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An off the wall idea (or rather, an in the wall idea) for heating system

Well & Truly Off The Grid

Last Post by NeilH 4 years ago

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NeilH

(@neilh)

Active Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 10

Topic starter 12/10/2021 3:09 pm

Much as I'd like a heat pump when the old gas boiler needs replacing (not long), I ain't going to dig up the concrete floor in my 50s bungalow for UF system. I do have though a long central double brick wall running the length of the place (a couple of doorways in it), and I'm wondering about fixing the tubing on the back of that wall (living areas are to front), building a 100mm dense concrete block wall against the tubing and filling the gap with wet weak mortar before final course is laid. I'd lose 130mm off some smaller rooms that could afford to lose that. They need redecorating anyway.

A vertical underfloor system, with zero heat-loss (insulate top of wall, obv). Any feedback, +ve or -ve ?

Of course, any old master paintings I happen to acquire couldn't be hung on it. And I don't think I'd be allowed to Paint It Black for better radiation (and winter sun collection through the windows)

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Kev M

(@kev-m)

Noble Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1276

12/10/2021 5:12 pm

Interesting idea. I've heard of radiant wall heating, which is similar, just not using your vertical concrete slab method. I don't know how effective the lower temps will be on a vertical wall. They do work on a floor though. You could always use some nice big radiators instead - I don't have any ufh, all radiators and it works fine.

Have a look at this:

https://www.beka-klima.de/en/wall-heating/

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Derek M

(@derek-m)

Illustrious Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4425

12/10/2021 6:22 pm

Posted by: @neilh

Much as I'd like a heat pump when the old gas boiler needs replacing (not long), I ain't going to dig up the concrete floor in my 50s bungalow for UF system. I do have though a long central double brick wall running the length of the place (a couple of doorways in it), and I'm wondering about fixing the tubing on the back of that wall (living areas are to front), building a 100mm dense concrete block wall against the tubing and filling the gap with wet weak mortar before final course is laid. I'd lose 130mm off some smaller rooms that could afford to lose that. They need redecorating anyway.

A vertical underfloor system, with zero heat-loss (insulate top of wall, obv). Any feedback, +ve or -ve ?

Of course, any old master paintings I happen to acquire couldn't be hung on it. And I don't think I'd be allowed to Paint It Black for better radiation (and winter sun collection through the windows)

Hi Neil,

That is a novel idea. I am no expert, but I cannot think of any reason why it would not work, it would be like having a very large radiator. The response time would probably be slower, but the concrete would act as a heat store, so would help smooth out changes in temperature. You would have to ensure any joints are sound, because springing a leak would be a real pain. You would also need to be careful doing any drilling.

As an alternative there are UFH system that can be installed directly on top of a concrete floor. It raises the floor height by a few centimetres, but adjusting the doors would probably be preferable to digging up your concrete floor.

As Kev stated, you could fit higher output radiators, the height and width being the same as your present radiators, just the depth would be slightly greater since they would be multi panel. It all depends what you have at present. A test that you can carry out if you can adjust the water output temperature on your present boiler, would be to lower the temperature and see at what point it is no longer meeting the heat demand. That would give you some idea of how well your present system would perform if you just replace your boiler with a heat pump.

For best efficiency a heat pump should be operated at the lowest water flow temperature that meets the heat demand. Obviously improving insulation and increasing the output of your heat emitters would all help to improve efficiency.

👍

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