underfloor heating - zones

Came across a friend who had underfloor heating. He had 3 zones for his 3200 ft dormer. 2 downstairs and one upstairs. Basically all underfloor suppliers i asked for a quote all say that 6 zones downstairs and 5 zones upstairs and connect it all up to your manifold. ok grand.

My question is can i do 4 zones instead of 11? My reasoning is that it is easier to control? Less expenses due to less termostats and smaller manifold.

Any help is appreciated.

You can,
BUT north facing rooms will have different heat requirements to south facing rooms, as will bigger rooms, or rooms with big windows etc. plus some rooms mightn't need as much heat as others, e.g. spare rooms etc
I'd say stat all bedrooms etc.

Hi Kildarebuild. I'd say you might be confusing zones with circuits. Each room would have a separate circuit, possibly even two depending on size and distance from the manifold. A circuit is a loop from the manifold flow and return. UFH pipes have a limited max length where they must be returned to the manifold, hence the possibility of a number of circuits needed for one room. If the room is far from the manifold then the distance to the room is also part of this circuit length. I have 9 circuits and six stats downstairs approx 160 m2 all on the one zone. I set the required temp for each room or area and the actuators on the manifold open and close as required. The size of the manifold has nothing to do with the number of zones. It depends on the number of circuits and the number of circuits depends on the floor area, number of rooms, spacing of UFH pipes, heat requirement etc. I would recommend a zone for downstairs, one for upstairs and one for hot water. You would also have a manifold upstairs if using UFH. Make sure the manifold is located as centrally as possible in each floor level if possible.