Hi guys, first post on here! Been reading it on and off for years though about people's problems, and now I have one!
I'm a Plumber/Gas Engineer (Domestic and Commercial) and I bought a house (A real fixer upper, only left two walls standing) about a year ago. Well i've finally got round to the first fix stage, and as the builder put down a load of that horrible chipboard flooring and glued it upstairs I decided to put all the services in in Hep2o. I don't use plastic very often at all (The guy who trained me would be in tears if he knew) but know a few guys who swear by it and decided to give it a go as i'd rather drill the joists than gouge great big chunks out of the top.
Anyway, the point. It's not a big house at all but the water is all over the place and the cylinder is right at the front (Large 3 bed semi, with ensuite and downstairs loo and utility) so being a tart I wanted to put in a secondary return. I have to admit I did see in the Hep2o literature that they don't recommend use of their pipe for a hot water return but the way it's worded is as if it's purely because it hasn't been specifically approved for that purpose, not that it's detrimental. Well anyway I finished putting it all in today and then decided after the fact to have a read about why...
There's lots of conflicted opinions as always, some people say it's because if it's always hot the pipe can go oval which isn't a problem as it'll be on a timer to work in the mornings for maybe an hour and the evenings for 3-5 hours so the pipe will have a chance to recover. But there's also people saying it could promote legionaries? Well i've done my course a few years back on legionnaires treatment and safety and although I don't remember all that much I don't remember hearing about that. The return probably comprises about 7-8 lengths of 15mm so it isn't a lot of water volume to sit at a bad temperature either, certainly less than a large 5 bed system in just the hot flow anyway.
I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts because if it really could be a legionnaires risk I need to know as me and the fiance will probably be having kids within a few years and if anything happened I couldn't forgive myself!
Thanks for any help!
I'm a Plumber/Gas Engineer (Domestic and Commercial) and I bought a house (A real fixer upper, only left two walls standing) about a year ago. Well i've finally got round to the first fix stage, and as the builder put down a load of that horrible chipboard flooring and glued it upstairs I decided to put all the services in in Hep2o. I don't use plastic very often at all (The guy who trained me would be in tears if he knew) but know a few guys who swear by it and decided to give it a go as i'd rather drill the joists than gouge great big chunks out of the top.
Anyway, the point. It's not a big house at all but the water is all over the place and the cylinder is right at the front (Large 3 bed semi, with ensuite and downstairs loo and utility) so being a tart I wanted to put in a secondary return. I have to admit I did see in the Hep2o literature that they don't recommend use of their pipe for a hot water return but the way it's worded is as if it's purely because it hasn't been specifically approved for that purpose, not that it's detrimental. Well anyway I finished putting it all in today and then decided after the fact to have a read about why...
There's lots of conflicted opinions as always, some people say it's because if it's always hot the pipe can go oval which isn't a problem as it'll be on a timer to work in the mornings for maybe an hour and the evenings for 3-5 hours so the pipe will have a chance to recover. But there's also people saying it could promote legionaries? Well i've done my course a few years back on legionnaires treatment and safety and although I don't remember all that much I don't remember hearing about that. The return probably comprises about 7-8 lengths of 15mm so it isn't a lot of water volume to sit at a bad temperature either, certainly less than a large 5 bed system in just the hot flow anyway.
I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts because if it really could be a legionnaires risk I need to know as me and the fiance will probably be having kids within a few years and if anything happened I couldn't forgive myself!
Thanks for any help!