Extending a Central Heating System

[Dennis Neal]

Hi all. I am renovating my home and a plumber fitted a new water tank and piped much of the central heating system for me some time ago - minus radiators except for 3 he fitted. I am happy to now finish fitting all radiators but need some advice on some aspects of it. I live in a bungalow and have 2 heating loops - one under the floor and one in the loft. I have all new thermostatic valves and understand these are bi-directional and so I can fit to flow or return. My question at this time is about extending the loft circuit further. I have placed pipes for 4 new radiators that will be fed from the loft and want to know the best way to pipe them in. Should I extend the existing loft circuit or should I create a new one. Currently the circuit feeds 3 raditors and the plan is that I will have 9 fed from the loft eventually - is it correct to just pipe them all off this same circuit ?

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Normal practice is to run a flow pipe from the boiler, which feeds all the rads in turn, and a parallel return, which takes the water back to the boiler to be reheated. Depending on how many rads are to be fed, a bigger pipe should be used initially, reducing to 15mm (or smaller) to feed rads as required. Assuming the existing pipework is capable of supplying sufficient flows to the finished system, extend what you already have as required.

 

[Dennis Neal]

Thank you Hugh for your reply. First time I have used this and already pleased.