Rehan Saeed

Yes, this seems like the best solution. Replacing the vertical pipe for a longer one seems like it'd be a simple enough job. I'd probably also have to offer to get a professional tradesperson to do the work, what trade do extractor fan ventilation fit under? I've tried searching for these types of vent kits on screwfix or toolstation but can't seem to find them. What should I be searching for?

My neighbors kitchen extract vent is beside the flat roof of my ground floor extension and the smells can somehow be smelt inside one room of my house. I closed all windows and trickle vents but found that in one corner of the room the smell was literally coming up through the floor. I know that the space in my flat roof and the floor of the first floor bedroom are connected, so I think the smell is being sucked up through the flat roof, into the floor of the main house and up through the floor boards and into the bedroom. I can't see any vents in my roof or the overhang of the front of the flat roof, so I'm not sure where the air is getting in from. I need to have a word with my neighbor but what can I suggest to him as a solution?

I have an unvented system with underfloor heating on three floors and a towel radiator loop. So a fairly large system. I have a ten year old Vaillant Ecotec Plus 637. I understand that the boiler has an expansion tank in it already. I have seen the pressure on the boiler go from 1.7 bar at rest to 1.9 bar when heated. I'm not sure if it has been higher or if water has been ejected (where does this happen?). Do I need another external expansion tank? I've seen online calculators that help you work this out but I have no idea how much water there is in my system so not sure how to use those.

This bloke at the 8 minute mark mentions that in some systems the pump is always powered and turns on when it notices a flow of water from the zone valve opening while in other systems the pump is turned off when there is no demand. In my case, the Alpha 3 pump has some features such as turning the pump on briefly in summer to stop it seizing, so I'm guessing that this pump requires power all the time?

So the power to the pump is cut when this happens? This decision must be made from the Nest Heatlink and then sent to the pump and boiler demanding heat. Is there a reliable wiring diagram I can look at for this? I don't think that is happening right now and my plumber didn't seem sure the wiring was correct.

I have a Grundfos Alpha 3 pump in an underfloor heating manifold and Nest thermostat all connected up in a wiring centre. From what I understand the pump is wired with just a live and neutral. Is the pump supposed to turn off when there is no demand from the thermostat? I still hear it turning and see that its using around 4 watts of power. How is the pump supposed to know when to turn off?

I plan to fit a new shower tray on the left and tile the whole bathroom. 1. Should I replace the plywood with tile backer board where the shower will go or will the old plywood be ok? 2. Should I cover the plastered wall on the left with tile backer board or can I tile straight onto the wall?

We're putting down new plywood sheets, so this might be possible but the sheets are heavy, so not sure how practical it is to install like that.

I'm having Wunda metal spreader plates under my floor boards for the first and second floors. I'm also insulating the floor with Rockwool Flexi. I talked to Nu Heat who say that Wunda spreader plates can sag over time and lost contact with the floorboards. Would it be a good idea for the Rockwool to come into contact with the UFH spreader plates and help keep it pushed up? Wunda tell me that there should be a 20mm gap between the spreader plates and the Rockwool, so that it doesn't make any noise. Would Rockwool really make noise? It seems so flexible.

Vaillant boilers don't support OpenTherm but there seems to be a VR33 module you can install to enable the feature. Apparently its sold by Vaillant in the Netherlands where OpenTherm is more common. They won't sell it here because presumably they're just another evil corporation who wants you to buy their thermostats instead. https://myboiler.com/opentherm/vaillant-opentherm/ I can't seem to find any documentation for how they're installed. I've seen people buying the modules from Dutch websites. Has anyone had experience with these modules?

I was planning on a three zoned underfloor heating system using three Nest thermostats but discovered that Nest doesn't support OpenTherm in a multi-zoned system. 1. Do any thermostats support OpenTherm in this configuration? 2. I've read that I can enable OpenTherm on one zone but that it'll cause the boiler to set the temperature for all zones. Is that better than nothing? Is it worth it?

