Hello,
Just going through fitting our ufh and heat pump. Would ideally run the downstairs as an open loop design for maximum efficiency.
In respect of the ufh manifold, is it better to have
A) no actuators at all, and just run it that way permanently circulating with the heat pump controlling via weather compensation
B) use normally open actuators with the above? (So you do have that control point)
We have UFH down and upstairs, each on their own manifold.
We have 4 towel rads on a separate loop off the main feed to the UFH manifolds, and a 1400 X 600 triple rad in an annexe room also off the main feed.
All are ‘open’ / always on and driven by the ASHP water pump.
Balancing is done via the UFH manifold flow adjuster valves and the towel rad balancer taps.
The triple rad is fully open. I fitted this after calculating the heat loss of the room and the required output for that at Delta T of 10°C (normal boiler rad would be 50°C).
That annex room is the perfect temperature for us.
I think most efficient is if you can go open and balance.
Hi Steve, just a clarification on room thermostats.
Under option (A) you appear to have a single thermostat.
Under option (B) you have one or more room thermostats, but it is unclear to me how you intend to “open” the actuators if it is linked to room thermostats.
In our house, I opted for a fully open system, all UFH, a single hallway thermostat, no actuator controls ( but achieved room balancing manually via the manifold flow valves). The water is circulated via the heat pump itself. The performance is very good.
Provided you have a 13 amp socket near the manifold you can add activator and wireless thermostat if you prove you need them. Everything fully open loop, balanced, and pipe spacing chosen based on relative heatlose of rooms will normally give best results.
However you may find some rooms need temperature limiting due to thermal gain or a study that is sometimes used as a bedroom.