Underfloor heating

cruiser202006

Called to a house during the week. Two storey house, approx 3000-3500 sq feet, underfloor downstairs rads upstairs. 1300 litres of oil in last 5 weeks. 5 tanks a year. Boiler is 300,000 btu, way oversized and 30ft from house. Suspect pipes were just lagged and threw down in a track also. Installing a new grant vortex on footpath just outside hot press, 3 zones controlled by 3 apt timers. 8 zones downstairs. 2 of which aren't used. Worth upgrading to programmable wall stats?

Wearb

That's a huge house. I would do a heat loss calculation on it and compare it to the oil usage, taking boiler efficiency into account. Then you will know if there is heat being lost somewhere that it shouldn't be going. What ber is the house?

As for controls; you can't have too much, so long as the plumbing is well setup for the changing heat requirements that lots of controls create.

cruiser202006

Wearb wrote: »

That's a huge house. I would do a heat loss calculation on it and compare it to the oil usage, taking boiler efficiency into account. Then you will know if there is heat being lost somewhere that it shouldn't be going. What ber is the house?

As for controls; you can't have too much, so long as the plumbing is well setup for the changing heat requirements that lots of controls create.

No ber information for house but well insulated for a house built in 2005/2006, will be doing a heat loss calculation anyway
Any recommendations on better controls? In fairness to them whatever is suggested to them they will go with and money is no object

MicktheMan

cruiser202006 wrote: »

well insulated for a house built in 2005/2006,

Notwithstanding the poor pipework from the boiler, advise them that their main (major) heat loss mechanism is probably by air leakage which insulation doesn't address in any meaningful manner. No point, imo, in upgrading the heating/controls if they do not address their heat loss. They can have a heat loss survey done which will answer this question definitively.

Wearb

cruiser202006 wrote: »

No ber information for house but well insulated for a house built in 2005/2006, will be doing a heat loss calculation anyway
Any recommendations on better controls? In fairness to them whatever is suggested to them they will go with and money is no object

It depends on what is there
Time and temp control over each zone
Wireless phone app control is getting very popular.
Outside temp being taken into account is also good esp with underfloor.
It's possible to control individual rads now with room stats communicating with a control centre.

It goes on and on. But first things first. See if the usage is much above demand. If it is then see if you can better control heat loss. Then go as far as customer wants and can use with controls.

cruiser202006

Good advice will advise towards that first! Thanks

Shefwedfan

When was the under floor heating put in?

cruiser202006

Shefwedfan wrote: »

When was the under floor heating put in?

About 2005

JimA12

I am new to this forum and have just seen your post. By bring the boiler closer to the house and changing the Controls will help but that alone will not solve the problem in this house. There is a few adjustment that can be made but I would need more information from you. Can you private message me.

cruiser202006

Haven't yet changed boiler as I'm up to my eyes but done some changing round on manifold as mixing valve was installed incorrectly and installed a new pump. Have a heatmiser wiring centre there and waiting for electrician to wire up which should also should help it

cruiser202006

JimA12 wrote: »

I am glad that you have not changed the boiler. To get this system sorted you will have to address the following issues. The cold water returning back to the boiler from the underfloor heating is keeping the boiler operating for longer periods. When the radiators and underfloor heating are operating together the two pumps are fighting for the same water therefore pump cavitation is very high and this creates more air in the system. You problem only have about 1.5 LPM on the flow meters with this slow flow rate it will take 20mins for the water to travel through each loop. The heat transfer across the entire system is inefficient. As you can see it is a serious of issues that must be dealt with to get it sorted?
Firstly, the low temperature water from the underfloor must be isolated from the boiler. As the underfloor heating operate at a much lower temperature than the radiators they must also be isolated from each other. The water must travel through the floor faster and return within 5mins for proper heat transfer to take place within the floor.

So what are you saying should be done with the return water from underfloor???

JimA12

Dealing with the cold return water from the underfloor is only one part of the issue. Due to the rules of this forum I cannot mention any products as it could be looked upon as advertising. Don’t worry this can be sorted and the client’s fuel bill will be drastically reduced as well as improving their heating.

cruiser202006

JimA12 wrote: »

Dealing with the cold return water from the underfloor is only one part of the issue. Due to the rules of this forum I cannot mention any products as it could be looked upon as advertising. Don’t worry this can be sorted and the client’s fuel bill will be drastically reduced as well as improving their heating.

Pm me about this magical product then please!

Cherrycola

Any update on this? Interested to know as this is the exact problem I am having in a new place we just moved into, €150 of oil only lasted a week!
Landlord is organising for someone to come and check it out but I'd love some idea of what the problem could be and what could be done.
We can't afford to be spending €600 on oil every month! And I really don't want to have to move house again before next winter!