DIY Project To Zone My House

[Richard at Home]

Good evening and a happy new year to you all

I welcome any comments and feedback to my project I am looking at starting in 2013

now I know all this sort of thing can be done with many of the costly out of the box solutions that probably cost more than the boiler itself

What I am looking at doing is to create a heating system that has at least 3 Zones

I believe I could do this with some changes to the main Pipe work and 3 motorised zone valves and an additional time clock


Reason for project

During the day one member of my family is at home and requires heating to be on for 4 rads in part of the house.

Currently I am heating all the house all day when only part of the house needs to be heated

My daughter-in-law is also at home some times when not at Uni and may need her front room heating.

Now my logic is to have the secondary time clock switching the water flow between parts of the house during the day and in the evenings opening all valves to heat the complete house

Now I know this could also be done with the new wireless digital TVRs but this expense would be significant


I will add to this post as the project develops

If you have any questions or would like to bounce ideas or comments please reply and this may become an interesting post.


Thank you for your time

Best regards

Richard

 

[SimonG]

Welcome to the forum Richard, the only comment I can give is that in my experience it's not a diy project, it's a job for a pro. But good luck in your endeavours.

 

[Destroyer2813]

Sounds like a big upheavle gonna require a re-pipe of certain sections of the house to get the different area you want on the different zones, could get complecated for a diyer

 

[jase158]

whats the 3rd zone valve for?

 

[Richard at Home]

Well yes I guess I would class myself as a professional Diy to be honest.

There are not many tasks I have not undertaken, but I will supply pictures etc

Maybe i should change this from title from DIY we will see how it pans out.

Thanks simon

 

[Richard at Home]

Yes I am aware this may be out of the scope of your average DIY persons scope, or even what they would want to do.

I understand I will have to add in 3 main 22mm Runs that I am calling Vanes. These 3 runs will control the 3 zones with the zone valves

I am lucky as I live in a Bungalow so I have access to all the pipe work for all rooms

 

[Dotty]

Professional diy is an oxymoron. You'd best be looking at a manifold system.

 

[Richard at Home]

The 3rd valve is for scope as i may want to control another room or 2 dependant if the room is empty or in use

This is just for flexability more then anything.

 

[jase158]

I still dont get it,
1 zone for the bloke who is in.
1 zone for the usual operation
is the other zone for your daughters bedroom?

 

[SimonG]

Well yes I guess I would class myself as a professional Diy to be honest.

There are not many tasks I have not undertaken, but I will supply pictures etc

Maybe i should change this from title from DIY we will see how it pans out.

Thanks simon

Plenty of pictures and plenty of questions and then take it from there. If you get in touch with one of the mods BOD, Croppie, Gas Man, System3 or Steveb (hope I haven't missed anybody 🙂 ) they can edit the title for you.

 

[heliotrope]

Just three heating zones?

What about hot water, or that off separate boiler?

 

[SimonG]

Professional diy is an oxymoron. You'd best be looking at a manifold system.

Or the programmable TRV's, don't know a lot about it but read a little in the John Guest paperwork I read through recently.

 

[Richard at Home]

Yes the manifold may be a solution for me to investigate. I will look at some layouts and see how it will fit in with my current pipe work and if this is a better route than running 3 flow and returns in 22


Ps
I personally believe you can do a professional job as "Do it Yourself" and stand your own ground.

But not all DIY is equal ! i agree.....

 

[Howsie]

You can do a good job, not a professional job.

 

[Richard at Home]

The hot water would be unaffected as it is on the y Plan currently. MY zone project will just switch the zone valves on and off throughout the day regardless of what the boiler is doing

This will hopefully reduce the complexity of control system requirements

Hope you follow what i am saying

 

[TBServices]

This would make a good movie, probably starring Steve Martin, or someone else who can play the archetypal over confident bumbling fool.

The pitch - "Professional DIYer" rips up all of his floors, much to the displeasure of his missus who knows he's not up to the task, hilarity ensues! The guy pays a "professional professional" to rectify the situation with his bum on show, more hilarity ensues! Do you think it could get the green light?

Good luck buddy.

P.s. I imagine by vanes, you meant Veins, although you'll have to fit the zone valves to the Arteries.

 

[Richard at Home]

No problem i will settle for a Good Job to a high standard

i am happy with that

Thanks

 

[lame plumber]

The 3rd valve is for scope as i may want to control another room or 2 dependant if the room is empty or in use

This is just for flexability more then anything.

you would be better off and save money if you planned what you were doing before you start, like professionals do.

 

[Howsie]

The hot water would be unaffected as it is on the y Plan currently. MY zone project will just switch the zone valves on and off throughout the day regardless of what the boiler is doing

This will hopefully reduce the complexity of control system requirements

Hope you follow what i am saying

And there is your first mistake.

 

[jase158]

u need the boiler to fire up to give you heat? there is no need to have the zone valves open if boiler and pump aint running!

Just so you know,
went to a property the other day, someone had an extension done, they had done the plumbing "on the cheap" and I spent 3 days getting it up and running as it should be, new pump, powerflush, a day of finding pipework and the problems and finnally a day to fit magnaclean and change a couple trv's and add inhibitor.

Nearly £1,000 spent all for saving about £100 on fittings and pipework.