Novice plans to install new central heating system.

[Tom Jones]

Hi, I am a newbie to the forum, with a question about installing a new central heating system. My background is as a fairly experienced DIY'er and time served electrician.

I've just purchased a 1970's bungalow, which needs a full internal refurb.

With a limited budget for the refurb, but quite a lot of spare time to get involved, I'm considering installing most of the new central heating system for the bungalow myself.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts or comments on the basic plan set out below?

My outline plan is to first of all strip out everything that's not needed from the building, including removal of the old single pipe system central heating system. I would obviously be very careful around the boiler/gas supply area and not touch any of this section. I would bring in a qualified engineer to remove the old boiler and fit the new one, connect up and test etc. 'nuff said.

The next step would be to work out boiler output ( combi/condenser boiler, sealed system, wall mounted in kitchen cabinet ) and radiator sizes from an online guide, including btu allowance for a Mira mixer shower, plus pump, pipework lengths and all valves/fittings needed. Shop around and look for a good balance between quality and price.

I'm considering going down the route of a 28mm copper feed and return up into the loft space, ( the bungalow has all solid floors ) directly to a wall mounted 8 way manifold within the loft space ( 6 rads, 1 towel rail, one spare outlet for future expansion ). Then run individual supply and return to each rad/fixture in flexible plastic pipe. Heat and timing control would be via Thermostatic valves on each rad and the built in timer for CH and DHW etc. via the integral boiler controls.

To keep things neat I'm thinking of taking the plastic pipes through from the loft, then straight down a cut out channel in the wall plaster, to a point behind the rads, where it can break out and connect up with the rad valves. Then fix capping over the pipes in the cutout - plaster up and finish. I'm having all the internal walls re-skimmed so no problems with plasterwork damage.

DHW would obviously run from the boiler to the new supply to the kitchen/bathroom via its own separate feed from the boiler.

Questions for your thoughts please.........

What do you think of the basic plan?

Can you suggest a good CH materials supplier in the Wigan area?

What would be the best way to run the plastic flexible pipes in the loft area to protect them from damage? I want to insulate the loft after work done.

What would be the correct diameter for the plastic pipes running from/to the manifold/rads? The room sizes are very standard for a 2 bedroomed bungalow, so no extra large rads involved.

Any general advice or pointers for this project?

Thanks for your time and attention to this,

Tom.

 

[stevetheplumber]

sound fine to me you probably dont need 28mm pipes unless its a very large place and depending on layout it might be better to use two manifolds to keep the runs to rads reasonably short or you cn dispense with manifold s and just tee of for each rad id use 10mm plastic down to each rad if you run it central and come out of the wall behind the rad you can get rad valvs with chrome 10mm bent connectors and that way you see very little pipe work. there are available, boxes with a front plate to allow the pipe to come out of the wall neatly but you could just run them down in oval plastic conduit

 

[lame plumber]

pay a heating installer who is going to do your boiler to plan and specify your heating system, you will benefit in the long term

 

[SimonG]

I'd use it as a good opprtunity to zone the bedrooms and living areas seperate.

 

[SafeGasInstall]

under flor heating I will say

 

[bewsh]

under floor heating is a good shout

 

[SafeGasInstall]

forget about rads , get your house done in ufh you will never regret it

 

[Flue man]

Doubt very much you would need 28mm at all , use plumbase in Wigan or cph both decent for the general public. I'm in Wigan if you need any advice

 

[Avatar]

Do some work as an electrican . . .

Pay a heating enigneer to do the work!

Simples!

 

[kay-jay]

if you fit a combi you wont be using a pump to the shower....

 

[yourplumbing]

underfloor heating is definitely a must although you said you are on a limited budget! the kits are fairly expensive to do it all properly. a well set up standard heating system with correctly sized radiators and a well insulated building would be more than adequate to keep you comfortable. zoning the bedrooms is a brilliant idea as other areas in the house will need more heat than the bedrooms, which can be done from trv's as zoning is just added expense. if you have good water pressure and use a combi system a standard mixer shower would give good showering comfort, although choosing the wrong boiler could cause you problems. its all down to the sizing and flow rates. like lame plumber says get an engineer who is doing your gas/boiler work to spec the system and guide you on the pipe runs and what is best for your money. i'm no gas engineer just a measly plumber so don't take my advice lol I just like to give a bit of input and my opinion

 

[hammers4spanner]

ufh is rubbish starting to get bored now of coming back and installing rads

 

[fogarty]

I'm yet to be convinced about underfoor heating . I prefer normal central heating. less long term instalation problems.

 

[Destroyer2813]

Plus read the post lads all floors are solid doubt he's gonna be digging all.downstairs up ito insulate and rescreed to put ufh in

 

[Destroyer2813]

To the op u don't need to leave allowance on the output for the shower as the boiler will do hw or ch plus you can't pump a shower of a combi