Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. Non-registered members also do not have access to our AI features. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!
Good heat loss calculator for ASHP with UFH?
Hi all, new here and very excited to be starting on our project. We are buying a modern-ish bungalow with good insulation in Cornwall and are going to install an ASHP with underfloor heating. Long story but the property shares an oil tank with the vendors next door and currently has an oil boiler and rads. We told them we didn't want them to install a new oil tank so from the day we move in, will have no heating or hot water. Therefore I want to try and get all the design work done so we can hit the ground running on day one.
Is there a good calculator, maybe an Excel spreadsheet I can use?
Thanks, looking forward to lots of interactions here.
Andrew
This is one from buildhub. I have left my house figures in to give you a starter for 10.
UFH design - see attached.
Lots of insulation otherwise your downwards losses will make you cry. So 150mm PIR and above. Not the 40mm UFH outlets want to sell you. It works best with loops in concrete or screed. If you can't do that you may be better with radiators or fan coils.
@johnmo Hey thanks for that. It'll give me a good head start. I'm assuming we have plenty of insulation under the chipboard floor but I can't check until we actually own the place and I can lift some floors.
Hi Ash,
when was your soon to be new home built? Because it will only be as good as building regs were at the time.
When you get into details lots of floor covering say suitable for ufh but then they say nothing above 29C temperature on the glue. Only ceramic tile can go higher in temperature.
To keep temperatures low and hence efficiency high you probably need spacing between pipes of 100mm. A couple of plumbers would have put in 150-250mm spacing which coupled with the floor covering temperature limit would have left us cold. They basically didn’t do a room heat loss at all.
2kW + Growatt & 4kW +Sunnyboy PV on south-facing roof Solar thermal. 9.5kWh Givenergy battery with AC3. MVHR. Vaillant 7kW ASHP (very pleased with SCOP >4) open system operating on WC
Thanks Judith. It was built in 2008 so should have some floor insulation. It would appear to be suspended timber with chipboard but it could be beam and block. I'm trying to find out what plans were submitted to Building Control.
We're going to be using Marmoleum Click flooring which does have the temperature limit so thanks for the spacing advice. We'll be doing the pipework ourselves so heat loss calcs will be essential.
Posted by: @ash2020We'll be doing the pipework ourselves so heat loss calcs will be essential.
You can download a free copy of LoopCad on a trial basis for a month. Well worth the effort.
Heatpunk is pretty good for a house heat loss, which you need to start. https://heatpunk.co.uk/home It’s easier than many tools and with reasonable output displays. It allows ufh to be entered in W/m^2
2kW + Growatt & 4kW +Sunnyboy PV on south-facing roof Solar thermal. 9.5kWh Givenergy battery with AC3. MVHR. Vaillant 7kW ASHP (very pleased with SCOP >4) open system operating on WC
@ash2020 sorry to mislead you. You can’t design your ufh in it but once your house is entered you can check your ufh design matches your room heat loss.
It is is the heat pump section of task pull down and looks like this
Personally I would start with the house heat loss so you know the scale of the ufh design needed. You enter the ufh in W/m^2 in heatpunk for the room and iterate until you have enough heat and it is cost effective.
You could design a system using the smallest pipe inter loop gap, lots of length etc but it would cost more to install but allow a lower operating temperature. It’s a trade off between up-front costs and on-going operation cost.
2kW + Growatt & 4kW +Sunnyboy PV on south-facing roof Solar thermal. 9.5kWh Givenergy battery with AC3. MVHR. Vaillant 7kW ASHP (very pleased with SCOP >4) open system operating on WC
- 26 Forums
- 2,618 Topics
- 61.1 K Posts
- 542 Online
- 6,994 Members
Join Us!
Worth Watching
Latest Posts
-
By David999 , 3 minutes ago
-
RE: Our 10 year old Grant heat pump failed
Since my last post on this topic we've reached a conclu...
By Mike Patrick , 13 minutes ago
-
Brown Oily Residue Blocking Air Vent and Weeping Relief Valve... Anyone Seen This?
My installation is 4 years old. After about 18 months a...
By seoras , 2 hours ago
-
RE: Renewables & Heat Pumps in the News
An article on funding for heat pumps in case anyone is ...
By Jeff , 3 hours ago
-
RE: Indevolt Batteries UK Support & Info Thread
Thanks @editor , @indevolt-uk Subject to any comments ...
By JamesPa , 11 hours ago
-
RE: Share Your Experiences with Heat Pump Manufacturer Support
@seoras Sorry to hear that. I found Vaillant very help...
By JamesPa , 12 hours ago
-
The Watchdog That Watched and Waited
On 9 January 2026, Consumer Energy Solutions collapsed ...
By Mars , 15 hours ago
-
RE: GSHP Kaput After 16 Years: New Compressor or Switch to ASHP? Advice Welcome
Cool Energy in Grimsby sell ground source heat pumps an...
By DerekDeLeon , 16 hours ago
-
RE: Valliant Heat Pump Settings
Thats arguably a sign of a good installer - they unders...
By JamesPa , 16 hours ago
-
RE: Electricity price predictions
Well, we have so many cases where rain water mixes with...
By Batpred , 17 hours ago
-
RE: Two heating zones to one zone
@profzarkov They arent obviously wrong, but the only...
By JamesPa , 20 hours ago
-
RE: Towns water feed to air source heat pump system
The DHW circuit cant be separated (well it could, you c...
By JamesPa , 20 hours ago
-
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverter
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverterPylontech batterie...
By MartinRobinson , 1 day ago
-
RE: My NIBE ASHP Nightmare: No Commissioning, High Bills and a Hostile Installer
As @transparent has observed above, this is not bad, an...
By cathodeRay , 1 day ago
-
RE: The Grid Says Yes.. Until It Doesn’t: Why Britain's Net Zero Push is Stalling at the Plug Socket
As I was reading this article Mars, I was thinking that...
By Toodles , 2 days ago
-
RE: Tell us about your Solar (PV) setup
Installed in May 2011: 16*Sharp 245 W monocrystalline p...
By txmartyn , 2 days ago
-
-
RE: Say hello and introduce yourself
That doesn't sound 'right' to me. The national Smart ...
By Transparent , 3 days ago
-
RE: Growatt battery disconnected
I doubt this will happen, but I will try and suggest it...
By Eliuccio , 3 days ago
-
Understood. That's why I decided from the outset on a ...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago
-
RE: My experience with 3 heat pump surveys: Heat Geek, British Gas & Octopus
On the litigation, I would not go there and definitely ...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: Recommended home battery inverters + regulatory matters - help requested
I suppose if your pv inverter packs up, you have a plan...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: New Vaillant aroTherm Plus in black - When will it come to the UK?
Firstly check you are using sound power not sound press...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago





