1. UFH requires proper design, given its criticality for the level of utility of a building and comfort for the user. Proper design should minimise guesswork in implementation – and that includes UFH installation.
2. MB has developed its own in-house / bespoke software for MB UFH applications. This software can achieve the lowest design flow temperatures possible within commercially based software. Experience shows that real flow temperatures can in practice be significantly lower than the design flow temperatures. This means reduced energy bills.
3. The MB system of modulation ensures that the underfloor heating system closely follows the building heat requirements. The focus is on external walls and glazed areas (especially full height glazing) as the warmest water in the heated tubes is always taken to the highest area of heat loss, such as an external wall. Simply put, more tubing is laid where there is higher potential impact of external cold. This design approach ensures that the surface heat of a floor counteracts the heat losses at the most vulnerable heat loss points. This helps ensure even temperatures throughout a building particularly in those areas which would otherwise be the coldest. The alternative approach of tubing being evenly spaced across the whole area cannot achieve this even temperature and cold zones can potentially occur.



4. MB’s design software -titled Multiplaner – ensures that heat loss is properly matched by the heating system in the right places at the right time at the right temperature. This software has been internally developed and validated. It calculates the heating capacities required for each room / area, optimises the tubing layout for the maximum output of heat and produces other deliverables such as layouts, energy calculations, bills of quantities, specifications and instructions to guide the work of the Installer and as a record of installation.

The Multiplaner software accepts regular design documents as appropriate input – Auto-cad, Smartdraw etc.  There are a number of other input items / “fields” required by the software other than the usual dimensional data from Auto-cad and these are similar to the data inputs required for the Building Energy Rating (BER) calculations – floor, roofs, walls, doors, windows areas and U-values, thermal bridging factor, thermal mass, details of the energy source (such as gas, oil, heat pump, solar heating, other renewable energy source etc.).

Outputs from the design are transmitted electronically / paper based to the designer and to the client and clarified as part of the planning work for the installation.

This video (1:24 minutes long) gives a brief overview of the software.

Questions?