G and J

Bloody hell. Did Scotty sign this off? Which manifold serves the transporter room?

It’s been pointed out to me that my site consists of, errr, a rectangle of mud. To me it’s so, so much more. It’s a rectangle of mud I’ve sweated my bits off to clear. Therefore it’s the most consuming bit of real estate on the planet. But apparently humans might think differently. Sniff. So methinks another day another venue might be a good idea. I hear someone up near Sax is allowing peeps to play with his big bits of kit. It’s worth considering. 😉

They’re delivered sealed and pressurised? Good grief!

So a single cold water manifold that is after the pressure balancing valve serves all bathroom outlets? If so thats simple, I like that. I had assumed I’d have to have a balanced cold water manifold just for showers.

Was hoping for Zeta Jones in the lasers type gyrations, but Billy Elliot will do…

I’m not at all religious but reading that I had the most intense urge to genuflect and cross myself and touch wood. So it’s sounds like to the nervous novice (a rank to which I aspire) putting the manifold on, pressure testing, then depressurising prior to screed installation is a sensible plan.

So it’s a good idea to maintain access to the manifold during the pour? Good to know.

Can you turn it to your advantage and save money by reusing lots, the money saved being channelled into your toy (ahem), I mean tool fund? And maybe the pooliverse is looking after you, nudging you towards a more interesting place to do whatever than a simple barn type building, a building you’ll grow to love.

Well in all my years I’ve never fitted an UFH manifold with a pressure gauge on it! (That is, I’ve never fitted UFH…. every day is a school day. Shame about all the detentions lol)

I had assumed that keeping the pipes pressurised during the poor reduces the probability of ‘treading on’ damage. Are the UFH pipes tough enough without?

I once checked a section of pipe work that was about to be boxed in - it didn’t hold pressure. Worked the issue and eventually, after replacing half of it, discovered that my pressure tester was leaking, the pipe work was fine. Might be worth checking that the tester is working fine.

New (and better) bits of wood and glue it is then.

Is a French drain simply a small trench next to the house wall filled with gravel that allows the water out either sideways or downwards?

@skeg0 Are you going to paint them or leave them for varnish/wax/whatever?

Was hoping for an extended dotage in a shallow hollow near a river and lots and lots of cafés. But I take your point.

So not analogous to resistors in parallel then. Hmmmm, yet more to learn.

Looking at 5kW as our heat loss at -2.3C is 2.5kW. (Does that mean I want to achieve 1.17m3/h flow rate or doesn’t it scale like that?). I presume I need to calculate the number of linear 100m loops we need to calculate the full UFH flow resistance. Again, I presume one dimensions Fiordland the UFH and simply assume the cylinder will be ok when the system switches over to DHW.

Oh we did have mains gas. Paid £1.7k to have it removed. Going electric only feels right, for the warm fuzzy doing the right thing internal feeling kinda reason. Just need to work the choices that follow that. I’ve read a good few instances of moderately extended pipe work for ASHPs appearing to work ok, so we’ve gone for it. Just need to find the right ASHP and cylinder now.

We've been round this one soooooo many times. It can’t go either side, too close to the boundaries. It could go right by the front door - lovely. Or it could go near the road and impede a parking space. Or it could go on the patio by the patio doors. Not ideal either. In reality the sensible choice was to give up on an ASHP and fit a gas boiler, but, as a matter of principle, we wanted no gas. So instead we are shelling out on an expensive pipe, and accepting slightly higher running costs. We think it is still ecologically better than a gas boiler. And if I can get a 300l one in the utility room without making the cupboards deeper I will. Ta for the link - haven’t buttoned down the cylinder yet.

Oh, and I’ll buy some extra soft HB pencils so my knees don’t hurt too much….

So I chose me ASHP, which will have a water pump built in. On the specs of that will be a limit to pipe resistance. So I add up my pipe resistances and compare, maybe using oversize underground pipes to help, and I either smile broadly or I plan in a return pump under my stairs to work in tandem with the ASHP water pump. Still looking at a single zone doing everything, just two 2 port valves, using weather compensation, a 250l UVC heated to maybe 50C. Oh and we want a switch that says heating - off - cooling. That’s the truly inspired bit. Am I getting warmer?

Plan D1 with naked UVC it is then. Thank you for helping me cap off daft options guys.

My base assumption would be to assemble myself from parts, but I can’t trust my instincts as it never occurs to me that sometimes factory built has advantages. Re the underground pipe surfacing just inside the house, I got that idea from a post on here, but I wanted the joint accessible. On the bright side, each idea identified as stoopid gets me closer to a sensible design - so I should (and do) welcome my embarrassment. 🙂

That had occurred, but I’ve history of excessive Ludditery, so I thought it best to seek the opinions of other's. Here's one of the units …. https://www.viessmann.co.uk/en/products/heat-pump/vitocal-151a.html

OK, I admit it, I grabbed the first link I could find - sorry. The units I’ve been looking at use a monoblock ASHP and the indoor unit is like a cylinder and lots else wrapped up in a steel box to make it look like a freezer. I think you connect the ASHP flow and return to the unit, thence the flow and return to the UFH manifolds, the cold water feed and the DHW output and thats it. Super quick instal giving a really neat unit. I’ll try find a link to the right one…