ruggers

What type of build construction and airtightness do you have to achieve them levels, it must be well insulated in the walls floor and roof area. Do you just have the 1 thermostat then? I understand the benefit of the electric towel rails now but I wouldn't like an all electric house with it costing 4 x more per KW hr, It can be more efficient in response times but electric UFH seems poor and expensive to run.

@ProDave Thats sounds really good managing to not require them upstairs. The site is about 400ft above sea level and can get a bit chilly in Winter, I'm not sure what to expect in terms of heat loss from a masonry build with cold loft compared to some timber frames. I'll be having 100mm PIR in the cavity, rockwool in all of the stud walls and between the ceiling & floors. Loft insulation between and over the ceiling chords, I was going to enquire about the foil quilt for under the rafters more as a heat deflector in summer to stop the slates transferring so much heat into the loft but the loft is trussed so quite awkward to make it sealed. There may be no purpose to the superfoil type if it's not sealed. I was considering adding insulated plasterboard certainly to the North facing walls, but unsure if I do all rooms in it or not until I 2022 quotes. @JohnMo If you can shut off the heat but can't call for it, is this just by using standard TRV's? What's the benefit to having electric towel rails over water heated? What are you referring to as linking to an area, do you mean don't extract from the ensuite, or do you mean to make sure the ensuite radiator is always linked to an area that will be calling for heat throughout the day? I've various reasons for wanting zones, some might not need applied to a new build vs my old current house with only partial insulation. 1.Temperature control over certain rooms, like living room at night when people are in bed not wanting bedrooms heated. 2. When working from home just heating the room i'm in for 8 hrs or heating only 2 rooms early morning as I leave for work 2.5 hrs before the kids. 3. I just thought it was more efficient to only heat the rooms we use the most on some days. I'm used to an older house with a living room fire and all radiators controlled from one thermostat. It heats up well and loses it well in the old part with no wall insu., new extensions better.

Both assumptions are correct, and it will be airtight and highly insulated as per regs, but I should maybe rephrase part of Q2. I understand that the incoming air will be lower temperature than what is being extracted due to the heat exchange process/loss. But If i have a small ensuite that is enclosed, with an MVHR extract vent, if the only source of heat in that room is a radiator, during the winter months, when that radiator isn't turned on because the zone it's linked to isn't calling for heat, would it not end up really cold because any air that's in that room has been extracted out? If I had no extract in there, then all of that heat would be retained in the ensuite room after the radiator turns off if I insulate the walls around it correctly. Although any smells wouldn't escape with no extract. I don't quite understand the quoted line?

After delaying the start of a 2 storey masonry self build house 2 years ago, I'm looking to possibly make a start this summer and I have some questions I'd like answered to help me make decisions on where to place my heating zones, mainly linked to how the air will move. I'd prefer to understand this before I engage with the MVHR companies again as I'll be doing a lot myself. Questions: 1. Are extracted rooms cooler than supply rooms when they aren't generating heat. Example, when not cooking or showering, meaning the extracted air isn't too warm from that room and it not having a supply vent? 2. We will have a large master bedroom with small ensuite, toilet, sink & small radiator only, Will it end up really cold when the ensuite radiator is off because all of the air is being removed. Knowing this will let me decide if I have the ensuite as part of the same zone as the master bedroom or do I have it on open circuit (Heats when any upstairs radiator is called). 3. Hallway & landing I was told, they will unlikely need vents as the air will move between them from other rooms. If so, will there be cold spots in these areas with air movement? I'm trying to decide if I have the hallway on its own temperature zone, link it to another zone, or have it on an open circuit to keep the central temperature balanced with it being a central hallway. Details: The house design is fairly basic, ground and first floor, cold loft, central hallway and landing. Previous talks with companies were showing (5) supply air vents to 4 bedrooms & the downstairs living room. Extracts (6 Vents), from the ground floor kitchen, utility room, downstairs bathroom, plant room, upstairs bathroom and ensuite. We will have wet UFH downstairs zoned, & radiators upstairs some zoned.

Thanks for the photos, looks quite a big job. How do you trim them long ways for the cut ends like each end of yours being 4m ish from the photo? I will have 1 top abutment, 1 side abutment and one verge but it's quite close to an exact sheet size, i haven't yet built it so if required for a better roof, I could tweak sizes 25-50mm. How have you found the noise when it rains?

I have provided plans to your colleague and had a glance over the installation guide, but theres a lot of tools required for a one off small porch roof. I thought the snaplock minght of reduced the need for as many tools , the basic tool kit required says £550? The roof is an abutment at the top and down one side with a verge on the other side. 3m wide and a 2100mm fall at 7 degree pitch, i can go anywhere between 5 and 10 but would prefer to keep it low. So I could really do with an estimate of the costs including tools vs labour to compare against the estimate from Catnic/colourcoat urban. Is the greencoat PLX a different material used compared to the SSR2 of catnic?

