Central heating pipe layout question

[Mutley56]

Can you helpful people please give me your opinion on the usual layout of the feed and return central heating pipes for a 2 storey house, 2 rooms upstairs (3 radiators) and 6 rooms downstairs (7 radiators).

I imagined that the feed and return central heating pipes would run as one continuous circuit from the boiler to serve all of the radiators, both upstairs & downstairs, and then back to the boiler. However, I understand that the upstairs is a circuit by itself and the downstairs is a separate circuit too. The pipes that serve upstairs tee off immediately by the boiler from the pipes that serve downstairs. Is this the normal layout?

The set up is a gas system condensing boiler controlled by two 2 port valves; one for the central heating and the other for the unvented hot water cylinder.

Thanks for your ideas.

Mutley56

 

[dcawkwell]

Depending on the construction of the house.
I like to run two backbones of 22mm pipe along the house upstairs and downstairs. I then branch off these with 15mm pipes to each radiator.
The flow and returns aren't in a circuit but you could think of them as two rails. A flow rail and a return rail. If you have the boiler on one side wall it is usually good to run along that wall both upstairs and downstairs with 22mm flow and return rails.

 

[Mutley56]

Thanks dcawkwell for your reply.

Your description does sound like the installation I have here. I know the upstairs has the flow and return pipes in 22mm copper which have been reduced to 15mm to the radiators as I have seen the larger pipes when I've lifted boards to lay insulation. This is what prompted my question, as I had assumed until now that the upstairs and down stairs were one complete loop, albeit with separate feed & return pipes.

I assume that the downstairs follows the same format.

Thanks again.

Mutley56