Qualplex in concrete

John1000

Our plumber just laid all the qualplex pipes that are going to be buried
in the concrete floor. He didn't use any insulation on the pipes - Is that
standard practice or should he have insulated them?

John

CJhaughey

He should have used the type with the black corrugated sleeving.
Did he use this?
I would strongly recommend the use of this as it allows cracks to form in the concrete without damaging the qualpex.

John1000

Thats what he used alright. That's ok without any insulation?

CJhaughey

Should be OK.

eoghan.geraghty

It may well be standard practice, but it is also obviously wasting heat to the concrete floor.
If you want insulated pipes buried you must be prepared to pay the extra for them, as you didn't specify it and no plumber will price for it unless spec'd.
I was attending a seminar on energy efficiency recently where the lecturer claimed 1m of uninsulated 3/4" copper pipe emitted the same heat as 1 sq foot of rad, I don't have an equivalent figure for qualpex.

mukki

eoghan.geraghty wrote:

It may well be standard practice, but it is also obviously wasting heat to the concrete floor.
If you want insulated pipes buried you must be prepared to pay the extra for them, as you didn't specify it and no plumber will price for it unless spec'd.
I was attending a seminar on energy efficiency recently where the lecturer claimed 1m of uninsulated 3/4" copper pipe emitted the same heat as 1 sq foot of rad, I don't have an equivalent figure for qualpex.

but the pipes are laid above the floor insulation, so any heat lost will warm the concrete (pity the pipes are usually laid so close to the outer walls)

so you really would only want the pipes that heat the water tank to be insulated

eoghan.geraghty

mukki wrote:

but the pipes are laid above the floor insulation, so any heat lost will warm the concrete (pity the pipes are usually laid so close to the outer walls)

so you really would only want the pipes that heat the water tank to be insulated

This is still a waste of energy. John 1000 never mentioned any floor insulation either.

I laid my pipes between layers of insulation under the (UFH) floor, or more precisly I laid ducting then inserted the water pipes.

John1000

The way the floor is being constructed is

more concrete
ufh pipes
insulation
concrete subfloor
radon barrier

The pipes were put in the subfloor so any heat lost from the pipes is wasted.
Puting some of the pipes in the ufh insulation sounds like a good idea.