I've never heard of them, and a heating engineer has just recommended one. I'd be interested to know if he's trying it on.
A bit of background; we have an chalet bungalow, with three different heating networks. One single flow to downstairs, one double flow to upstairs, and underfloor heating in the kitchen. We cannot dig the floor up to replace the single flow
the single flow is a pain, so when moving the boiler upstairs a few years ago, we took a spur downstairs to the bedrooms below, direct from the boiler
I would now like to do it for another couple of rooms; they're at the end of the single flow, with 4 radiators before them. All I'd like to do is take a flow from an upstairs radiator, and connect the existing radiators up. Had a heating engineer around, and he seemed okay with the plan, but then suggested a Low Loss Header.
His reasoning was speeding up the flow would allow the last radiators to heat up more. He thought the radiator i wanted a feed off was slow to heat up (it takes about 20min, as the pipes go from the new boiler, to where the old boiler was, and back again)
My reasoning is the radiators never fully heat up, even when all other radiators are off. So speeding up the flow *may* increase the heat a bit, but it won't be as hot as feeding off a double flow I know works. And if it takes 20 min to get to heat, it's still a good few hours quicker than existing, and it'll be hotter.
Thoughts? I may be a luddite, but do I want to commit to a) adding a low loss header, and then b) potentially connecting the radiators up to the double flow anyway (his idea), or just going straight to (b) - my idea. It may not be as good, but I know it works. And it's a lot better than existing.
A bit of background; we have an chalet bungalow, with three different heating networks. One single flow to downstairs, one double flow to upstairs, and underfloor heating in the kitchen. We cannot dig the floor up to replace the single flow
the single flow is a pain, so when moving the boiler upstairs a few years ago, we took a spur downstairs to the bedrooms below, direct from the boiler
I would now like to do it for another couple of rooms; they're at the end of the single flow, with 4 radiators before them. All I'd like to do is take a flow from an upstairs radiator, and connect the existing radiators up. Had a heating engineer around, and he seemed okay with the plan, but then suggested a Low Loss Header.
His reasoning was speeding up the flow would allow the last radiators to heat up more. He thought the radiator i wanted a feed off was slow to heat up (it takes about 20min, as the pipes go from the new boiler, to where the old boiler was, and back again)
My reasoning is the radiators never fully heat up, even when all other radiators are off. So speeding up the flow *may* increase the heat a bit, but it won't be as hot as feeding off a double flow I know works. And if it takes 20 min to get to heat, it's still a good few hours quicker than existing, and it'll be hotter.
Thoughts? I may be a luddite, but do I want to commit to a) adding a low loss header, and then b) potentially connecting the radiators up to the double flow anyway (his idea), or just going straight to (b) - my idea. It may not be as good, but I know it works. And it's a lot better than existing.
