Plumbing Radiators, ground floor first?

bemak

I'm retrofitting heating to an old farmhouse. As part of the works I'm demolishing first floor partitions between bedrooms as I want to line the external walls. When I reinstate the partitions I'm going to run heating services through them to avoid opening up as much of the existing house as possible. The new rads hang on the new partitions. This plan works well for the most part, however I would like to put a rad in the sitting room downstairs and I have the following query for those in the know.

Is it possible to connect to the rad in the sitting room from upstairs or must all rads in the ground floor be connected in series first before linking up to those upstairs? I'm assuming that a pumped system allows this but I just need to confirm. This would save having to dig up the floor slab on the ground which I'm keen to avoid as the floor finish is in excellent shape.

The current plan is for the range to connect to a rad in a downstairs bathroom, then straight up to first floor to a rad in the first floor bathroom and from there service all bedrooms quite easily. The last rad would then be in sitting room on ground floor below one of the bedrooms. Can easily route through an existing partition downstairs.

JustJoe7240

Maybe I'm misreading, but are you planning to run them in series? By doing so you lose the ability to control them individually.

My advice would be to just break the floor, it's no big deal to fill in after and pipes along skirting or down walls look shocking.

Not related to your query but while you're reinstating studs, add some chipboard or ply between the stud where you're planning to hang the rads, trying to fix off plasterboard is an absolute pain.

bemak

Maybe in series is the wrong word. I'm not interested in zoning them. It's only 8 or 9 rads total.

bemak

I won't have pipes along skirting. The new rad in the sitting room will be on the partition serving it.

bemak

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118129350#Comment_118129350

Oh ya of course, will definitely add grounds to stud work for rads etc. The studs are going to carry rads, supply them and also contain all electrical outlets and wiring. Only 4 rooms upstairs, 2 new dividing studs services everything without disturbing the existing drystone external walls.

bemak

Looks like feeding a ground floor rad from above is called a "drop down leg". Learn something new every day!

https://www.traderadiators.com/blog/video-learn-how-to-pipe-a-radiator

Tails142

Yeah so you normally have a loop that goes from the pump downstairs to the furthest rad upstairs and then back downstairs to the pump.

The feed and return of the loop usually run side by side. You tee off the feed side of the loop to each rad and then the rad is tee'd back onto the return side of the loop.

From my reading of your question, you are asking if you can feed a downstairs rad, by teeing off the feed and return side of the loop from upstairs and running the pipe down through the partition. This will be fine, I don't think there's going to be any problem doing this.

bemak

Ya that's exactly what I was wondering. Being able to link that sitting room rad from upstairs really simplifies the job. I just need to make sure I add a drain off valve because it can't drain with the rest of the system

Outkast_IRE

If it was me and you are doing this level of works , i would put in two manifolds - both upstairs but one serves the downstairs and one is kept for the upstairs, even though you dont want it now its madness not to plumb to be able to do hot water, and heating zones seperate.

bemak

Definitely!