Thanks to all those who replied to my last post back in February.

We used a ramp made from scaffold as the back door is at the bottom of
the steps so we couldn't pile rubble there. The ramp has been great.
Got lots of other garden jobs done at the same time! The wheel barrow
worked a treat even without a huge run up.

As the garden itself is pretty flat due to having been terraced when
built the precautions from The Natural Philosopher were great but not
required.

The conservatory is on the north face of the house. The east wall of
the conservatory is all block, the north and west faces all glass.
We have gone for suspended timber floor. The joists are 12"x1" at 12"
centres and are at the same height as the current floor so teh damp
proof runs through. We've got the water laid on from the new bolier to
just inside the house where the door to the conservatory will be ready
to run the pipes to.

Quotes for electric and wet kits are about the same at around £400 for
4mx3.5m incl thermostats etc.
So I've learned that
Electric is easier to install but more expensive to run.
Wet is cheaper to run but more expensive to install.

My new question is will electric UFH warm up the room quicker and if so
by how much? Will it halve the warm up time or will the fact that the
heat loss will be so great counteract this?

Its probably going to be used at the weekends in the spring/ autumn/
winter for the kids to play in and in the evenings in the "summer". If
we want to spend a whole summer evening down there and it gets chilly at
9pm we don't want to have to wait until 11pm for the room to get warm.
Equally we don't want to have to turn the heating on at 7pm in order to
be warm at 9.

Also is it a big job to run the wet UFH at different times to the rest
of the house central heating? Our room is in the loft so warms up when
the house heating comes on. We don't want to be baked out of bed by the
whole system coming on when we only need to take the chill off the
conservatory. It normally comes on at around 6am. Obviously electric
UFH has its own completely independant timer.

Any comments?

ChrisJ

The message
from ChrisJ contains
these words:

Also is it a big job to run the wet UFH at different times to the rest
of the house central heating?

Depends on which system you've opted for. If it's part of the main
radiator circuit, then it's not really possible unless you're going to
run round turning off all the valves. If it's got its own pump or is
plumbed back to the CH/HW valve then it's trivial.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

On Wed, 10 May 2006 21:29:50 +0100 someone who may be ChrisJ
wrote this:-

Its probably going to be used at the weekends in the spring/ autumn/
winter for the kids to play in and in the evenings in the "summer". If
we want to spend a whole summer evening down there and it gets chilly at
9pm we don't want to have to wait until 11pm for the room to get warm.

Underfloor heating is not something that does rapid changes of
conditions. However, with a suitable control system it will cope
with changes in temperature easily. The ideal control system has
optimum start and stop, using internal and external temperature
sensors. You tell it when the room will be occupied and it will turn
the heating on and off as it thinks fit in order to have the right
conditions when the room is occupied. It will also have weather
compensation built in to cope with autumn/winter/spring conditions.

If you want a system to rapidly warm up the conservatory, as and
when required, then install power radiators. These still need to be
on a separate zone. Control can then be simplified to a time clock,
though you might operate them manually most of the time.

Equally we don't want to have to turn the heating on at 7pm in order to
be warm at 9.

The conservatory should be on a separate zone, with separate
controls. Then the house and conservatory will operate separately,
though the boiler is common.

Also is it a big job to run the wet UFH at different times to the rest
of the house central heating?

Separate channel on your existing programmer, if you have a spare
one. Alternatively a separate controller. This will control valve(s)
or pump(s) and boiler as necessary. The pipework needs to run from a
suitable place, which depends on your pipe layout, to the
conservatory.




--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

On Fri, 12 May 2006 09:25:22 +0100 someone who may be "Christian
McArdle" wrote this:-

Separate timing control is normally achieved using a programmable thermostat
in each zone, with the main controller either absent to set to 24h.

