Plant room questions

[mjc55]

Having started discussing access regarding plant rooms in this thread here I thought I would start a slightly different one here.

 

So basically I would be interested in what size people have allocated to plant rooms and whether it was adequate for their needs?

 

I am about to put planning in but am prevaricating a tad as I don't think that at 1900 x 1800 it will be big enough to contain MVHR, batteries, UFH manifold, potentially HW tank (although this could potentially go elsewhere) etc.

 

Thought and experiences welcome.

[joe90]

With my build I had a plant room cupboard in the back of the cloakroom. Frankly you need to draw it out on paper to scale  against the wall to see if your “kit” will fit. With the “cupboard “ I did I didn’t need to have “standing room” and double doors to access everything (I even had a washing machine in there.)

[Kelvin]

Mine is 1.2m wide by 3.7m long and it’s a bit tight. My batteries will be in the garage. I stole 400mm of the width to make the hallway wider. It houses MVHR up one end, data cabinet, CU, home automation panel, water distribution manifold, UFH manifold, HWC plus space to hang coats, dog leads, keys. You need to draw everything to scale and plan out exactly where it’s all going to go including pipe runs. I could easily have screwed my layout up by not doing that it’s so tight. 

Edited August 5 by Kelvin

[PNAmble]

Ours is 1.5 wide x 8m.  It contains MVHR, 300l UVC, battery, inverter, Distribution Board, all heating manifolds and pumps including recirculating, data cabinet, other control units,  it also has a Floor Gulley if anything floods.  

[haythorn_1]

1 minute ago, PNAmble said:

Ours is 1.5 wide x 8m.  It contains MVHR, 300l UVC, battery, inverter, Distribution Board, all heating manifolds and pumps including recirculating, data cabinet, other control units,  it also has a Floor Gulley if anything floods.  

What did you use for the floor gulley. I’m having a concrete slab floor and I’m unsure what best to put in it. 
 

Do you have a trap to prevent foul air?

[joe90]

6 minutes ago, haythorn_1 said:

What did you use for the floor gulley.

I had no floor gulley but the drain stack was in the corner so a branch near the floor a with blank enabled me to use it as a drain in case it was needed.

[DevilDamo]

12 minutes ago, PNAmble said:

Ours is 1.5 wide x 8m.

How/where did you fit that in?

[Kelvin]

51 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I had no floor gulley but the drain stack was in the corner so a branch near the floor a with blank enabled me to use it as a drain in case it was needed.

I have this too. Separate drain stack that the MVHR condensate is connected to. 

[PNAmble]

9 hours ago, haythorn_1 said:

What did you use for the floor gulley. I’m having a concrete slab floor and I’m unsure what best to put in it. 
 

Do you have a trap to prevent foul air?

seperate stack pipe through the slab, and a dry drain to avoid smells.

 

it was this or very similar. 

 

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjMutqT3N-HAxWtnFAGHQthLqUYABAxGgJkZw&co=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8MG1BhCoARIsAHxSiQmdv4yA0pdq41GGWYQo0K-zzKZwfH4OHH1cJVCu_c6iAjAdt1xzaZcaAjicEALw_wcB&sph=&sig=AOD64_07J-Xz9knQqzSX1DoDgr3Rr--apQ&ctype=46&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjmlNaT3N-HAxW-UEEAHUukIrUQzzkoAHoECAcQJw&adurl=

 

 

[PNAmble]

9 hours ago, DevilDamo said:

How/where did you fit that in?

We have an upside down house and it runs along the part of the back of the house (leading from a utility room) where we have no windows as we have a three meter high retaining wall.  
 

A good size plant room for ease of maintenance was something we planned at the beginning. 

[mjc55]

As an additional question to this.

 

For those who have storage batteries, where are they, in plant room or outside?  It seems that most of the battery systems allow them to be put outside the building envelope.

[Kelvin]

While LiFePO4 battery chemistry is considered safe I still put it in the garage.  I don’t have the room anyway. My garage is relatively big at 65m² so have split the plant room equipment between it and the house. 

Edited August 6 by Kelvin

[Dreadnaught]

3.1m x 1.3m. Feels generous.

 

One end has MVHR. The other end has cylinder and heat-pump internal bits.

 

Will use some of the space for storage with wheeled shelving units which I will push around as needed and even remove if I need to access something big. A flexible space.

 

(Personally I wouldn't put any type of house battery inside the house. Precautionary principle.)

[mjc55]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

While LiFePO4 battery chemistry is considered safe I still put it in the garage.  I don’t have the room anyway. My garage is relatively big at 65m² so have split the plant room equipment between it and the house. 

Must admit that I am favouring external battery storage as well, could go on wall directly outside plant room, remove external door and have internal door from spare bedroom (sliding door to save space)

[joe90]

1 hour ago, Dreadnaught said:

Personally I wouldn't put any type of house battery inside the house. Precautionary principle.)