Thanks, but I need to use a plain surface because i will have slates on the main roof but can't achieve the same pitch on the porch so unable to use slates. Any other types would just look too much. Can I buy direct from the website or will I need to go through a supplier? Is there a difference in product material or price between colourcoat urban and the SSAB greencoat PLX?

Thanks. I'm able to achieve the minimum pitch easily, I'm just looking at what products are available in metal standing seam, the various prices, longevity and if possible to fit myself. If I use GRP as a lean too I'm not sure it will look as good from the front elevation of a house as a lean to roof so it would be better in a parapet style but then I've the expensive of capping off the top and it's not too straight forward the face walls are being cladded in stone and different thicknesses. Flat roofs cause more issues if they leak and creating through wall drains. The standing seam metal estimate from Catnic SSR2 wasn't too bad but I don't know anyone who's used it, It did require £300 worth of tools to self fit that i'd not use again. Is the tata steel colour coat urban a different price or product?

Does anyone have any information on the use of catnics standing seam metal roofs or any other companies I could speak to? I'm planning to build 2 storey self build house from brick construction and the architect suggested a metal roof for the flat/low pitched porch roof, the porch is external to the house but a closed front with locked door keeping shoes and coats etc. There will be 2 external cavity walls exposed as it is built into an internal corner of the house, so other than a parapet type roof or a low pitched lean to roof and standard gutter I can't think of many options. The size is 3m x 2m. Parapet roofs look a lot more prone to leaking if something fails and some of the aluminium copings for the top can be very expensive if a GRP roof is used or EPDM.

I'm going to contact them later today for some prices. They also have a good warranty compared to some if it's worth anything in the small detail. Thanks to everyone for the help.

Brilliant, so the corner TRV you sent will just give the same look as onoff's picture above but a few less joints & pipe. Feels like a big relief resolving this so i can now select some components.? a decent manifold.

Theres not really any other way to do a sharp 90 degree from a wall into a towel rail where you need chrome pipe. But there shouldn't be too many of these in a house and compressions are fairly solid when used correctly. Nice job.

Thanks, I didn't think it was as simple as that, so it's just a pipe inset that slides inside the 16mm pipe and the tapered end fits inside a standard 15mm compression fitting or lockshield. The nut on the 16mm pipe has a thread that fits the 15 compression fitting? This looks the same as the link you posted too. https://pswtradesuppliers.co.uk/brass-compression-fittings/89-adapter-16mm-pipe-x-15mm-compression-fittings.html And at the manifold end, just use 16mm eurocone fitting with 3/4 thread like this: https://www.underfloorstore.co.uk/product/warmus-compression-adapters I didn't realise you can fit a range of pipe sizes from12/15/16 into an UFH manifold, you just buy a eurocone to fit your pipe size with a 3/4" thread and the taper takes up the gap and makes the seal if that correct.

What pipe did you use with them? They only accept 15mm pipe. I need to join pert or pex from the manifold to each radiator. I can't think of any way other than having the manifold inlets and the radiator fittings both 15/15 or 16/16 to have one jointless run of pipe from end to end. Or pay 4 times the price for 16mm lockshields on the rads at £16 each.

Any reason why you think they are crap? They are definitely expensive, someone just said they had excellent flow rates. I don't know what makes a good or a bad one, they all look the same so i'm relying on people who install & replace them regular to give me theirs views. I've not seen them elbows before, they would do but the reason i wanted standard valves on, was incase i remove the radiator to decorate or replace i suppose. I like to have one of them straight tails with an inline drain off on radiators, then an angled valve or lock shield. Theres 9 radiators total, 5 or 6 will be actuator controlled, 3 or 4 will just connected on the open circuit (So heat up when any others call for heat) because they are in bathrooms, some are towel rails.

It's for a new build with dot & dab walls & scurtain board, most radiators are external walls so it would be hard to get 15/16mm pipe & fitting hidden otherwise i agree, also i don't like TRV horizontally adding to the length of the radiator. Does this mean if you use 15mm pipe & cones, that the manifold ports need to be 15mm, you can't fit 15mm pipe to a 16mm manifold? I'd like to use 15mm upstairs but there only seems to be polypipe that use 15mm manifolds. I was told they are an excellent manifold because flow isn't affected on the other zones when others open & close unlike cheaper manifolds, but a 9 port polypipe manifold is £300 without anything else which is a lot more than other models. I don't want to skimp on important components but haven't got money to throw away. 15mm x 1/2" angled rad valves with compression fitting are about £3.50 each. The only 16mm valves are £16 each. I'll be using a gas system boiler & unvented cylinder, UFH downstairs on 4 zones with actuators, and rads upstairs with 5 zones using manifold & some actuators. Some pipe I seen was max 60 degrees and rads will be 65 to 75 degrees depending ho i size them. 16mm manifolds and pipe seem to be easy to get hold of everywhere, but it's not cheap or easy to source angled radiator valves. Unless theres an insert or cone fitting i'm unaware of that allows 15mm pipe into a 16mm manifold, i have an expensive problem at either end. Its a 15mm manifold vs 16mm radiator valves. Using 16/15mm inline reducer under the floor means joints under the floor.

