sensor tube

[jay]

I am interested to know why copper will give a false reading, on what do you base this?

it has to do with the sensor touching metal causing it to misread

 

[Qwerty]

I am interested to know why copper will give a false reading, on what do you base this?

Sorry Micko, I cant give you the science behind this, but Im sure that somebody from R&D at Warmup or Elektra or any other UFH company will give you the boffin answer :book2: :smart:
I just know that it shouldnt be done.......... a bit like I know not to put treacle in my car engine! :drummer:

 

[Uheat - Keith]

With a metal tube, the metal will retain the surrounding heat longer within its body and so give a false reading longer.
The plastic - pvc tubing will not inpact on the readings in any way, and so will be true.

 

[Dave Ramsden]

Go to the pound shop, you can usually buy cable tidier's for use with computers that can be used as conduit.

 

[micko]

With a metal tube, the metal will retain the surrounding heat longer within its body and so give a false reading longer.
The plastic - pvc tubing will not inpact on the readings in any way, and so will be true.

I would think copper being a better conductor of heat than plastic would give a more accurate reading as it would heat up and cool down at almost the same speed as the floor. As for plastic it is a better insulator so would react more slowly to temperature change. But I will bow to the grater consensus and next time use plastic because as ever I may be talking rubbish.

 

[Katie279]

Just popped this up in search, just out of interest this is because copper is a BETTER conductor as you say, but heat will transmit more through it making it read higher than average.

To simplify imagine when you touch a car on a very hot day - if you touch the plastic bumper it'll be warm, if you touch the metal bonnet you may get burned. Naturally it's not literally that hot outside, otherwise you'd be frazzling, however the metal conducts and accepts heat far better than rubber, plastic, our bodies etc.

this sme conductivity is why it's used for electric cables.

So wrapping your sensor in copper tubing would mean it'd sense much higher than reality in the rest of the floor....

hope this helps clarify!

 

[Dan]

Just bumping some threads in the underfloor heating forum. You can now find and search for both electric underfloor heating and water underfloor heating threads. By the way, if you feel some of the threads you want to be seen at the top of the forum need to be bumped back, for the next month or so from now, feel free to do that. Although it's not usually something we allow, whilst we're going through this process of changing over forum software, we see the need for this to happen.