Mulberry View

Each manifold needs to have an MLCP supply and return, these were something I didn't understand at all in terms of when they are installed in the sequence. These are separate from the heating loops and, as I understand, need to be insulated. Yes, the same person is doing both elements and will also be helping me to spec the whole heating and ventilation system by the looks of it. Probably PV too.

I've paid £195 for a heat loss analysis with a hefty report. £295 for the UFH layout and for that he's going to route the manifold supply and returns too. Honestly, I think he'll pay for himself in what he's looking like he'll save us on kit already.

Just to update this, I've put it with an independent heat-loss consultant who has done a much more thorough heat-loss analysis. Very comprehensive and far more believable. I'll be sharing his details on here once I have the full work in hand so I can make a proper recommendation. I realise many can do this themselves, but there are clearly some out there with far more knowledge than I can hope to attain in the short time I have to get this sorted. Good news is that he makes our total heat loss a more respectable 5.45kw and has already hinted at 300mm pipe spacings with a 5kw heat pump. I hope to have eyes on the UFH layout plan next week.

Thanks @Susie, very helpful. I'll check your blog out.

Not got it yet, but I really am hoping for 0.5. The windows and most doors are Norrsken P31A which are capable of it apparently. The roof is a monopitch warm roof that has minimal opportunity for leakage. We'd said that if we don't hit our desired ACH that we'd consider Aerobarrier. I'm not planning to let that make me lazy though!

No, my build was spec'd in 2021 using their standard blocks. They advised us at the time not to bother with anything other than standard.

Our Architect drew a 50mm "Service Void". Now, I know it's not strictly needed with the ability to chase stuff in to the Polystyrene, but what have you done? We have a Posi FF and roof, so plenty of service scope there. I haven't got my mind off running an internal skin of PIR (25/50mm) instead in an attempt to lift the "weak" 0.24 u-value of the Nudura blocks, but I wouldn't do both the PIR and the void.

I've only just clicked on this, looks like a comprehensive tool, thank you. What steps do I need to complete for the UFH calcs?

Awesome! Anyone up for productively helping out with this for some beer tokens?! 🤣🍺 This guy is primarily a screeder by the way (and one that came highly recommended by someone I really trust), so I'm not holding it against him too much. I also think he'll be a good supplier for the kit, perhaps just not so much the design!

I'm sure he must just be talking about the bunch of pipes as it enters the living room. That's all that really changed between the earlier design. I wish I could jiggle with this myself, but I just can't get the software set up satisfactorily.

Here's a re-jig of the design. The supplier said the following - "I have opened the pipe spacing to 150mm in the Kitchen. This will be fine if you are going to run the Kitchen and Living Room as 1 zone. If the Living Room is to be zoned on its own thermostat then I would keep the pipes at 50mm. I have put just 1 manifold in the Kitchen. This will give you uncontrolled heat in the Study, where the pipes route to and from the manifold from other rooms. Also, the Shower Room is quite a long run to and from the manifold. The hall and Utility are now controlled on 1 thermostat.. might be good to keep them separate, so that you always have the option to control separately in the future if needed?" The Living Room is only separated from the Kitchen by a partition, so it's somewhat open plan. I'm not sure if the uncontrolled heat in the study is an issue? Also, I don't see the issue with the Hall and Utility being on 1 thermostat as an issue, there is now to be no door between them anyway. Any thoughts on this? @JohnMo?

That's what I'm saying, those values aren't reflective of what is there. Even based on the standard Nudura figures of 0.24 for their blocks (keep in mind these were ordered before the new regs came in). I don't understand the technicalities, but ICF houses seem to perform differently to their relatively poor quoted u-values. At least half of the building is going to be rendered and will receive a 30mm layer of EWI in the detailing. The Architect designed a 50mm battened service void on the inside, which I may do away with on the perimeter walls or replace with PIR, yet to be decided. That "design" is very preliminary, perhaps should be taken at this stage with a pinch of salt. The software I played with was Heatpunk, maybe I could try Loopcad.

I've had a preliminary ASHP quotation which included a heat loss analysis. Keep in mind that no commitment has been made to any of this. This is the output of that in terms of heat loss. Seems high for a triple glazed Nudura house... Then I noticed that they appear to have used "placeholders" in the construction materials section... The standard Nudura blocks are 0.24. The figures for the floor and roof seem off. I'm having 230mm PIR in the floor (I'm sure that'll be substantially better than 0.18). There are 3 large rooflights, but these are Vario by Velux triple glazed units (1.1 u-value I think) I'll be very disappointed if I don't achieve sub 1.0 ACH, I'm looking for 0.5 really. I don't want to go too far with this design as I'm not vested in them and don't want to end up too deep in obligation to them. The house will also have MVHR of course.

The whole house is 200m2, the ground floor is 140 ish of those m2's. The quotes I had from Roth, Continal and at least 2 others, all seemed to go for 150mm spacing, is it just that they're a bit lazy? I tried one of the softwares mentioned on here (don't think it was Loopcad), but I really struggled getting the plan properly laid out.

The ASHP is going adjacent to the Utility Room, top left corner of that plan. The manifold in the middle would be about 10-12 metres away from the ASHP and 600mm higher than the closer manifold. I'm not against doing it in one, but I guess the supply and return pipes will be reasonably long. This could be shortened if I can pass them under the internal walls (in the Marmox blocks), but not sure if that's senslble?