Plumbing; home run / Traditional hybrid?

[junglejim]

I’m currently planning my hot and cold water layout. I like the idea of the ‘home run’ setup with pex runs from a central manifold. Its a lot of pipe though and I’m thinking a smart spring might be to zone the house and run zones from the manifold then tee off from the zone to the appliances.

 

my logic for home run is that we’re doing timber frame build and I don’t want joints in inaccessible locations.

 

The home run setup doesn’t seem so common in the uk as it does in Europe so wondering what folks think? 
 

thanks
 

 

[JohnMo]

Never heard it called home run before.

 

But plenty on here use a manifold system. Two ways really, each user gets it's own manifold outlet with isolation valve or slightly simpler each wet room gets it's own manifold outlet and isolation valve, the tee off in room.

 

But don't go any larger than 15mm for either layout mentioned. 

 

I took my cold runs under the insulation within a concrete slab, nice cool water to taps all year. Hot I ran through the ceiling insulation.

 

[Russell griffiths]

Why are you worried about it using a lot of pipe, pipe is cheap, fittings not so. 
3-4 rolls of 50m will see it all done. 

[Oz07]

4 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Never heard it called home run before.

 

But plenty on here use a manifold system. Two ways really, each user gets it's own manifold outlet with isolation valve or slightly simpler each wet room gets it's own manifold outlet and isolation valve, the tee off in room.

 

But don't go any larger than 15mm for either layout mentioned. 

 

I took my cold runs under the insulation within a concrete slab, nice cool water to taps all year. Hot I ran through the ceiling insulation.

 

Do you not have to worry about freezing?

[Oz07]

I've done manifold before to each appliance. Good for maintenance purposes. Also meant I could run the pipework whereas I wouldn't be confident doing all the fittings. 

[JohnMo]

33 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Do you not have to worry about freezing?

We get -9, no issues. Pretty well protected from the elements, ground under the house is around 6 degs.

[Iceverge]

Run 10mm Hep2O pipe for everything except the cold kitchen/utility taps, outdoor taps and hot+cold bath and showers feeds. 

 

Heat the hot manifold by convection by having it just above the outlet of the UVC. 

 

Don't bother with pipe insulation outside the plant room. It makes no difference. 

 

I assume home run is having all pipes directly individually leading from your manifold to the destination. One pipe to one outlet? 

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Iceverge

[Thorfun]

53 minutes ago, Iceverge said:

Run 10mm Hep2O pipe for everything except the cold kitchen/utility taps, outdoor taps and hot+cold bath and showers feeds. 

I ran 15mm everywhere from my central manifolds. I was just a little worried about flow rate for the 10mm plastic pipe. 
 

10 hours ago, JohnMo said:

But plenty on here use a manifold system. Two ways really, each user gets it's own manifold outlet with isolation valve or slightly simpler each wet room gets it's own manifold outlet and isolation valve, the tee off in room.

Option 1 for me. Every tap/outlet has its own pipe. One major benefit is no pressure drop when other outlets are being used and you don’t get scalded or frozen when another tap is used or a toilet flushed!!

 

plus it looks really cool in the plant room for showing off your plumbing prowess. 🤣