Inchbyinch Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Hi I was just wondering is there a benfit to getting the premium pump set as opposed to the standard? Diff of about £30-40 thanks ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Is this the choice between Wilo and Grundfos by any chance? If so, I went for the Wilo after a fair bit of research. Only been six months so far but it's still working perfectly and almost completely silent. The pump itself seems a very well made piece of kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchbyinch Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 I was thinking more about the thermo valve v the 3 way mixer on the wt site Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchbyinch Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 And thanks for getting back so quick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 3 way mixer IIRC has a replaceable cartridge - the all in one unit seems to be a weak point if it can't be replaced in the future. Like Jack I can't see the benefit of the Grundfos pump over Wilo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Re the pump just make sure it's an A band. Re the sets, I've never had issues with either, but a few on here rave about the thermo type as they appear to give better performance at lower temp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said: Re the pump just make sure it's an A band. Re the sets, I've never had issues with either, but a few on here rave about the thermo type as they appear to give better performance at lower temp. My experience has been that the thermo type with the remote sensor that is fitted inside a pocket in the flow manifold seems to allow very good control down to about 24 deg C flow temp, and just about work at 23 deg C flow. In practice I run it at around 24 to 25 deg C flow temp, as that seems to be a reasonable compromise. At that flow temp, with a 70 litre buffer tank at 35 deg C, fed from the ASHP, the UFH seems to be reasonably good at providing the small amount of heat needed in cold weather, but it's worth bearing in mind that even in the very coldest weather we've had over the past year or so I've never seen the UFH come on for more than about an hour or so in the morning, every two to three days. I think it very much depends on your set up and heating requirement as to which thermostatic valve will work best. When I was researching them the three port type were unable to control reliably below about 28 deg C, whereas the 2 port remote head ones seem to work very well at a much lower flow temperature. 28 deg C would have been too high for our system, I'm sure, as ideally I wanted to be able to deliver just a very small amount of heat to the floor, as the house is extremely sensitive to sudden heat inputs, and once it gets a bit too warm it takes a long time to cool down again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchbyinch Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 Thanks, I think I'll go wilo standard as it sounds like the option that fits best. We will have a very low energy requirement and it sounds like I'll have as much cooling as I will heating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but my experience with an MBC house isn't quite the same as Jeremy's. I know Jeremy's house is in a bit of a micro-climate that encourages overheating. I think a lot of it is to do with our general lack of solar gain, but we've never, ever had an overheating problem (and I haven't yet commissioned the cooling option on our ASHP). The ASHP is also on pretty regularly at a low level when it's very cold. Based on that, I'd just be cautious about assuming that overheating is a given, and that heating inputs will rarely be required. It's similar to the question about bathroom heating - despite a lot of people getting away without it, I was surprised how cool our bathrooms felt, and now wish we'd installed some form of low temp UFH in them. We'll definitely be retrofitting some form of heating (possibly IR-based) to the bathrooms before next winter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchbyinch Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 As ever it's great to have this team of great people in one place. I'm not convinced I will require cooling but I don't think we will need a lot of heating and I think it will require a low running temp which suggests to me that the best operation is 2 port valve as out lined by Jeremy, Wilo pump as outlined by yourself. Thanks again Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Currently in two minds over electric UFH in the basement - it's a large area (100m2), essentially 4 big square rooms. Always at a constant temperature. We have a passive slab/box arrangement as the walls and concrete are one structure with EPS under/around them. Wet UFH in the slab was not possible due to the high levels of rebar in there and I also did not want to be heating up the entire mass of concrete. We have UFH under the suspended timber ground floor. We made a last minute (i.e. plaster board was already up) decision to put UFH in the 3 first floor bathrooms and are now faced with the same decision for the basement - seems to be when plaster is hitting the walls that we finally move on something If I was using electric UFH, it would be on insulated tile backer boards (we're tiling the floor anyway) to ensure that we we're just warming the tiles themselves. and it would get us over the levelling issues that we potentially face. Cost (materials and labour) would be the main blocker, plus the need to retro-fit any electrical requirements into the walls where required. That said, I also don't want to lay 100m2 of tiles and feel that we've made a mistake. Hmmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 1 hour ago, Bitpipe said: We made a last minute (i.e. plaster board was already up) decision to put UFH in the 3 first floor bathrooms and are now faced with the same decision for the basement - seems to be when plaster is hitting the walls that we finally move on something Amazing how one trade suddenly closing off an avenue focuses the mind! It'll break your heart (and wallet) breaking up those tiles if it turns out to be uncomfortably chilly down there. If you can afford it, I'd say do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 3 hours ago, jack said: Amazing how one trade suddenly closing off an avenue focuses the mind! It'll break your heart (and wallet) breaking up those tiles if it turns out to be uncomfortably chilly down there. If you can afford it, I'd say do it. Now looking into alternatives such as Karndean or Amtico which are warmer underfoot than tile. Challenge is to separate the risk of cold feet vs actual space heating needs. The basement will contain a tv den / home cinema and the plant room with gas boiler and UVC so i expect there to be heat leakage from those elements, plus modest solar gain from the east and west lightwells (each 2m wide). It's hard to predict what it will feel like when we're done. I was in Tony's basement and it was very cosy with no heating whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex C Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Warmer feeling floor such as a amtico or wood is a good idea. Could you run pipe work for a radiator and leave it capped at the wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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