+1.

[crispy_wafer]

I’m another that wouldn’t put batteries inside a dwelling, likewise an electric car in a garage attached to a dwelling.  The fear of batteries combusting have got to me I’m afraid.

 

For what it’s worth, my plant room is a cupboard… 1.2m * 1.5m. Just houses a cylinder, plumbing distribution manifolds and controllers for poo tank, Ashp and solar on a wall, it’s a compromise on size, but works.  MVHR is in the loft as that was the best location logistically for routing the pipe work to where it needed to be, with the supply and extract at each corner of a gable.  UFH manifolds are under stairs in a pretty central location.

[ProDave]

I have a contrary view on plant rooms.  There is a trend to put everything together in one plant room.  But is that the best thing?  Not always.

 

It was brought home to me when I wired a friends house, a plumber, and his plant room contained all the usual things, the mvhr unit, the manifolds for the UFH. the consumer unit and the hot water tank.  Shame was, this put the hot water tank at the diametric opposite corner of the house to the kitchen and main bathroom.

 

I similarly had a "plant room" designated in the room above the adjoined garage.  But as it evolved, the only thing in there is the mvhr unit, and a few of the heating controls and a pump.  The rest of that room is now my workshop / office.  The HW tank is in an airing cupboard in the corner of the spare bedroom, giving it the shortest hot water route to all the taps.  The UFH manifold is in the utility room putting it central to all the UFH loops.  The plumbing manifolds are under the floor under the bathroom with access through a ceiling hatch in the utility room below, optimised for shortest hot water pipe routes.  Consumer unit is on the wall in the utility room for convenience.  All network and AV gear is in the cupboard under the stairs optimum position for short AV cable runs to the 2 main televisions.  It just made no sense whatsoever to try and put all this in one place.

[JohnMo]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I have a contrary view on plant rooms.  There is a trend to put everything together in one plant room.  But is that the best thing?  Not always.

 

It was brought home to me when I wired a friends house, a plumber, and his plant room contained all the usual things, the mvhr unit, the manifolds for the UFH. the consumer unit and the hot water tank.  Shame was, this put the hot water tank at the diametric opposite corner of the house to the kitchen and main bathroom.

 

I similarly had a "plant room" designated in the room above the adjoined garage.  But as it evolved, the only thing in there is the mvhr unit, and a few of the heating controls and a pump.  The rest of that room is now my workshop / office.  The HW tank is in an airing cupboard in the corner of the spare bedroom, giving it the shortest hot water route to all the taps.  The UFH manifold is in the utility room putting it central to all the UFH loops.  The plumbing manifolds are under the floor under the bathroom with access through a ceiling hatch in the utility room below, optimised for shortest hot water pipe routes.  Consumer unit is on the wall in the utility room for convenience.  All network and AV gear is in the cupboard under the stairs optimum position for short AV cable runs to the 2 main televisions.  It just made no sense whatsoever to try and put all this in one place.

I agree with everything above. We have a sort of plant room, but also stuff elsewhere. I never heard of plant rooms before this build, and really convinced they make much sense 

 

Ours 

Consumer unit, cat5 distribution and battery diverter box in hall cupboard by front door 

UFH and hot and cold water manifolds in utility cupboard.

2x MVHR units, one in another hall cupboard 

Second MVHR, old gas boiler and UVC, one PV inverter and battery in roof loft space (inside insulation envelope)

MVHR expansion vessel and a few other bits in an insulated shed, that houses the borehole pump filters and second PV invertery.

[joe90]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

I have a contrary view on plant rooms. 

Actually despite me quoting my plant room it does not have the DHW tank (as this is better centrally to the house) also the UFH manifold is under the stairs, better for distribution and the MVHR is in the loft for easier pipe distribution. The plant room has fuse board, heating buffer tank, expansion tank and pumps etc, and a washing machine. Oh and a cupboard for all those bits and pieces you can never find 🤣

[mjc55]

Interesting stuff, thanks for contributing everyone.

 

We will be single storey, and although our en-suite will be next to the plant room, all other HW outlets will be on other side - Bathroom,utility, Kitchen.

 

The plant room as it stands does make sense in it's current position and we would put ASHP and external batteries to that side.

 

We are probably going to put HW tank in bathroom (next to utility and Kitchen) and therefore with ASHP and batteries on the outside wall not need masses of space in there.

[Kelvin]

Our plant room was designed to be in the middle of the house so shortest runs for everything. 

[kandgmitchell]

Ours is 1750mm x 2000mm and has the MHVR kit, hot water cylinder, buffer cylinder, two pressure vessels, the CU and the internet hub. There's enough room to swing the door inwards with enough spare to be shelved for overflow stuff like toilet rolls, washing powder and cat food etc etc.... No batteries but like others - not so keen to have them indoors.