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Hello We have built a large extension to an early 1900’s house to be heated by ASHP with buffer tank. We are installing a wet UFH system using 3 manifolds due to the position of the zones. We will also have radiators in the bedrooms in the old part of the house. Looking at various heating system designs online, I am confused as to what valves I need to install and where in the pipework. Do I need a zone valve for the radiator circuit and one for the UFH circuit? Or do I need a valve for each manifold? And should the valves be located at the buffer or at the manifolds? I have also seen some circuit drawings with non-return valves on the return legs of the UFH, presumably to stop the other circuits trying to push the wrong way. Any advice greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to shut off the hot water supply to repair the kitchen tap. Unfortunately I can't see any isolator valves near the tap, so I'm puzzling over how to shut off hot water for the whole house. I tried to do a bit of research into how our heating & hot water system works, but I may be getting this wrong, and to be honest I'm kind of tempted to just post the question "What the heck do all these pipes do?", but I shall try to be more specific. It's an F&E system with two tanks in the loft and hot water cylinder in the first floor airing cupboard, which looks like this: So according to these instructions I need to close a valve which feeds cold water into the bottom of the cylinder. "This valve should be easily recognisible as a valve with a red, wheel-shaped handle on a pipe that runs from the ceiling of the airing cupboard to the bottom of the cylinder." The valve in the top-right (just above the top shelf) seemed to fit that description, so I tried closing that. Then I noticed the valve in the bottom left could also fit that description, so I've tried closing that too (although I may be misunderstanding the direction of flow there) I notice there's three pipes leading into the bottom of the cylinder. The third one slightly higher on the left is hopefully shut off by the motorised valve (I have the heating and hot water switched off) I then try running the hot tap for a minute or two, but it's showing no signs of stopping. Do I just need to wait longer for pipes to drain out? I tried the same on the 2nd floor bathroom because I thought it might stop flowing quicker there, but ...no sign of stopping.

Whilst I am still working out some of the more difficult questions: Does anyone know if the claimed no leaking ‘paddle’ type valve is better than a shoe valve? Pictures taken from Danfoss literature: I am looking to utilise 3-port valves to control my heating/cooling system so it has to isolate the UFH from the TS when there is no heat call (constant circulation) and also isolate the TS from the ASHP when cooling. All literature on valves shows some leakage but the Danfoss literature claims the ‘Paddle’ valve seals 100%. As anybody got experience in these and does anybody else make ‘paddle’ type valves?