Underfloor Manifold - 2 Pumps?

[mikeseaman3000]

Hello everyone,

 

I am currently getting work done to our house and a question challenge has arison with regards to the underfloor system and the Air Source Heat Pump.

 

Our house is 260m2,    3 storey property with fully underfloor heating throughout and towel radiators in the bathrooms.

We are getting an Mitsubishi Ecodan fitted which has 2 zone heating and temperature control, basically a temperature control valve on zone 2.

Our existing underfloor is Uponor, installed from the original build of the house.  It has 2 manifolds, 1 top floor and 1 middle floor. Note the ASHP is on the Top Floor. 

The existing underfloor has a pump and temperature controlled mixing valve. (measures flow temperature electronicaly and controls accordingly)

 

The question I have is the following.

the existing setup has 1 pump supplying both manifolds, the existing mixing valve is supply that single pump. So whilst the existing setup is two manifolds, they are effectively supplied by a common pump and mixer.

 

The heating engineer has highlighted that this a lot of strain for one pump. I did notice last year, that during a cold snap and a few zones on then the ones zone in the bottom of the house struggled to get warm. Bearing in mind this has long vertical drop and also a largeish underfloor run too.

 

I dont want to get 2 new manfiolds, they work perfectly well and seems silly because the temperature mixing is done by the Ecodan anyway. So any manifold i purchased would have the temeperature regulator fully open. 

Is it possible to split the flow from the mixing valves and utilise two pumps, one for the upstairs manifold and another for the downstairs manifold. These pumps could be in the same location just split on the flow pipes ot the different manifolds. Note the flow temperature flow/return could be measured on the flow common pipe and return common pipe to the install.

Is this feasable. I got a slight sigh from the engineer, so maybe i am wrong?

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

 

 

 

[mikeseaman3000]

something like this? horrendously drawn in MS Paint

[dpmiller]

Is there another pump for the towel rads or are they just opposite the  ASHP tappings on the LLH?

[mikeseaman3000]

Just now, dpmiller said:

Is there another pump for the towel rads or are they just opposite the  ASHP tappings on the LLH?

sorry yes. Technically there is a pump on low loss header for the Towel Rails