Zoned Areas in Open Plan House..any point?

GoldenOldy

Good evening. I have seen a property which internally has rooms but no doors as such , you can literally see from room to room and through to the staircase. The person selling says it has ‘zoned’ heating control. It may be my age , but not sure how the heating is contained in a zone if its all open plan(ish). Surely the heat rises and floats to the colder areas (if its not on i those areas). Hope my question makes sense and someone might explain please? Thankyou.

Keep_pedalling

What! no doors on the bathroom or bedrooms? 

We moved into a bungalow in May which apart from the above is open plan. We have two zones in the open plan area but we have not had the heating on since we moved in so have not had a chance to test it yet. 

Ours is wet underfloor heating and I think the area is too big for a single zone with one continuous pipe run. 

GoldenOldy

Oh, I do apologize! No , its the downstairs. You can see through to the kitchen and the stairwell and a little office from the living room. It did make me chuckle thinking how i have conjured up the wrong image though! 

it will be interesting to see how you fair in your bungalow. I hope all works splendidly for you.

Keep_pedalling

GoldenOldy said:

Oh, I do apologize! No , its the downstairs. You can see through to the kitchen and the stairwell and a little office from the living room. It did make me chuckle thinking how i have conjured up the wrong image though! 

it will be interesting to see how you fair in your bungalow. I hope all works splendidly for you.

🤣 I have high hopes, no part of the house dropped below 20 degrees C last night with the outside temperature down to 3.5. Our previous place (1930s semi) would have been way below that. 

FreeBear

GoldenOldy said: its the downstairs. You can see through to the kitchen and the stairwell and a little office from the living room.

I'd be concerned about the spread of fire (especially from the kitchen) and no protected exit routes. If you go ahead with this purchase, it would be wise to consider reinstating doors.

NedS

Generally zoning is to be avoided when using heat pumps as you want to run with as low a flow temperature as possible, and therefore need larger emitters (radiators, UFH) to be able to emit the heat produced at those low flow temps. By zoning off parts of the property, you reduce the emitting capacity of the system which then requires higher flow temps, which costs more.

If it's zoned, make sure all zones are fully open, or remove the zoning completely.

And that's before you've considered the practicality of how heat is expected to remain within one particular "zone" of an "open plan" property.

GoldenOldy

I hadnt considered fire risk. Excellent point. Thanks
Ned S, so I think I understand what you’re saying…..so zones only work if the zone is open, but its impossible to keep the heat within the zone anyway? …I think! Also thought about the heat just escaping up the staircase due to no downstairs doors.

GoldenOldy

Oky, been to see another property this afternoon. It seems gas central heating is out of favour, as this one has a ‘lpg’ system, which is located underground in the front drive. The vendor says it costs 600 a tank, twice a year. Its a big house of around 250 square metres…am thinking of joining forces with niece and extended family and buying something together. Does this sound about right? (Its also in a high surface water flood zone but i will ask elsewhere about that one). Blimey its all too complex for my old noodle!

tacpot12

Zoning in a open plan home is pointless, and is likely to end up costing more money, if only to replace zone valves when they wear out. 

FreeBear

GoldenOldy said: Oky, been to see another property this afternoon. It seems gas central heating is out of favour, as this one has a ‘lpg’ system, which is located underground in the front drive.

LPG is still gas, just delivered by tanker rather than pipe. Tanks rust and need regular inspection & maintenance. Invariably, they are owned by the gas supplier, so you are tied to them for LPG. Being buried, it will be very expensive to replace...

GoldenOldy

Freebear, thankyou so much for this. I think what with that, and the high risk flood, thats a nail in the coffin so to speak. Much appreciated.