john0wingnut

They are screwed on slightly over hand tight, - saw this advice in another thread Info re function: To correctly balance the flow of heated water through the UFH circuit the flow rate needs to be regulated: too much flow will lower the ∆T below 7°C and the circuit will heat up too fast, too little flow will increase the ∆T above 7°C and the circuit will heat up too slowly. The THB230 auto balancing actuator is the answer for getting effective control of your UFH circuit. The THB230 will constantly measure the ∆T via the two temperature sensors and adjust the valve position by closing or opening its slightly. All to maintain constant 7°C temperature differential (between the emitter flow and return pipes) and make your UFH circuit really effective - economy and convenient. Pipe sensors are 10cm down from manifold, facing forward as per the Salus manual

Working now, but with the issue as per above. @Nickfromwalesadvised me previously it was potentially "bypassing" causing my issue, but with the Salus ABA, they are getting equal flow now, but just dont seem to throttle back!

They were manually balanced by the installer several years back, but as one room wasnt getting flow on one loop, no matter how much messing about was done, I have now gone the Salus ABA route, which requires the flow meters to be fully opened for Salus ABA to work

How have you found these? I have just fitted some, to one of my manifolds to test them out, but for some reason, they are behaving in an odd way, or thats how I have perceived it. My lounge and Master Bed zones have two loops each, and even post calibration, the valves open at full flow and just sit there. They don't appear to throttle the flow back at all, room reaches temp, zone shuts down. I understand they try and maintain a delta of 7 degrees between flow and return, but looking at my manifolds, this never happens - flow usually sits about 3-4 degrees higher than return, but i do appreciate this is not necessarily what is being detected by the pipe sensors. My ensuite is a short single loop circuit, and the Salus ABA on that one does indeed work as intended. Opens full flow then throttles back to about 1l/s, the 7 degree variance is reached Has certainly confused me somewhat - am I have tried re-calibrating numerous times, but no change.

Hi all with reference to the attached schematic, which is for my UFH / DHW setup with an air source heat pump, am I right in thinking that the return to the HP should be from the buffer tank, rather than T off from the UFH return, as with it this way you don’t have hydraulic separating and if the UFH pump and HP pumps are running at different speeds it won’t work properly. Or is if fine as it is?

How did you get on with solving this?

With regards to the Heatmiser stats, you just need to make sure the output delay is set too something like 2 mins, as the Salus Calibration power cycle is 60 seconds, from memory. Found this - https://www.honeywellhome.com/us/en/support/my-thermostat-display-shows-wait-or-waiting-for-equipment-or-has-a-flashing-cool-on-in-display/ So looks like Honeywell do incorporate something that can be used, but maybe just called something different in the setting menu

My standard Nuheat actuators are made by Salus - https://salus-controls.com/uk/product/t30nc230/, but just banded with Nuheat Logo. They are of the Normally Closed variety. The Salus auto balancing are also normally closed, https://salus-controls.com/uk/product/thb23030/, so you should be able to replace like for like, even if they of the sprung loaded NC type.

Hi I have a NIBE 2040 12kw unit with 100l buffer, and our bills are nowhere near that. We have a bungalow about 180sqm, all UFH. It has taken me a while to fine tune the system - we have an SMO20 controller - is this what you have? You should also have multiple temp probes: flow and return from ASHP, one in the buffer, and one on a pipe labelled “heat medium return” I now have max flow line temp set to 40 degrees and the temperature curve is 8 with an offset of +1. There are multiple settings around when the immersions kick in, and these need setting correctly, as when setup incorrectly, they are overused and will hike the bills up. Take a look at your degree minutes setting. Should be 100. Lower = short cycling. As previous posts mention, your buffer temp prob should tell the SMO20 to call for more heat when it goes below a set temp, so the floors should never run a lower temp than the flow line being required by the set heat curve. Where have you placed your outdoor air sensor?

It is all rather interesting, to say the least. I assume thats through your local Rationel distributor?

Thanks. Kloeber have quoted me £8500 + VAT for a 2.5 x 2.1 slider with one fixed pane. That is a very large difference

How much of that was for the sliding doors? If you dont mind me asking.

Just thought I would update on this. So VELFAC have rung me and advised that referring to distributors for smaller projects is a new process, which started in the New Year, following suite from Rationel. But, customers can still request to deal directly with VELFAC, which I now am doing so for my quote.

3 x Doors 2 x 2.5m x 2.3m Sliders 4 x 2.4m x 1.2m windows 3 x 1.2 x 1.2m windows 2 x 0.9 x 1.2m windows .......... so a fair amount

And was that direct to you, with you providing the window measurements etc?

