Hi all, first post on here - really hope you can help.
We have recently moved to a newly converted barn (single story) which has a Polypipe under floor heating system heated by an ideal system +24 boiler. It is quite a large property (the barn is 22x5x6.5) as well as a similarly sized extension. There are 3 manifolds in total - 1 x 5 port one that feeds the main barn, 1 x 9 port one that feeds the extension and 1x 2 port one that feeds the mezzanine floor area.
We have been experiencing astronomical gas consumption (£300+ per month 110000kwh usage per year projection!) and upon investigating we have established that when the system is calling for heat at the two furthest points (I.e through both the 5 port and 9 port manifolds) it is dropping the temp of the boiler like a stone (low 50 degrees ish) so consequently the boiler is working overtime to compensate for this and the rooms are the struggling to reach temperature (hence the high gas consumption!?). When the boiler drops temp the barn can take a good 4-6 hours to increase room temperature by 1.5 degrees yet when the 9 port manifold is isolated/not calling for heat the barn temperature will do this in around 1.5 hours.
The plumber who installed the system has been advised by the Polypipe dealer to fit a low loss header to the system to rectify the issue. The thing is, I have had a contradictory diagnosis from another plumber who has suggested that a low loss header is not necessary/will not fix the problem and in fact the route cause of the issue is due to the diameter of the feed pipes from the boiler to the manifolds (which is particularly relevant I guess given the 9 port manifold is approximately 12meters from the boiler) The pipe work is 22mm copper out of the boiler but then disappears into the loft in plastic speedfit connections (which apparently are also further reducing the flow).
This is our dream house that we have waited 2 years to be finished and poured all our money into, as well as our first experience of ufh; I really hope someone can help as we can’t continue to pay those sorts of bills and we don’t know who to believe / what to do for the best
We have recently moved to a newly converted barn (single story) which has a Polypipe under floor heating system heated by an ideal system +24 boiler. It is quite a large property (the barn is 22x5x6.5) as well as a similarly sized extension. There are 3 manifolds in total - 1 x 5 port one that feeds the main barn, 1 x 9 port one that feeds the extension and 1x 2 port one that feeds the mezzanine floor area.
We have been experiencing astronomical gas consumption (£300+ per month 110000kwh usage per year projection!) and upon investigating we have established that when the system is calling for heat at the two furthest points (I.e through both the 5 port and 9 port manifolds) it is dropping the temp of the boiler like a stone (low 50 degrees ish) so consequently the boiler is working overtime to compensate for this and the rooms are the struggling to reach temperature (hence the high gas consumption!?). When the boiler drops temp the barn can take a good 4-6 hours to increase room temperature by 1.5 degrees yet when the 9 port manifold is isolated/not calling for heat the barn temperature will do this in around 1.5 hours.
The plumber who installed the system has been advised by the Polypipe dealer to fit a low loss header to the system to rectify the issue. The thing is, I have had a contradictory diagnosis from another plumber who has suggested that a low loss header is not necessary/will not fix the problem and in fact the route cause of the issue is due to the diameter of the feed pipes from the boiler to the manifolds (which is particularly relevant I guess given the 9 port manifold is approximately 12meters from the boiler) The pipe work is 22mm copper out of the boiler but then disappears into the loft in plastic speedfit connections (which apparently are also further reducing the flow).
This is our dream house that we have waited 2 years to be finished and poured all our money into, as well as our first experience of ufh; I really hope someone can help as we can’t continue to pay those sorts of bills and we don’t know who to believe / what to do for the best
