Clippa plate or similar between joist ufh

[Selfbuildsarah]

Hi all, may I have your experiences of between joists ufh such as NuHeat’s Clippa plate etc please? We are having an insulated foundation with MBC timber frame for our build next year but want to have the option of heating upstairs. People say we won’t need it but I am always cold and don’t want to risk it. Our flooring will be a combination of LVT on the largest open area that is the landing/reading room, porcelain tiles in bathrooms and low tog carpet in the bedrooms. What can we expect? Should we zone? Not sure what to do about the bathrooms. I hate cold floors even in the summer. Should we have electric ufh in the bathrooms instead? Any advice, regrets, experiences appreciated. Thanks.

[JohnMo]

Whatever you do upstairs, do a floor buildup that eliminates any air gaps between heating pipes and finished floor. So people like @ProDave did a PUG mix, this acts like a screed so you get a solid heat emitter. You get lots on here that do different from that and then have huge issues.

 

Are you likely to need cooling in the summer would be my question?

 

52 minutes ago, Selfbuildsarah said:

Should we zone?

My view why - would you zone? 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

My view why - would you zone? 

Because upstairs are bedrooms, and each are individual…..to the individuals in them!
 

Why would you not zone, and then rob yourself of any degree of control?
 

The swing from north to south is considerable, and this cannot be rubber stamped from one project to another, particularly if there’s any discernible glazing featured.

[JohnMo]

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

Because upstairs are bedrooms, and each are individual…..to the individuals in them!
 

Why would you not zone, and then rob yourself of any degree of control?
 

The swing from north to south is considerable, and this cannot be rubber stamped from one project to another, particularly if there’s any discernible glazing featured.

But none of this detail is provided, so you are assuming, I was just asking a question. MBC build will need very little heat input (assuming it's not massive), so any heat added has very little place to go. So quite a bit of room temp equalisation will happen anyway, zones or no zones.

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, Selfbuildsarah said:

Hi all, may I have your experiences of between joists ufh such as NuHeat’s Clippa plate etc please? We are having an insulated foundation with MBC timber frame for our build next year but want to have the option of heating upstairs. People say we won’t need it but I am always cold and don’t want to risk it.

I’m working on an MBC PH project atm and we’ve had this chat. Defo going to install UFH on the FF, but I’ve spec’d it for only 70-80% of each of the room floor areas to be heated, due to the anticipated minimal heating requirements. 

 

I’ve asked MBC to make some changes to the upstairs construction to allow me to get alu spreader plates in as quickly as possible when they get up to wall plate height. Planning that to happen on a Thursday / Friday so we can ask MBC to stand down so the install of all the ff UFH can be done over a long (bat-shit crazy) weekend……I am well aware that MBC will be champing at the bit again at 07:00 on the Monday morning(!!) so I’ve got a few good people lined up to help out as it’s quite a big (400m2 iirc) house. 
 

After the slab detailing for ductwork, my next joy is going through heating and cooling / plant etc, and have planned some fan coils to blast the FF landing (full height, fully glazed gallery aspects each side) to scavenge unwanted stagnant heat away.
 

Some powered Velux windows will step in early for a bit of passive purge, so the reliance on cooling or more specifically cooling under duress is mitigated against at the design level.

 

Hopefully it all works at the end or I’ll have to move house. Lol. 

[Nickfromwales]

5 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

But none of this detail is provided, so you are assuming, I was just asking a question. MBC build will need very little heat input (assuming it's not massive), so any heat added has very little place to go. So quite a bit of room temp equalisation will happen anyway, zones or no zones.

Not assuming anything, simply answered your question

 

Its not a small one iirc. 

[Nickfromwales]

Not had great experiences with Nu heat previously either. And pricey. 

[Nestor]

9 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Not had great experiences with Nu heat previously either. And pricey. 

As above.

[ProDave]

Whatever you do, only fit heating in actual rooms.  DO NOT waste effort fitting on a landing or room with no separation from the landing, it WILL NOT be needed.

 

We have to keep the bedroom door shut tight to keep the bedroom down to the temperature swmbo likes about 17 degrees and we have no heating in there.  This week has been mild so the bedroom window has been opened at times to keep the temperature down.

[JohnMo]

3 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We have to keep the bedroom door shut tight to keep the bedroom down to the temperature swmbo likes about 17 degrees and we have no heating in there.  This week has been mild so the bedroom window has been opened at times to keep the temperature down

We find exactly the same on a long thin (25m long) single storey. Open bedroom doors everywhere is the same temperature an hour later. Our last house 3 storey (built in 1830) bedrooms with doors open ended up same temperature as rest of house. We just never needed to have bedroom heating on.

[Nickfromwales]

10 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Whatever you do, only fit heating in actual rooms.  DO NOT waste effort fitting on a landing or room with no separation from the landing, it WILL NOT be needed.

 

We have to keep the bedroom door shut tight to keep the bedroom down to the temperature swmbo likes about 17 degrees and we have no heating in there.  This week has been mild so the bedroom window has been opened at times to keep the temperature down.

Yup. I’ve allowed to insulate the flow and returns along the lengthy landing area, to ensure any heat we introduce is going exactly where I want it to.