Hi all I have been putting quotes out for new AluClad Timber Windows. One of the places I contacted was VELFAC, but after several email exchanges and me providing all the further detail they wanted, they have come back to me saying they have passed my info onto a local supplier called VinDor, who can help me. Looked on their site and they only deal with Rationel Windows, which I understand is the same group as VELFAC. I assumed from plenty of other posts on here that VELFAC deal directly with self builders etc, so just wondering why they wont provide me a quote directly. Just seems odd. John

Hi all Thanks for the replies. I'll go around and rip them all off and see whats what then. Not such a bad thing, as the misses would like Oak window sills anyway. I'll just have to be careful when pulling the bead edges off, as I've damaged some of the plasterboard on the wall above the window in this room, as I didnt notice nails through it.... Ive just had a 12 pack of illbruck 2 in 1 airseal foam delivered, so I can fill all around the window opening between the block and plaster board. With regards to the Lintels, and internal reveals, I looked through a document by LABC called "Builders Book - An illustrated guide to building energy efficient homes" and it advises the use of insulated backed plasterboard, to avoid cold bridging, so figured I would use that when replacing the removed plasterboard, and maybe 15mm PIR or XPS under the window sill. Im doing the repair work myself, well, except the plastering that is. John

Its Friday ?

I currently have 2G uPVC windows, which I am going to change to AluClad 3G - quotes have been requested from the usual suspects. Now, I've been investigating our master bedroom due to drafts and mold on window and door internal reveals etc, and thus I ripped off the plasterboard/ window sill. What Ive found is the current windows are poorly installed as I can see daylight in places around the frame and a section of cavity closer was missing / were poorly fitted. The lintels over the windows / patio door are the continuous metal type, and if memory serves me well, this means that one should use some form of insulation between the lintel and the reveal - eg PIR backed plasterboard. Given what Ive found here, Im concerned the reveals/openings in other rooms potentially have issues as well. The =uPVC is currently 70mm and most aluClad timber is wider, so reveals will need to be cut back anyway, and I think most get mounted on straps screwed into the inner block, which would probably mean removing or damaging the plasterboard anyway to allow proper window installation. So, if others where in my shoes, would you just go around and pull the inner reveals off and fix any potential issues prior to the windows turning up, then put in new PIR backed plasterboard, once the windows are fitted, or leave it until the uPVC windows are taken out to see whats what, then take it from there?

Very true. 0.3Kw. It was late at night

All the other stuff that’s generally on. You get nice graphs out of the Tesla App, and other than when the ASHP is on on cooking appliances which cause large spikes, it hovers between 200-300w

Very interesting thread. We have a 1950s bungalow that was heavily renovated / extended in 2017. Walls are twin leaf block with 110mm full fill cavity. Upvc double glazing and 300mm fibre insulation in the loft. floor is beam and block, 100mm PIR then UFH 65mm slab. We have ASHP as no gas, Solar thermal, 7kw PV and a Powerwall. No consideration was given to airtightness etc and having got interested in sorting the place out further and frequenting the forum, there are many loose ends to tie up in terms of making the building more airtight. eg current windows are poorly installed, I’ve found a cavity without a closer in it and we have sun tunnels without there sealing closures currently as they were taken off to paint and then we’re never found, and those things haemorrhage heat to the roof, as when it’s frosty the section of roof with these is always clear, with the rest covered in frost. Have also taken a leaf out of @AliG book and going round finding all sorts of holes and drafts around stack pipes and water pipes etc. Needless to say I will be sorting all this out. Anyway back to energy usage: Tesla Powerwall is telling me we have used 13,168kwh in 2020. Of this approx 3000kwh relates to our two electric cars for the year at about 60kwh per week. Background electricity in the house is about 0.3kwh which is 2500kwh per year and I would estimate another 1000kwh for cooking per year as we have induction hob and electric ovens used at least twice a day, along with the microwave etc So that leaves 6668kwh for DHW and heating. 180m2 floor space = 37kwh/m2. I’ll round it up to 40 :). We generated 6845kwh via PV and imported 9084kwh from the grid, so we have utilised about 4100kwh of solar and exported the rest. Once out first floor extension gets done, and I replace all windows and doors with Aluclad 3G, we should in theory see that figure drop further. I know it’s a crude calculation but I’m quite please with that.

Fair point. Maybe I’m getting too techy on something that doesn’t need to be. I think the kitchen boost and hall controller is a must, so I will do those. I wasn’t going to worry about bathrooms / ensuites as figured the humidistat will take care of that. Does the Brink Excellent have a pre heater as that is my other consideration; from what I’ve read in other threads it’s a good idea to have one. My building will be 250m2 ish when upstairs extension is done, so I will go with a 400 sized unit then. I was looking at the Ducobox Energy400 which you can get with a day/night supply 2 zone setup. Seems quite a neat idea, but have not read about any others on here with one. Brink Flair 400 may be a sound choice in my case then, if I don’t need the fancy bits.

Lol They are a wireless switch brand I believe: https://shelly.cloud

Smart idea!! One question that might be a tad daft - why only to upstairs? I have seen some MVHR units which have the ability to control a post heater using the MVHR sensors, so very similar to what you’ve done, but likely a more expensive option.