Works of the devil:-) Instead of having everything in a boy's toys
area one has to walk to an individual toy:-) The sooner such things
are banned the better:-)

More seriously, controls are best grouped together. This is
especially important as they become ever more complicated and it is
important to see what is going on.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

"ChrisJ" wrote in
message ...
Thanks to all those who replied to my last post back in February.

We used a ramp made from scaffold as the back door is at the bottom of the
steps so we couldn't pile rubble there. The ramp has been great. Got lots
of other garden jobs done at the same time! The wheel barrow worked a
treat even without a huge run up.

As the garden itself is pretty flat due to having been terraced when built
the precautions from The Natural Philosopher were great but not required.

The conservatory is on the north face of the house. The east wall of the
conservatory is all block, the north and west faces all glass.
We have gone for suspended timber floor. The joists are 12"x1" at 12"
centres and are at the same height as the current floor so teh damp proof
runs through. We've got the water laid on from the new bolier to just
inside the house where the door to the conservatory will be ready to run
the pipes to.

Quotes for electric and wet kits are about the same at around £400 for
4mx3.5m incl thermostats etc.
So I've learned that
Electric is easier to install but more expensive to run.
Wet is cheaper to run but more expensive to install.

My new question is will electric UFH warm up the room quicker and if so by
how much? Will it halve the warm up time or will the fact that the heat
loss will be so great counteract this?

Its probably going to be used at the weekends in the spring/ autumn/
winter for the kids to play in and in the evenings in the "summer". If we
want to spend a whole summer evening down there and it gets chilly at 9pm
we don't want to have to wait until 11pm for the room to get warm. Equally
we don't want to have to turn the heating on at 7pm in order to be warm at
9.

Also is it a big job to run the wet UFH at different times to the rest of
the house central heating? Our room is in the loft so warms up when the
house heating comes on. We don't want to be baked out of bed by the whole
system coming on when we only need to take the chill off the conservatory.
It normally comes on at around 6am. Obviously electric UFH has its own
completely independant timer.

Any comments?

A neighbour just had a new conservatory and had electric UFH heating
installed. It is so expensive to run they just do not use it.
Conservatories are best heated by Myson convector heaters run off the CH hot
water system. These can be at high level. You switch on a few minutes
before you enter and they heat up fast. Switch off when you leave.

Go to fan convectors:
http://www.myson.co.uk/product.asp

"David Hansen" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 May 2006 09:25:22 +0100 someone who may be "Christian
McArdle" wrote this:-

Separate timing control is normally achieved using a programmable
thermostat
in each zone, with the main controller either absent to set to 24h.

Works of the devil:-) Instead of having everything in a boy's toys
area one has to walk to an individual toy:-) The sooner such things
are banned the better:-)

More seriously, controls are best grouped together. This is
especially important as they become ever more complicated and it is
important to see what is going on.

In a commercial setup I would agree. Don't give the office workers control
of the temperature as thermostat wars break out. The fat people always want
it cool and turn the heat down - I find far people very self centred people
thinking only of themselves. Then the normal people get ****ed off when the
place is too cold. In one office I replaced all stats with tamperproof
stats.

In a domestic house centralising the controls with remote sensors as the
CM67 can have, serves no purpose. Some like to have a basic cheap timer
controlling all the heating, so when they go out, one controller will switch
off.

Thanks again to everyone for the feedback.
I've had a pair of pipes run to the conservatory from a T at the bolier
meaning its not part of the CH for the rest of the house. Currently it
has a couple of valves inline so that the rest of the UFH can be plumbed
in without having to drain the whole system. The UFH has its own pump
and thermostat, not sure about a timer. At weekends the CH boiler is on
from 6am to 9pm with the rads all having thermostatic valves (except the
one in the loft bathroom for some reason, do you need to have a radiator
without a thermostatic valve? Our old bolier had the hall radiator (near
the thermostat) permanently on (tap removed). The new boiler is a combi
with a wireless thermostat.))

As such the controls in the conservatory should enable us to control the
heating in that room without going to the boiler.

ChrisJ