ᐅ 3 underfloor heating circuits in the bathroom, 1 not working, what should I do?
Created on: 6 Dec 2018 07:30
K
KingSong
Hello everyone,
We have now been living in our new house for a week. Our main bathroom is equipped with underfloor heating consisting of 3 heating loops. The spacing of the heating pipes is 5cm (2 inches). Unfortunately, I noticed that one of the heating loops is not warming up, and it happens to be the one under the toilet :-(
What I have tried so far is setting all 3 loops on the manifold to the maximum flow rate, currently at 4 liters per minute (1 gallon per minute). The ERR function is deactivated. The room temperature setting on the heating system itself (heat pump) is set to 22°C (72°F).
What can be observed is that the floor areas with the other 2 heating loops are warming up, but the tiles above the 3rd heating loop remain completely cold. The building handover has already taken place, but the heating system was accepted on the condition that the heating itself works properly, while the heat distribution still needs to be assessed.
Does anyone have any ideas on what else I could try? I assume I can rule out a kinked pipe in the heating loop if I see visible flow on the related flow meter, right?
Thanks in advance,
Best regards
We have now been living in our new house for a week. Our main bathroom is equipped with underfloor heating consisting of 3 heating loops. The spacing of the heating pipes is 5cm (2 inches). Unfortunately, I noticed that one of the heating loops is not warming up, and it happens to be the one under the toilet :-(
What I have tried so far is setting all 3 loops on the manifold to the maximum flow rate, currently at 4 liters per minute (1 gallon per minute). The ERR function is deactivated. The room temperature setting on the heating system itself (heat pump) is set to 22°C (72°F).
What can be observed is that the floor areas with the other 2 heating loops are warming up, but the tiles above the 3rd heating loop remain completely cold. The building handover has already taken place, but the heating system was accepted on the condition that the heating itself works properly, while the heat distribution still needs to be assessed.
Does anyone have any ideas on what else I could try? I assume I can rule out a kinked pipe in the heating loop if I see visible flow on the related flow meter, right?
Thanks in advance,
Best regards
Unfortunately, nobody really thought this through...
The ideal situation is to have the same pressure loss in all heating circuits, so that there’s no need to throttle anywhere (of course, the heating load for each room must have been properly calculated beforehand), enabling the lowest possible supply temperature.
The problem here: the circuit lengths are similar, yes... but the pressure loss of a circuit with a 5 cm (2 inch) pipe spacing is significantly higher than one with a 20 cm (8 inch) spacing. This means that during hydraulic balancing, to achieve sufficient flow in the bathroom circuit, all other circuits have to be throttled... which in turn forces the supply temperature to be raised unnecessarily -> loss of efficiency and higher heating costs.
Besides that, it has already been mentioned... 20 cm (8 inch) pipe spacing is basically no longer used nowadays, as it reduces efficiency due to the higher required supply temperature. Using 5 cm (2 inch) spacing in the bathroom is also pointless, since the heat output compared to 7.5 cm (3 inch) spacing is hardly better, but with higher pressure loss. It’s better to increase the heating surface area (for example, with wall heating), as that has a much greater effect.
As has often been said: contact the contractor responsible, so they can at least properly adjust the poor planning. This will likely result in a higher supply temperature and possibly shorten the lifespan of the heat generator (due to more frequent cycling caused by suboptimal hydraulics), but at least all rooms should get warm.
The ideal situation is to have the same pressure loss in all heating circuits, so that there’s no need to throttle anywhere (of course, the heating load for each room must have been properly calculated beforehand), enabling the lowest possible supply temperature.
The problem here: the circuit lengths are similar, yes... but the pressure loss of a circuit with a 5 cm (2 inch) pipe spacing is significantly higher than one with a 20 cm (8 inch) spacing. This means that during hydraulic balancing, to achieve sufficient flow in the bathroom circuit, all other circuits have to be throttled... which in turn forces the supply temperature to be raised unnecessarily -> loss of efficiency and higher heating costs.
Besides that, it has already been mentioned... 20 cm (8 inch) pipe spacing is basically no longer used nowadays, as it reduces efficiency due to the higher required supply temperature. Using 5 cm (2 inch) spacing in the bathroom is also pointless, since the heat output compared to 7.5 cm (3 inch) spacing is hardly better, but with higher pressure loss. It’s better to increase the heating surface area (for example, with wall heating), as that has a much greater effect.
As has often been said: contact the contractor responsible, so they can at least properly adjust the poor planning. This will likely result in a higher supply temperature and possibly shorten the lifespan of the heat generator (due to more frequent cycling caused by suboptimal hydraulics), but at least all rooms should get warm.
OK, 20cm (8 inches) insulation is excessive; 10cm (4 inches) would be better. But anyway, your general contractor has to resolve the problem for you (unfortunately). You will have to cover any other repair attempts yourself.
From a technical perspective, I would disconnect the malfunctioning heating circuit from the supply and return manifold and blow it through with compressed air. Start preparing an argument against the general contractor in case the problem lies within the pipe and they try to settle with you using a small discount.
From a technical perspective, I would disconnect the malfunctioning heating circuit from the supply and return manifold and blow it through with compressed air. Start preparing an argument against the general contractor in case the problem lies within the pipe and they try to settle with you using a small discount.
C
chand19867 Dec 2018 10:50Domski schrieb:
Side question @Tego12: Does the pressure loss depend on the velocity? From a layman’s perspective, I assumed the cross-section and length were the influential factors.I share the same question.
Domski schrieb:
Does the pressure loss depend on the VA? As a layperson, I assumed the cross-sectional area and length were the influencing factors. With a tighter spacing of supports, the bending radii are likely smaller and their number increases, causing the pipe to be bent more frequently and sharply, which results in higher pressure loss.
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