What's the best location for the plant room?

[LnP]

If you were putting in a gas boiler, I guess it would have to go on an outside wall. But if you're putting in an ASHP with UFH, is it perhaps better to put the plant room in the centre of the floor plan - shorter runs for DHW, pipes to UFH manifold, MVHR ducts?

 

Is there a maximum distance how far the plant room should be from the outside ASHP unit?

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, LnP said:

there a maximum distance how far the plant room should be from the outside ASHP unit?

No really within reason, but longer pipes mean bigger pressure drops and eventually larger pipes.

 

If it's a new build why even concider a gas boiler. We put in gas boiler, and now have ASHP.

 

UFH manifold can go anywhere, you are just limiting the circuit pipes to 100m. 

 

Cylinder can go anywhere also, but close to UFH and ASHP makes for easy plumbing.

[Kelvin]

Depends what else is going in your plant room. HWC, MVHR, UFH manifold and controls, centralised hot and cold water manifold, all your electrical equipment etc. I put ours in the centre with an outside wall and all of our plant equipment is in it apart from the water treatment which is in the garage. The benefit is all of our pipe, ducting, cable runs are relatively short and everything is in one place. The downside is it’s quite tight for space as I could have done with another 300mm of width and routing it all up into the ceiling wasn’t easy. 

[ProDave]

Like many I started down the "plant room" idea.  I soon realised in my case at least it would not work.

 

The only things in my "plant room" now is the MVHR unit, a pump and an expansion vessel for the heating circuit and some of the electrical controls for the ASHP.  The ASHP is a monoblock so most of that is just in a box outside.

 

CU is on the wall in the utility room where it is handy.

 

HW cylinder is in an airing cupboard in the corner of a bedroom, positioned  for short HW pipe runs i.e. at the centre of the points of use.

 

Kitchen water goes direct from the cylinder, bathrooms (in the opposite direction) have a distribution manifold in the inter floor space again to get the HW runs as short as possible, anywhere else would have made the HW runs longer.  There is a trap door in the ceiling of the utility room to access this.

 

I am reminded of my plumber friend that put everything in the plant room and ended up with his hot water tank literally as far from the kitchen as it could possibly be.

[Bozza]

Don’t forget to factor in the noise generated from whatever is in your plant room/cupboard .  Our no1 mistake was having ours in a location adjacent/below to otherwise quiet rooms - study & bedroom.  Didn’t appreciate the internal pumps and gubbins for our ASHP / central heating system make a tremendous noise when on.   Now having to, with difficulty and limited success, retrofit sound insulation.  Eventually I’m going have to pull up a bedroom floor above our plant cupboard to install enhanced sound insulation.

 

If you must locate it centrally and near rooms please consider enhanced sound insulation at very least.  I would never again have a plant room/  cupboard adjacent to a bedroom. If your house is in a quiet area and well insulated any internal noises even low buzzes or hums could be quite noticeable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kelvin]

Good point. Fortunately ours is in the single story bit of the house. However the study is on the other side of the wall from it. In our previous house the pumps and controls were all in a cupboard adjacent to our bedroom. It made a right Royal racket. 

[ProDave]

42 minutes ago, Bozza said:

If you must locate it centrally and near rooms please consider enhanced sound insulation at very least.  I would never again have a plant room/  cupboard adjacent to a bedroom. If your house is in a quiet area and well insulated any internal noises even low buzzes or hums could be quite noticeable.

That does not just apply to a "plant room".  The noise of a central heating circulating pump reverberates around anywhere there are pipes.  And i made the mistake of routing the flow and return from the ASHP under our bedroom floor.  If i were doing it again I would have taken a slightly longer route and put it under the bathroom floor instead.

 

I would not say it is "loud" but when I want to be quiet, I want things like that silent.