I'm about to replace my heating system within a 28mm spine down the length of the house and tees off it to the various rads. The longest straight runs are going to be about 20m so I'm concerned about noise as the pipes expand. What suggestions does the team have for how to minimise the risk of noise?
Nothing of that size, but for noisy pipes when I've had the chance where floorboards are up, or ceilings are down I've stuffed in pieces of the old "horsehair and felt" underlay.
If you put a rectangular loop in the main pipe and make sure it wasn't rigidly fixed anywhere wouldn't that let the expansion happen gently and thus eliminate noise?
Bill
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com brought next idea :
If the 20m runs are straight, I would suggest some means needs to be made to allow for length of expansion. Would some loops in the runs do that? Maybe four bends so to form a U in the pipe, to allow some give?
To prevent expansion noise, maybe wrap the points of pipe contact with something slippy - plastic strips cut from the likes of the 2L ice-cream tubs.
Presuming you're hanging it under joists rather than notching them, then I like the idea of making the mounting points short (75mm?) lengths of
35/42mm copper pipe (suitably deburred.)In message , Harry Bloomfield writes
You can get *bellows type* expansion tubes but I think the suggestion above would be adequate for your installation. Ticking noises as pipes expand and slide over joists etc as above but perhaps secure the sleeve to the support.
We had a problem in an office building where there were no loops in a long pipe feeding radiators, and the movement caused joints to weep.
Instead of the hassle and unsightliness of a loop, they simply inserted an expansion fitting, which did the job nicely.
Chris
"cushioned pipe clamp" or "rubber lined pipe clamp".
Thomas Prufer
Ha! The largest re-locatable building of its day 1980 ish. Pipe runs were so long the pushed the end radiators off the plaster board wall.
Likewise. Should have been designed in!
Thanks, I didn't know about expansion joints. From some quick sums it looks like the total expansion will be up to 25mm so two expansion joints in each run should keep the movement down if the runs between these joints are fixed at their mid points.
It's going to run in existing boxing at skirting level down the length of the house, clipped to the wall
Ours was 56 units on two floors, and can be seen here
The radiator system was installed after the units were erected.
I don't think they gave it much thought - they were more concerned with having to put up a sheet of ply for every radiator, to get fixings strong enough .
The troublesome joint was a "T", which rub marks showed was moving at least 10 mm.
There were about 100 staff per floor, quite a few large CAD monitors and fluorescent lighting. Except for the depths of winter, the heating had to be turned off around 9:00, otherwise it was uncomfortably hot by the afternoon. It was some years before any cooling was installed.
Chris
I had a similar situation. I solved it my suspending the pipes from loops of nylon rope allowing the pipe to expand freely. I used no clips. It has worked completely - we have no ticking noises.
I believe it is common practice in other countries.
Robert
Hmmm, it's going to be inside boxing so I could suspend it from L brackets, maybe with a strip of rubber - or even use exhaust rubbers (a bit OTT, perhaps). Thanks!
Will you have room to use lengths of uPVC pipe? Eg 28mm pipe plus 13mm insulation adds up to 54mm and should be a loose fit in 68mm pipe. Brackets are cheap. And there's less risk of damage to the insulation.
or simply sit it on cardboard or insulation.
NT
The correct way to install long straight run of pipe is to incorporate expa nsion bellows.
The pipe needs to be free to move axially but not laterally and the ends ne ed to be restrained by "anchor points". Drawing here:-
Ha! again. Boiler house man went mad. 8.30 am. staff arrive, feel cold and whack up the rad stats to full temp. Sun comes out, lots of glass so they turn them off.
Next morning boiler comes on in advance of staff arriving but all the radiator stats are turned off. Repeat, repeat,.....
Last I saw of it was a fitter on hands and knees fitting stops on the valves.
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