Is my UFH incorrectly installed?

[d0mj4y]

Hi all,

First time contributer here… Hope all well and apologies if my questions are stupid…! However:

I’m trying to get my head around my UFH installation - I moved into my house about a year ago (the house itself is about 14 years old) and I’ve never quite understood the UFH system/been able to get a consistent outcome. I also wonder whether it is correctly installed or not…? I attach a couple of photos which may help to explain, but I guess the crux of my questions are as follows:

- the hot water feed is attached to the blue headed part of the manifold, which seems counter-intuitive to me? Is that the correct way or…?
- also, the adjustable flow valves are at the bottom, under the blue headers (I’ve unscrewed one to show…)
- I don’t have any flow meters - can I add them? If so, would they go at the top or bottom?
- there is a random pipe, which seems to be of a different type to the others, which isn’t connected to the manifold and I don’t know where it “flows” to. Any thought on why it’s there/not connected/why it seems to be different to the others?

FYI, UFH is for downstairs only whereas upstairs is traditional rads with thermostatic valves.

The UFH pump is upstairs near the water cylinder and seem to be working fine.

Many thanks in advance for any comments/guidance!

 

[d0mj4y]

Helps if I finish my second question - is it correct to have the adjustable valves at the bottom? I’ve seen videos with flow rate meters/regulators at the top, which leaves me confused as to why I seem to have flow regulators at the bottom?

 

[Madrab]

It is a little strange not having flow meters attached to allow fine control of the flow through each loop. I can't see why you couldn't add them. Though I can't see a zone valve, pump or blending valve, is it all controlled by the main system and fed by the main system pump and all controlled through one stat? That may be why I presume there are no individual zones?

Is that an Emmeti system manifold? If so a pic sent to Emmeti support may help as to what the setup is.

If there are no flow meters etc then the system would be, in essence, bi directional, so it wouldn't really matter on what side the flow adjusters would live.

 

[d0mj4y]

Hi Madrab,

Thanks for the reply.

Another pic attached, this time of the pump/valves which are upstairs by the water cylinder - I think everything is working fine in terms of blending etc.

If the hot water is entering the system via the bottom connections of the manifold, presume the flow meters/regulators should go there (in a similar manner to the current set up which just has some plastic screw-topped regulators), should I elect to replace?

 

[Madrab]

Ahah, that's better, good quality blending valve there too.

the flow meters/regulators should go there

Yes, standard flow meters would be on the flow side, not on the return.

Ideally you would have flow meters so you have finer control on each loop's heat input (W/m2 into the space) though it would usually work in conjunction with stat controlled actuators therefore zones, fitted to the return side.

 

[d0mj4y]

So - looking at this still in a video I’ve found - the hot water should be coming in the top part of the manifold, but the hottest water is definitely coming in at the bottom in my setup… is that a big issue?

If not, I presume, when I install the flow meters, I should just move the return pin valves to the top and put the flow meters at the bottom, given the direction of flow?

 

[Madrab]

No, it's not really an issue which tier on the manifold the flow and returns are on as long as they both have bleed points.