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Polypipe Underfloor Heating selected for Thornhill House
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When you’re looking for the best form of heating for a major refurbishment project, under floor heating should be an option you consider. The wide range of options available from market leaders Polypipe allows even the most demanding refurbishments to benefit from under floor heating.
One such project is Thornhill House, a wonderful property overlooking Carsington Water in Derbyshire and situated within a Conservation Area. The property has recently been purchased and is now benefiting from complete refurbishment from its previous usage as an office to a gorgeous luxury home.
Polypipe Underfloor heating was selected for both the first and second floor.
The system was specified by Craig Jones, the installer working on the project and designed by Nigel Parkes, Director of the Underfloor Warehouse, in Whetstone, Leicestershire. Craig has recently started his own business – Thermal Energy Developments – but has been working with and fitting Polypipe products for more than five years and has built an excellent working knowledge of the Polypipe range of products.
The Underfloor Warehouse specialises in specifying and designing bespoke energy efficient systems for a wide range of very different projects from loft conversions, to new kitchens, and from large office or apartment complexes, to individual refurbishment projects.
Craig specified Polypipe’s Solid Floor system for the ground floor because it’s ease of installation and reliable performance. This system uses unique lightweight plastic red floor panels which are easy to lay and can be cut to size. Once laid, the Polyplumb heating pipes, are then walked into the panel, at the required distances and to optimum bends radii to ensure a desirable even heat pattern.
This Polypipe solid floor system means other refurbishment work can carry on during and after the installation of floor heating pipework as the panel protects all pipes from inevitable site traffic. The system is powered by a Newby Air to Water heat pump, which at 400% efficient is both effective and very kind to the environment.
The solid floor system allows virtually any flooring product to be laid over the screed giving the interior designers complete freedom – and of course, no radiators.
System designer Nigel says the product design makes life easier for those working on the project: “It’s an excellent product – very flexible and simple to use, making the under floor heating system installation both fast and accurate . Added to that, the pipe layout ensures heat output is uniform across the whole room making it easy to regulate and control.
On the second floor, Craig specified Polypipe’s new Modular Heating Panel (MHP) system. This product is very straight forward to install, and as with all Polypipe under floor systems, it’s reliable and offers excellent performance. Modular Heating Panels are a new product which has been specifically designed for new build and refurbishment projects and in particular for the upper floors of buildings. MHP offers a pre configured solution where all the floor heating system components are supplied fitted within complete panels which are simply connected together on site. Installation is much quicker than traditional underfloor solutions and the panels fit perfectly between the joists and connect easily to the heat source.
At Thornhill House, MHP was laid in every room on the second floor, utilising a total of 125 square meters of the product. Craig says it’s a dream product for this particular type of installation: “In my experience, MHP offers the best of all worlds – it’s just as easy to install from below as it is from above. Regardless of the type of refurbishment, new floors or new ceilings, there’s no extra work required to fit the product.
Nigel Parkes from Underfloor Warehouse says: “The Polypipe products range and options make the use of underfloor heating as straightforward as it gets. There’s a product for most requirements and in many cases a combination of Polypipe products will be the best solution – the arrival of modular heating panels has been a God send for first floor jobs where you can fit them from below with ease. Plus, the MHP product is available in three widths to fit standard joist widths and two lengths to fit a variety of room sizes – making them easy to incorporate.”
Nigel reckons it’s an ideal product from an energy efficiency point of view as well: “For those looking for energy efficiency it’s an excellent product too. The Polypipe product is laid just in those areas that need it. When designing the system, I asked Craig for the room layouts and the position of any fitted furniture to avoid heating those areas unnecessarily, saving time and cost. And of course using underfloor heating, the rooms will be left free of radiators, giving much more freedom to the interior designers. The system we have used will be more economical to run than radiator-based systems too, as underfloor heating demands a lower temperature output from the heat source. Underfloor heating systems are ideal to use with ground source or air source heat pumps this installation to will achieve the same levels of comfort you’d expect from a traditional heat sources.”
