads and UFH need different temperature water (rads hotter than UFH). That would be the case in a badly insulated house needing high output but with luck your rads will be sufficient operating at the lower temperature of the UFH. If in doubt perhaps make the rads bigger than they would normally be so they work fine at the UFH flow temperature. The plumber might suggest running the rads off the boiler rather than the TS. I don't think I would do that but perhaps have him do the layout so you could switch the rads from the TS to the boiler if things really didn't work out and you needed to boost the output from them.

A correctly set up TS will stop short cycling. When a room stat calls for heat the system draws that heat from the TS without firing up the boiler. After some time this cools the TS and the stat on the TS fires up the boiler topping it up with heat again. The two sides operate independently. The room stats can come on and off many times before the TS cools far enough to trigger the boiler. Once triggered the boiler runs in one long burn until the store is hot again. This way the TS stops the boiler doing a lot of short burns. This is more important for an oil boiler than a gas boiler. Gas boilers can turn down ("modulate") the size of the flame to reduce the output power. The vast majority of oil boilers can't do that, they can only turn the flame on and off (cycle). We're glad we opted for individual room stats as it allows us to switch off/down spare rooms and have better control over the temperature (some rooms have more or less solar gain than others). Some rooms we have warmer at different times of the day etc. We even put separate stats in the bathrooms (Heatmiser with remote sensor). Great having the floor warm first thing. Remember that for each stat you need an additional zone (separate floor loop and actuator on the manifold). This might add to the cost but it depends on the size of the house. If you are building a big house then you may need lots of floor loops anyway. Normally each loop is limited to 100m of pipe including the run to the manifold. Really big rooms sometimes have two floor loops controlled by one room stat.

i know i was shocked at them not wanting the business