Adding floor probe cutoff to UFH to protect vinyl

[Peter Baldwin]

Hi

I'm a non-pro about to get UFH installed, and was looking to use Evohome. The issue is Evohome doesn't support floor probes and I was looking to use vinyl flooring.

I'm looking for ideas of how I might build in a secondary fail safe to turn off the UFH pump or otherwise turn off the UFH if the floor temp goes above 27 degrees. Some manifolds seems to have limit stats which check the flow temperature, but I was looking for something which checked the floor temp itself.

I'm a novice in this area, so I'm just looking for confirmation that this is possible, or whether I should abandon Evohome and go for something which can take the floor probe directly (like Heatmiser). I just want to be able to have a slightly more informed conversation as/when I hire the installer.

Thanks in advance

Peter

 

[SimonG]

Use a manufacturer that supports floor probes.

 

[Welder]

For your info, I've installed system where it was limited to 27 but still hot spots occur. If it were mine then I bring it down more to 25. That said, you then have to consider how much heat is going into the space as it may not be enough.

 

[Chalked]

If you haven’t installed the pipework yet. Double the amount of pipework in the floor and run the manifold at 37 degrees.
Or use Heatmiser neostats which will do floor, air, or remote air probes.

 

[Ric2013]

I have UFH in spreader plates underneath a pine floor. The floor doesn't seem affected by the heat, but my understanding is that the 28 degree maximum is more to do with my health than with the health of the floor. My UFH stat does have a floor probe, but if the probe is triggered, this then leads to cycling while it waits for the floor to cool.

In practice, I used the probe to work out how to set the mixing valve to obtain the highest temperature that is still below the maximum allowed by the probe thermostat. As such, my probe thermostat would only come into play if the mixing valve stops working effectively, or if someone puts a cushion or similar directly over the part of the floor containing the probe.

I suppose my point is that I feel the probe is largely a gimmick, as I only have one probe for the two circuits connected to the manifold.

 

[Welder]

In this instance Ric, 27 degs is the max temp vinyl type flooring can apparently stand witout going brown over time. Its not a comfort thing is my understanding.