Good to know. But surely it is still worth using on a concrete floor where you'd otherwise use no insulation?

This is good to know. Any good resources I can read about SFUF or foil insulation in general? The Wunda system uses a very thin layer but it covers the whole board, while NuHeat seem to use a thicker aluminium plate but it doesn't cover the whole surface. I was not sure if this matters but Nu Heat seem to think so. I plan to have all floors insulated as mentioned above, so no problem there. Planning on a QuickStep laminate flooring with an underlay (not sure which one yet, any recommendations?). I would like to but can't afford it just yet. Ideally, my pipes to the external unit would go through the kitchen to the back garden. I could route them around the kitchen by going outside the side of the house but I'm told that is not ideal and I'd be losing some efficiency to having a longer pipe and also having it external to the property.

They do a product specifically for this purpose called SFUF. Would you still not recommend it? Its a pretty large space to be heated over three floors but yes it did seem a lot to me too. Hoping Wunda do better.

I found the details. A Wilo Pico power usage: The Grundfos in comparison: The Wilo cost assuming its always at max speed (not true but to get an idea) is £38.16: The Grundfos cost per year is £28.68: The Grundfos will save you £9.48 over a year or £94.80 over ten years by my calculations. Not a huge difference but worth spending £20-£50 extra on a better pump IMO.

I found that a pump typically uses about 50W of energy, so I did a bit of rough math and found it costs about £4 per month to run (assuming its run for 8 hours a day, thats or £48 per year or £480 over a ten year lifetime). What I'm unsure of is how an energy efficiency index of 0.17 for a Grudfos or 0.2 for a Wilo affects those numbers.

The best efficiency I found for these was 0.20. So not as good but good to know they are good for low noise.

I'm looking into pumps for an underfloor heating system. I'd like to get one that is as energy efficient as possible but also quiet. I read the guide below: https://www.anchorpumps.com/blog/best-central-heating-pumps-expert-guide/ It seems the Grundfos ALPHA3 15-50/60 is the most energy efficient with an EEI of 0.17 but it's pretty expensive. In second place is the Stuart Turner ST 15/60 with an EEI of 0.18. This one is one third the price of the Grundfos! If looks are anything to go by, it also looks a lot cheaper too. Since the EEI only differs by 0.01, how much of a real world difference does that actually make over the course of a year? Can anyone give me a good recommendation for an energy efficient pump?

The government won't pay for all of it and I can't afford it right now. I do plan on asking my plumber to setup the pipes for it so I have the option going forward. Yes, thats my aim. I've watched enough HeatGeek YouTube video's to know some basics. From what I understand though, the higher the heat output of the UFH, the lower the flow temperatures I can use? Hence my question about the aluminium vs metal heat spreaders on either systems. Am I right? I'm putting in NyRock Rockwool on the 1st and 2nd floors and 75mm of Kingspan Kooltherm k103 on the ground floor, where I have suspended floors. I am considering putting in SuperFoil on top of the concrete areas but this will cause a height difference between the concrete and suspended timber floor. Thoughts on that last part?

I'm trying to choose between two plumbers. One who is a HeatGeek, wants to use Nu Heat, with Lo Pro Lite for the ground floor and DPJ14 – 14mm Fastflo for the first and second floors. Nu Heat have quoted around 10.5k. The other plumber wants to use Wunda with Wundatherm for the ground floor and Between Joist Panels for the first and second floors. I'm waiting for them to send me a quote but sounds like they're much cheaper based on my reading. Both companies also do a metal plate system which goes under floorboards. Nu Heat calls it ClippaPlate and Wunda calls it Spreader Plates. That is another option that has been offered to me but my understanding is that these plates can bow over time and lose contact with the surface we want to heat. Is this correct? The Nu Heat sales person says they use metal plates instead of Wunda's aluminium foil which has better heat output. This makes sense to me. As I'd like to consider a heat pump in future, is this true and will it make a difference? I've tried to compare heat output numbers in W/m^2 but I can't find a match. Apart from this difference, both systems seem functionally the same.