UFH Manifold.- Which One?

[Triassic]

I've just laid out my underfloor heating pipes prior to pouring the concrete in my insulated raft foundation slab. Ideally, I'd like to pressurise the pipes before the concrete is poured, so that any damage/leaks would be apparent. I thought easy! Just buy a manifold online, job done! Wrong! There are so many options and the more I think about it the more confused I get.

 

I'm building a well-insulated house which faces South, so My thoughts were that I'd fit UFH into the ground floor slab to allow heating of the living space. The bedrooms would be unheated as they are on the upper floors and hopefully should be cooler. I've not even started to think about the design of DHW and heating system!

 

I'm after a Six zone manifold, but depending on my final heating/cooling system design I might want to expend it to eight zones.

I want to do both heating and cooling, Do I need a special manifold?

Do I want thermostatically controlled mixing or a simple manual mixing.valve?

Pumped or not?

 

Thoughts?

[Guest Alphonsox]

We bought from Wundatrade, their 8 port manifold and pump station should do exactly what you want. (Heat, cool, mix, pump)

https://www.wundatrade.co.uk/shop/home/8-port-premium-manifold-2/

https://www.wundatrade.co.uk/shop/home/premium-pumpset-grundfos-eup-pump-stainless-steel-manifolds/

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Triassic said:

I've just laid out my underfloor heating pipes prior to pouring the concrete in my insulated raft foundation slab. Ideally, I'd like to pressurise the pipes before the concrete is poured, so that any damage/leaks would be apparent. I thought easy! Just buy a manifold online, job done! Wrong! There are so many options and the more I think about it the more confused I get.

 

I'm building a well-insulated house which faces South, so My thoughts were that I'd fit UFH into the ground floor slab to allow heating of the living space. The bedrooms would be unheated as they are on the upper floors and hopefully should be cooler. I've not even started to think about the design of DHW and heating system!

 

I'm after a Six zone manifold, but depending on my final heating/cooling system design I might want to expend it to eight zones.

I want to do both heating and cooling, Do I need a special manifold?

Do I want thermostatically controlled mixing or a simple manual mixing.valve?

Pumped or not?

 

Thoughts?

We did not pressurise our pipes before pouring concrete. Just thought that if there was a leak I would not be able to do anything about it anyway!!

[mvincentd]

11 hours ago, Pete said:

We did not pressurise our pipes before pouring concrete.

Sorry but i'd suggest this might be risky advice unless the pipes are sitting in a castellated tray or similar which protects them.  Triassic says he's.....

 

12 hours ago, Triassic said:

pouring the concrete in my insulated raft foundation slab

.....so chances are they're tied to mesh.  In this case they can be subject to quite a point load sandwiched between the mesh and a workers wellie while he stomps blind through concrete.  Without pressure in the pipes they can crimp (and restrict flow) easily enough.

[Triassic]

Our pipes are tied to the mesh, so I’ll pressurise them to mains pressure to help keep them in shape and highlight any leaks.

 

 

[PeterW]

After spending a few hours last weekend balancing flows with @Nickfromwales and getting what appeared to be several cubic metres of air out of a “full” system for @newhome, I can assure you the best thing is get at least a manifold on there and push mains pressure through those pipes ..!! Even if it’s only water with no inhibitor in it now, it will help long term as flushing pipes when the house is complete is not easy !

 

I’ve not considered having any actuators on the pipes either but I’m coming round to having these - not cheap but tbh they look like a fit and forget solution. 

[newhome]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

After spending a few hours last weekend balancing flows with @Nickfromwales and getting what appeared to be several cubic metres of air out of a “full” system for @newhome, 

 

How does the air get in? Mains pressure was pushed through the pipes initially, even in the extension (which was then emptied as that room wasn't built at the time).