Should central heating on new house be zoned?

agrostar

Was just visiting a friend who has just moved into their new house. House was constructed by a building manager who appointed plumber and speced heating system, he was also the engineer. There is an oil burner, stove with back boiler and solar. Heating system is not zoned, it was my understanding all new houses heating systems should now be zoned? Should the heating system be zoned to conform to current regs? And if so is it possible to retrofit? And is it expensive?

fclauson

If this is a new build then go back to basics - get you insulation and airtightness right then you heating issues gets easier

I have no zones in a 3000sqft plus house - why - the whole internal temp sits at 20 deg all day and all night

before you select which heating system to install do you pricing - oil + solar can be more expensive than a HP - this surprised me but remember a well insulated house only needs a small HP

Solar is not "free" they take years (like 15 or 20) to play for themselves and that assumes no maintenance.

Retrofitting zones to mine would be easy (I left cables from the two manifolds back to a central point plus thermostat points in each room - again pre-cabled

After 5 months - I will never zone (some say bedrooms need to be cooler - but in my case the children do home work there so it needs to be same temp as the rest of house)

see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=174520 for my usage data

agrostar

Thanks Fc, it's only a friends house I was visiting and I was surprised to find that their heating system isn't zoned. I am about to embark on my own self build and the plumber I will be using told me I have no option but to zone to conform with building regs. Personally I would prefer to zone my own the heating system. Just wondering if my friends house conforms to regs or did I misunderstand what the plumber was saying?

sinnerboy

TGDL's 2011~2 do require that conventional heating heating systems ( boiler / rads etc ) be split into zones. At a miniumim 3 - hot water / daytime areas/nigh-time areas should be split. The plumber was right.

K.Flyer

If there is only one thing you do, make sure that you insulate well, going above and beyond recommendations.
The best heating systems, zoned or not zoned, are useless in a poorly insulated property.
Spend as much as you can on quality insulation methods it will start to pay for itself almost immediately.

agrostar

House is very well insulated, triple glazed windows, insulated plaster slabs and top spec insulation in cavity (not sure what type board) House is very easy to heat, temp was very comfortable last nite with only stove lite no oil heating used at all with two days but to get certain rads to heat correctly they had to firstly go around and turn off other rads. So they effectively had to zone the heat manually themselves, this is why I was so surprised the system wasn't zoned.
Is it possible to retrofit?
Is it expensive?

sydthebeat

agrostar wrote: »

House is very well insulated, triple glazed windows, insulated plaster slabs and top spec insulation in cavity (not sure what type board) House is very easy to heat, temp was very comfortable last nite with only stove lite no oil heating used at all with two days but to get certain rads to heat correctly they had to firstly go around and turn off other rads. So they effectively had to zone the heat manually themselves, this is why I was so surprised the system wasn't zoned.
Is it possible to retrofit?
Is it expensive?

it may be possible argue that the stove is the main heating system and therefore the controls required to comply are lesser.

however, the general consensus is that when the main heating system is an oil boiler min 3 zones are required to comply as SB says above.

K.Flyer

agrostar wrote: »

...to get certain rads to heat correctly they had to firstly go around and turn off other rads. So they effectively had to zone the heat manually themselves...

This would indicate that the heating system is not balanced properly or the circulating pump is not functioning correctly. Usually straight forward to rectify.

agrostar wrote: »

Is it possible to retrofit?

In some cases it is possible to retrofit without too much trouble, in other cases its probably not worth going to all the trouble, especially if the house is newly built and decorated with pipework hidden behind panelling or running through hard to reach places without cutting holes in walls.

agrostar wrote: »

Is it expensive?

Impossible to give an idea of costs without looking at the system.

agrostar

sinnerboy wrote: »

TGDL's 2011~2 do require that conventional heating heating systems ( boiler / rads etc ) be split into zones. At a miniumim 3 - hot water / daytime areas/nigh-time areas should be split. The plumber was right.

Thanks Sinnerboy, would it technically be the building contractors responsibility to rectify the heating system to conform with current building regs as oil is the primary/main method of heating the water. It is in the contract drawn up by the contractor to the client that all works are carried out to current building regulations. And by not zoning the heating current building regs have not been met therefore they are wrong???

sinnerboy

It appears one aspect of the TGD's has not been met. That is not to say the building does not comply with the building regulations - in a legally enforceable manner. The builders certifier may be in a position to demonstrate compliance by a means other than the TGD's .

Be careful with ever shouting non compliance. Building Regulations are a hybrid of science and law and black and white often turn out to be grey.

agrostar

sinnerboy wrote: »

It appears one aspect of the TGD's has not been met. That is not to say the building does not comply with the building regulations - in a legally enforceable manner. The builders certifier may be in a position to demonstrate compliance by a means other than the TGD's .

Be careful with ever shouting non compliance. Building Regulations are a hybrid of science and law and black and white often turn out to be grey.

I know to be careful about shouting the odds that's why I said I'd come on here and ask those who would know;-). The majority of the heating system prob does comply with building standards it just seems like they may of taken a shortcut on da zoning issue which would be of financial benefit to the builder as it was a fixed price job for the complete build to builders finish....
It was my belief that building regs were there to set a minimum standard for construction of houses otherwise would many people be still building homes that are neither energy efficient or structurally adequate........
Sorry if it sounds like I'm having a go, I'm not I'm just curious as to what to watch out for in my own build.......

sinnerboy

Many aspects of a build can be open to interpretation. Compliance with regulations and general build quality perhaps in broad terms the areas where disputes arise. And why you are almost always better off to have a professional hired in your corner and not assume "the builder knows what he's doing".

He does often , but not in the way the client thinks.

agrostar

sinnerboy wrote: »

Many aspects of a build can be open to interpretation. Compliance with regulations and general build quality perhaps in broad terms the areas where disputes arise. And why you are almost always better off to have a professional hired in your corner and not assume "the builder knows what he's doing".

He does often , but not in the way the client thinks.

I think that may be the prob here as engineer was the construction manager also so a serious conflict of interest in my opinion. Who is policing the police n all.....

sinnerboy

TheDriver

I am jumping onto this thread and hope someone can help. I am looking at a house with oil central heating boiler in garage and timer in utility. No zoning. Built late 90s.
is it easy to retrofit zones into this situation? i.e. is there pipes etc to be dug up or is it a simple replacement of timer panel with different one?

Outkast_IRE

TheDriver wrote: »

I am jumping onto this thread and hope someone can help. I am looking at a house with oil central heating boiler in garage and timer in utility. No zoning. Built late 90s.
is it easy to retrofit zones into this situation? i.e. is there pipes etc to be dug up or is it a simple replacement of timer panel with different one?

Your question is impossible to answer without seeing the property.

But depending on how the existing pipework is run, and how the house and garage are connected it may be a case of running two new pipes from the boiler area to the hot press , then doing some additional work in the hot press to zone the cylinder, and upstairs rads so they are separate from the downstairs system.

So you would be looking at 3 zone valves, 2 room thermostats ( I suggest good quality digital ones) , 1 cylinder stat, plus cables to be ran from all of them to the new controls, and additional pipework to be ran from boiler to hotpress.

Obviously there would need to be a full inspection to check that this would work for you .