Hot plant room

[Benpointer]

We have just moved in to our now build and it is all running at a very comfortable 21ish degrees... except for our Plant/Tech room, which is persistently running at 26-27C despite having no dedicated heating as such. 

 

There are reasons of course.  In the plant room are:

• 27kWh of battery storage.
• 12kW inverter
• 300l HW cylinder
• The internal unit of a Panasonic 9kW ASHP
• The manifolds for 16 UFH loops
• Zenhder Q350 MVHR unit

 

Many of the UFH pipes run from the manifold under the plant room floor and I don't believe they were well insulated, so that may be the biggest cause of the heat in that room.  

 

The plant room does have an MVHR extract valve, so some of that heat is being extracted and exchanged to the fresh air coming in to the house.

 

The room itself is 1.8m x 2.9m and an average of 2.2m high and is insulated to the same standard as the rest of the house of course.

 

Two questions: 

1. Should we be worried?
2. What might we do about it?  (I have been thinking about putting down a thinn insulating floor just to lessen the heat gain from the UFH pipes.)

 

Anyone else have similar issues?

 

 

[-rick-]

Sounds like a really successful build if this is the main worry after moving in!

 

Not an expert but the little plant room that I have (boiler, cylinder, consumer unit with a few electrical bits) is similar, gets a lot hotter in summer. 27C isn't really going to worry electronics etc.

 

I'd monitor over summer and if you find the room getting about 35C or causing other problems then may be worth doing something but 27C doesn't warrant much concern in my book.

[JohnMo]

A lot of heat generators in a small area, the 16 loops if not insulated, would make the room hot, battery, inverter and cylinder will all add to it.

 

Summer will be hot, running cooling via UFH should offset the heat some what.

[Iceverge]

Congratulations on moving in. 

 

You could borrow a thermal camera and check what the worst offenders are. 

[Tony L]

Sorry, I can't help with this, but I must congratulate you on moving in, having completed your build so quickly.  You're an inspiration to us all.  & thanks for documenting your progress on here too - it's a real help to those of us who are not there yet.

[-rick-]

12 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Summer will be hot, running cooling via UFH should offset the heat some what.

 

And if you try to insulate these pipes the cooling effect in the room would reduce which might be a negative...

 

6 minutes ago, Iceverge said:

You could borrow a thermal camera and check what the worst offenders are. 

... because I'd expect the heat sources to vary over the year. Winter will be the heating system, summer will be the solar electronics working flat out.

[Nestor]

Same size plant room here. No UFH fitted. It's 25.5C now but nothing is on.

We use it as a drying room with a kitchen maid attached to the ceiling.

I did consider putting a vent in the door to utilise the excess heat.

 

Ecodan 300 litre HW cylinder.

Consumer unit.

UFH Manifold and wiring centre. Not in use as we have not needed to heat the lg floor.

PV diverter.

Has MVHR extract.

 

You have a lot of kit in one room so 26C-27C to be expected.

 

Congratulations on moving in.

[Andeh]

Our plant/utility room has the exact same 'problem'. Nothing you can really do about it, everything you listed gives off heat and its all stored together.

 

Just makes for a very good drying room for the washing. 

[Benpointer]

Thanks everyone for the rapid and encouraging responses.

 

To respond to a few points:

• I have a Topdon iPhone thermal camera so I will try that when I have a moment.
• We do plan to run cooling through the summer, so I hope the uninsulated UFH pipes will indeed be a benefit then.
• Mrs. P. has already spotted that it's a perfect laundry drying room, and luckily we have enough space to set up some moveably clothes racking, which I expect will be a summer project ready for next winter.   (We don't have or want a tumble dryer.)

One other option I can consider if the heat does become an issue is moving the battery outside, just the other side of the wall it's on.  Seems a shame that that battery heat would be going to waste though. 

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, Benpointer said:

We don't have or want a tumble dryer.

That's sad, for you, a heat pump dryer is a wonderful thing. Nice soft clothes and towels and next to no energy to do it.

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, Benpointer said:

Seems a shame that that battery heat would be going to waste though. 

Not sure if you house layout, but could you add a dMEV fan (high up on an internal wall to push the heat from your hot room to hall way etc.