No i haven't bought anything yet, it's for a new build next year, so I've just been getting info on the things i want to use. I have seen the euro cone, nut, split olive and insert but wondered if the cone was to match the pipe size or not. Just wanted the pipe to come out of the floor into the valve, no under floor joints. I've always used soldered copper but I'd imagine it's hard now with posi joists to pass lengths through at 600 centres In the past I've only used 15mm radiator valves so didn't know if it was bad practice in the UK to fit 16mm valves or if they aren't common. 15mm pex or pert pipe and manifolds seem to be less common and more expensive in the UK. I'm having wet UFH ground floor and zoned radiators upstairs on an UFH manifold upstairs controlled with actuators. It makes it easier if I use the same pipe upstairs & down if I get one that can take higher temperature but if need be i could have 16 down and 15 up if it was easier for the radiators.

This is what I'd like to do but never used Eurocones so not understanding them fully. Are eurocones always required to connect any size MLCP pipe to a manifold, even if both are the same size? ie: 16mm pipe into a 16mm manifold, or just when the two are different sizes? Most UFH manifolds I've seen are for 16mm pipe except polyplumb which takes 15mm pipe. Standard radiator lock shields take a 15mm pipe and if i want to insert 16mm pipe direct from the manifold to the radiator in one run, I want to know the best way to do so to make it fit the 15 lock shield valve? how did you do this?

What does the 7c 10c differential mean?

So can any brand of manifold actuator connect to any brand of wiring centre to operate the heating system? But the wireless hub that connects to your home router has to match the app used and be able to connect to your wiring centre? Salus just confirmed only their wireless wall thermostats work with the apps not the wired ones. I was told that Heatmiser can only operate heating and wall plugs, do other systems offer more? Light would be my only other interest. My reason for all house zones was just for comfort levels and to make it economical. the app connection is really just a bonus for changing multiple settings on 9 programmers, it's a bit lazy if you can't get up & walk 2m to your wall stat.

Your saying the salus actuators on the manifold work with the heatmiser wiring centre and software? Were these wired or RF actuators?

I seen 24V and 230V ones, 230 seemed the standard when i checked like you say. If your saying they are thermal, what are other brands, i've not came across this term or the different methods of working. I know some of the standard TRV's are wax filled. Would the £7 ones still work with heatmiser wiring centre and software? I thought an actuator with two wires and the correct size thread, any brand would work with any wiring centre because it's basically just receiving a signal telling it to open and close. so a Salus actuator should connect and work with a heatmiser wiring centre? It's only the connection to the hub and app that makes the system online and open to software problems. It says that heatmiser will work with Alexa and google. There doesn't seem to be a lot of different control systems coming up, they were the most popular on all the sales sites i've looked at. Local plumbers who will be commissioning might have some suggestions but it's always good to of done some research yourself.

Are you referring to the balancing actuators for the radiators or ones that fit onto manifolds? Because i have the opportunity, i'd like to hard wire it all. I checked Salus on trust pilot and google reviews and they weren't good at all, Heatmiser seemed very good, it's a shame if what you say has changed. I found their stuff cheap, £13 for an actuator and £45 for the neo thermostat. I'd mainly only use the app for changing all settings at once otherwise once it's programmed i'd just leave it or walk to the wall to change temperature. Im open to any brands but some of them are treble the price. What do you mean by closed system, are other brands not closed?

Thanks, I will look into the Evo home as Honeywell is a known brand. I'm happy to have the radiators controlled via manifold with actuators or actuators on the radiators, i just want it to work with the downstairs UFH controls, I don't know if everything has to be the same brand to be compatible. If it does, a poor brand might go bust in a few years and if an actuator fails, you end up having to replace everything. Heatmiser seem to have a good range & reviews, Salus has poor reviews. Hive and Nest all seem to be highly priced wireless aimed at retrofit or people who prefer no hard wiring.

I'm looking to instal zoned wet UFH to the ground floor of a new build along with a zoned radiator system upstairs but would like it to be controlled by the same system if possible. Is this possible? Downstairs will be 4 UFH zones on wall & screed stats, and upstairs radiators I'd like 5 thermostat zones with either wired TRV's on the radiators or another central manifold with motorised valves on, which adds a bit more to the cost. I just want upstairs and downstairs on the same control/smart system so it's one app to control it instead of two if possible? The app won't get used much with all the room stats programmed, but it gives me the option to do so if required. I've looked at a couple of brands but need more details.