Supplementing underfoor heating

kanoute696

Hi All, hope you will be able to help. We have underfloor heating in the house. we can turn on\off each room but cant really alter the temperature individually. If we would like to supplement the heat in one room on a very cold night.. what would the best means be?.
Storage heater?. electric heater?. oil filled heater?. Any advice would be appreciated. we are looking for the most efficient means - The house is insulated to an A+ standard. Thak you in advance.

aujopimur

How are you controlling the on/off in each roopm at the moment ?.

kanoute696

I cant turn any room off\on via a tap - it effectively turns off the loop. (I have a big heat pump and a hot water heat pump - this week Im testing exactly what it costing me via ESB meter readings but thats a different story!)

Outkast_IRE

its very unlikely you can change the temperature water is going into each loop in the system as that would need to be accounted for at design stage and would cost a nice bit extra, what type of heat pump do you have ? is it Air to water type?

kanoute696

Hi, thanks - Its a Neura heatpump - an Austrian make. Yeah, there is no way of accurately controlling the temp in each room only turning it off so that why Id like to supplement the heat in say one room making it a little higher. I was wondering what would be the most efficient means Storage heater?. electric heater?. oil filled heater? Thanks

aujopimur

If your UF heating was installed correctly it should have little electrical valves mounted on the manifold for each zone, if these are in place they can be controlled by wireless room stats to regulate the temp. in each area.

creedp

aujopimur wrote: »

If your UF heating was installed correctly it should have little electrical valves mounted on the manifold for each zone, if these are in place they can be controlled by wireless room stats to regulate the temp. in each area.

I presume though using this method is only really appropriate with a buffer tank which would be heated by the HP in advance and then the individual rooms could be supplied with heat based on room stats calling for heat when temp falls below preset temp. If on the other hand the HP heats the slab directly its not really efficient to have HP firing up to service individual room stats. This will only cause short cycling of HP compressor which I understand is not to be advised.

I have a similar problem in that I have a 'sunroom' with vaulted ceilings and this room requires more heat than rest of house. Difficult to manage this with UFH and no buffer tank. In my case though I will have a stove to supplement UFH in colder weather.

kanoute696

Hi, Thanks for all the replies so far. Ive upload a picture of the manifold (I think that what its called) that I use to turn of a loop. (or room so to speak).
I can reduce the temperature as far as I know by turn the tap down a little and not off but this is just guess work and messin. So any ideas on the best way of increasing heat?.

refco

that picture only shows flow and return end of manifold what we need to see is the part with the taps you are turning on and off for individual rooms
also could i ask what your flow and return temps are andwhat kind of room temps you are acheving as it is

refco

as for supplementing a room with another form of heating take a look at energy saving electric radiators on energyefficient.ie

kanoute696

Thank you all for your help - much appreciated

johnb25

Hi, We have the Neura with UFH also...our manifold is much longer, and has a loop and pair of valves for each room in the house. To balance the heat in the house we were advised to close down some of the valves a little, particularly to the loops near the manifold/centre of the house. This would cause relatively more water to flow to the further rooms, thus balancing the heat.
In our living room we have a calor gas stove that we fire up on the colder nights. It is the one on sale in Homebase just now; gives great heat in a short space of time and looks ok.