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I know this isn't the plumbing forum, and I know it doesn't belong in Building, and I know I already asked the question once, and I know it's already been deleted, and I know I already received one response to the now deleted question. But I'd appreciate a more nuanced discussion. Sorry about the length of the post (I do have a reputation to keep up, but sometimes verbalising the problem helps to resolve it).
I'm going to be replacing the floor slab soon in the converted barn and ufh is an obvious future proof option. I have all options open for placing of insulation and ufh pipes. Ground source or air source HP would be the ideal heat source, but roof mounted solar panels is another possible option. There's plenty of roof and plenty of garden. I don't envisage installing the heat source pump for a while yet. I do have a Heat Recovery extract/intake system installed. I want to install the ufh pipes in the slab, and connect them to a manifold.
There's two rooms, one is about 60M², and t'other is about 25M². I'm happy to consider this one room as 20M² (it's the entrance hallway), and the big room as 3 X 20M². I understand that 20M² is the kind of ball park figure for an ufh zone. I'd envisage locating the manifold on the dividing wall in the smaller room (under the stairs), with pipes from the larger room exiting the floor and going through the wall to join the manifold. This would avoid six pipes going through the doorway.
The big question is, locate the pipes in the floor slab proper, or in the screed? Our heating pattern here is something like: April to October - no heating required (except for the very occasional cold evenings.
November to March constant background heating required, with January requiring a little boost from time to time.
Thus a constant 24 hour system during those winter months, with a long heat up time would make more sense. With the system off during the summer months. Indeed the mass of the walls, etc is a beneficial way of keeping the house cool in summer, and we occasionally close the shutters to avoid too much solar gain.
So despite advice already received, and with that additional information, do people think that locating the pipes, in the screed, but on top of an insulated floor slab is preferable to placing the pipes on top of insulation on top of the floor slab.
Edit, BTW, there is a fireplace in the big room.
I'm going to be replacing the floor slab soon in the converted barn and ufh is an obvious future proof option. I have all options open for placing of insulation and ufh pipes. Ground source or air source HP would be the ideal heat source, but roof mounted solar panels is another possible option. There's plenty of roof and plenty of garden. I don't envisage installing the heat source pump for a while yet. I do have a Heat Recovery extract/intake system installed. I want to install the ufh pipes in the slab, and connect them to a manifold.
There's two rooms, one is about 60M², and t'other is about 25M². I'm happy to consider this one room as 20M² (it's the entrance hallway), and the big room as 3 X 20M². I understand that 20M² is the kind of ball park figure for an ufh zone. I'd envisage locating the manifold on the dividing wall in the smaller room (under the stairs), with pipes from the larger room exiting the floor and going through the wall to join the manifold. This would avoid six pipes going through the doorway.
The big question is, locate the pipes in the floor slab proper, or in the screed? Our heating pattern here is something like: April to October - no heating required (except for the very occasional cold evenings.
November to March constant background heating required, with January requiring a little boost from time to time.
Thus a constant 24 hour system during those winter months, with a long heat up time would make more sense. With the system off during the summer months. Indeed the mass of the walls, etc is a beneficial way of keeping the house cool in summer, and we occasionally close the shutters to avoid too much solar gain.
So despite advice already received, and with that additional information, do people think that locating the pipes, in the screed, but on top of an insulated floor slab is preferable to placing the pipes on top of insulation on top of the floor slab.
Edit, BTW, there is a fireplace in the big room.
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