The Microbore question revisited.

Nothing revs up the heat pump community like a bit of microbore. For those who dont know what it is, its the small diameter pipe that feeds radiators, it is about the same size as the cable that plugs into your kettle. It was very popular in the 80s and 90s because its cheap and quick to install. I've covered it before in a previous blog https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/heat-pumps-microbore-why-can-excellent-bed-fellows-graham-hendra/ but its been bought to my attention again so here's an update.

If you are lazy, or cant do the maths its simple to say microbore doesn't work on heat pumps. But its not true. Microbore works fine on any heating system with a heat pump or not.

I started a new job on Friday, I'm back. (I'm still lecturing at Eastleigh college as well, dont panic) My new role is as Technical director of Genous.Earth. I'm working with a really exciting team and its a completely new direction for me.

Genous offers end to end retrofit solutions for homeowners looking to improve the EPC ratings, reduce the bills and make an impact on their carbon footprint. We focus on Insulation improvements, Photo Voltaic systems, Batteries, Heat pumps, double glazing Biomass etc.

Our online platform demystifies the renewable and decarbonisation journey, it offers advise on which are the most effective and economically viable solutions for your house one at a time.

I'm going to be focusing on how to put together packages of technologies that work well together.

My first role was to aid the guys getting MCS accredited. To do this I volunteered to be the nominated MCS technical person. The problem is that despite working in the industry for 13 years, writing 2 heat pump books, many many training manuals, a heat loss calculator, tech videos, and answering tens of thousands of technical support phone calls, I haven't got the bit of paper. When I started there was no bit of paper.

So I had to go back to school. Clive Archer very kindly squeezed me onto the relevant heat pump training course and threw in the low temperature heating system design course too, and that's where the microbore comes in.

In the low temp dosing course you have to do a heat load calc, a radiator sizing calculation and work out some pipe sizes. I haven't done this long hand for years, I wrote it into my heat loss calculator eons ago and it does it all automatically.

The pipe size exercise you complete comes out with an answer of 8mm pipe, that's microbore. So let me recap. In the qualification you need to be the MCS accredited technical person for heat pumps you actually work out that microbore does work.

Announcing that microbore doesn't work is the same as saying either "A, I failed the low temp heating design course, B, I haven't done it, or C, I cant remember what they taught in the course".

Microbore works, its just pipe. a few minutes of calculations confirm this.

Our heating system design software at Genous works this all out for the plumbers and heating engineers before they even set foot in the building. They get given a full pack including the system design schematics, radiator selection, all the settings required etc. And now we do the MCS paperwork too giving them time to get on with the bit they are best at, installing the technology.