"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...
I wondered if anyone had any advice to offer before we make a final
decision.. We are converting a steading (Scottish for barn !! ) into a
house. We have already decided to have geothermal heating running an
underfloor heating system. Whilst looking at some of the leaflets we
have acquired, one company recommends using a manifold similar to the
UFH one and running all the taps etc off individual flexible plastic
pipes. We can see the sense in this as it makes it easy to isolate one
particular outlet and using flexible pipe means there will be few if any
joints. But... we have been told horror stories of mice nibbling the
said piping inside the wall cavities. Since it is almost inevitable we
will have mice I wondered how great the risk was and if anyone had
experienced it.

Well we have 100% plastic pipe (water is so acidic copper pipe dissolves in
5-10 years) and regualr mice intrusions. There's lots of things they'd
rather chew - Rockwool appears to be a favourite - so if you wrap the pipes
in Rockwool they'll go for that first.

If you're really worried you could coat the pipe (but not the joints) in
something like that non-drying anti-burglar paint but I doubt if it's
required.

What heatpump are you using ? Looked at this a while back but even with
subsidies the payback wasn't there.