[Marvin]

With us:

Heating:  ASHP to water to radiators

 

Inverter outside, Batteries outside, ASHP on roof

MVHR unit in loft - fully insulated

 

In utility room:

205litre cylinder - 300mm insulated, Buffer tank - 300mm insulated, all controls and valves- insulated

Washing machine, Condensing dryer, Clothes hangers

Current temperature in utility room 23.1C

 

The room gets quite warm when washing and drying which is useful otherwise no problem. Never had a moisture problem anywhere in home.

Our home is quite small compared to a lot on here -104 square metre floor area.

 

1 minute ago, JohnMo said:

Not sure of you house layout, but could you add a dMEV fan (high up on an internal wall to push the heat from your hot room to hall way etc.

 

I know of one friend who is doing that sort of thing on a big scale - circulating the heat in the house via another duct system!

 

Our windows are east and west facing and the one thing I wish I had done was put in a system to take the heat from the east end in the mornings and send it to the west, and the reverse in the afternoons during the Autumn and Spring.

[FarmerN]

We had settings changed on MVHR extract vents changed , reducing flow to utility extract while increasing extract rate from plant room by same amount, helps with drying clothes.

Air flow is through utility to plant room.

My wife wishes our plant room was warmer to improve it as a drying room.

[Mr Punter]

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

That's sad, for you, a heat pump dryer is a wonderful thing. Nice soft clothes and towels and next to no energy to do it.

 

We have a Meaco dehumidifier for clothes drying.  Very cheap to run and dries brilliantly. 

[Benpointer]

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

That's sad, for you, a heat pump dryer is a wonderful thing. Nice soft clothes and towels and next to no energy to do it.

I'd never heard of a heat pump tumble dryer! 

 

Still I think outside drying when possible, plant room drying when not, will suit us fine.  Just the two of us here - if you had a family of children I can see the need.

[JohnMo]

21 minutes ago, Benpointer said:

never heard of a heat pump tumble dryer! 

New invention, we bought ours about 15 years ago.

[Tony L]

5 hours ago, Benpointer said:

We don't have or want a tumble dryer.

 

I think this is the best strategy if it works for you.  I bought a heat pump TD for my mum.  We installed it in her garage.  I heard a reputable source explaining on the radio, TDs fill the air with microplastics & other pollution.  I’m not having one in my house, although I plan to have one in an outbuilding, so I won’t have to breathe all the crap that comes out of it; also, my MVHR filters will go longer between changes & my utility/plant room (they’re the same room) won’t overheat so much in the summer.

[-rick-]

2 minutes ago, Tony L said:

 I heard a reputable source explaining on the radio, TDs fill the air with microplastics & other pollution.

 

Would have thought that would depend on both what you put in it and also what type of machine it is. ie, does it vent air to the room or not. AFAIK heatpump dryers don't cycle the air in the drum outside the machine.

 

If the clothes are cotton, I'm not sure where the plastic comes from. If you wash a lot of nylon/polyester then sure.

[Beau]

3 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

 

We have a Meaco dehumidifier for clothes drying.  Very cheap to run and dries brilliantly. 

I often hear people say dehumidifiers are cheap to run but are they?

 

Our old condensing Ebac uses 360 Watts and our Meaco (desiccant type) I think is near 600 watts when on full.

 

We do dry using a dehumidifier but have never thought of them as a cheap option

[JohnMo]

37 minutes ago, Tony L said:

 I heard a reputable source explaining on the radio, TDs fill the air with microplastics

Not sure how, neither condenser dryer nor heat pump dryer have an air outlet. Older ones are supposed to have air vent routed outside 

Edited 2 hours ago by JohnMo

[Mr Punter]

2 hours ago, Beau said:

I often hear people say dehumidifiers are cheap to run but are they?

 

Our old condensing Ebac uses 360 Watts and our Meaco (desiccant type) I think is near 600 watts when on full.

 

We do dry using a dehumidifier but have never thought of them as a cheap option

 

We had an Ebac and it really heated the room up which was not good.  The Meaco is much better.  Less than 200W.

 

I have a couple in a basement rental, with permanent drainage, and they keep the damp at bay.