Underfloor Heating

[Gazza77]

Opinions please from anyone who has it. I'm looking a a warm water based system for the whole house. What are costs like compared to radiators? Is it effective?

[Luckypants]

Is this a new build or retro fit?

[Gazza77]

Retro fit, but the house is being completely renovated. No flooring down at the moment, and no central heating is currently installed. It's only a small house and I think it would be beneficial for space saving, but I'm after 1st hand experience of the pros and cons.

More efficient, and lovely on the feet

i had a flat with it once, cant say i liked it. took forever to heat up and seemed to cost the earth to run.

Could have been a crap set up, but i was only renting the place for a year so i didnt care.

Now i have warm air heating, everyone told me it was rubbish, kicks up dust, dries you out etc etc, but ive found it to be the beat heating ive ever had! instantly heats up the house, cheap to run, and in the summer you can set it to blow cold air, so its like having a fan in every room. never throws up dust or anything. i think people slate it without having tried it.

If you have a christmas tree at chrimbo you'll have to ask if pressies to go under it are chocolate and put them somewhere up safe...


Underfloor heating is LUVLY though.

[tigersaw]

we had a marble floor with underfloor heating fitted to take off the chill at a previous house. Staggeringly expensive to use, but effective.

No experience of fitting it, but having seen (well, 'felt') it at a mate's place, it's great, especially on tiled bathrooms/kitchens in the middle of winter.

I have it in my house. It's absolutely brilliant. I have an electric system on poly boards with granite floor on top. I had to go down that route because I didn't have the space for the screed, the pipes, the tile adhesive and the tiles (you need about 15 cm for it all if you are going to have a plumbed system, so make sure you have this around all your doors).

The electric system with the granite is brilliant. Compared to the radiators, which never got the house warm, it is now lovely and warm on the feet, which means that the actual room temp can be lower yet you still feel warm because of the feet-heat, if that makes sense.

It costs me 3p an hour to heat 25 square metres (and thus the whole house) with the electric system, I have it running for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. The granite holds heat spectacularly well, so the floor stays warm for about 4 hours after the heating goes off.

It is worth spending extra on stone floor because all other flooring materials are pants at holding the heat. Stone flooring needs to be about 1cm thick to even begin to hold it well.

In my house in Germany we have plumbed UFH. Amazing. If you can afford to have it put in, do. The screed is messy **** to go in (they pump your house full of what is essentially concrete, eww). The pipes sit in the screed (they are "stapled" onto thermal pads) and need to be run for about a month on very low heat to dry it out, then the stone is laid. We went for 2cm marble slabs. Hold the heat like nobody's business, we have the UFH on for about 3-4 hours in total in the house and it keeps warm all day.

If you have the funds, go plumbed. Firma Roth in Germany are experts in the field. They are based in Dautphetal - Google them.

If you don't have the space for plumbed, electric is great too. Mine is from Floor Heating Systems.

Anyhoos, that was long. If you need any info let me know. I'll try and find you some pictures of when mine was going down, to give you some idea of what is involved.

xx

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by dissuade

I have it in my house. It's absolutely brilliant. I have an electric system on poly boards with granite floor on top. I had to go down that route because I didn't have the space for the screed, the pipes, the tile adhesive and the tiles (you need about 15 cm for it all if you are going to have a plumbed system, so make sure you have this around all your doors).

The electric system with the granite is brilliant. Compared to the radiators, which never got the house warm, it is now lovely and warm on the feet, which means that the actual room temp can be lower yet you still feel warm because of the feet-heat, if that makes sense.

It costs me 3p an hour to heat 25 square metres (and thus the whole house) with the electric system, I have it running for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. The granite holds heat spectacularly well, so the floor stays warm for about 4 hours after the heating goes off.

It is worth spending extra on stone floor because all other flooring materials are pants at holding the heat. Stone flooring needs to be about 1cm thick to even begin to hold it well.

In my house in Germany we have plumbed UFH. Amazing. If you can afford to have it put in, do. The screed is messy **** to go in (they pump your house full of what is essentially concrete, eww). The pipes sit in the screed (they are "stapled" onto thermal pads) and need to be run for about a month on very low heat to dry it out, then the stone is laid. We went for 2cm marble slabs. Hold the heat like nobody's business, we have the UFH on for about 3-4 hours in total in the house and it keeps warm all day.

If you have the funds, go plumbed. Firma Roth in Germany are experts in the field. They are based in Dautphetal - Google them.

If you don't have the space for plumbed, electric is great too. Mine is from Floor Heating Systems.

Anyhoos, that was long. If you need any info let me know. I'll try and find you some pictures of when mine was going down, to give you some idea of what is involved.

xx

Long, but very useful, thanks! if you could pm me any pics you have I'd be grateful. I'd prefer a plumbed system, but looking at it today it appears that although it can be fitted to an existing floor base (floorboards) upstairs, it might be rather more difficult to fit downstairs on the exisitng concrete floor. Electric is an alternative, but then means we need to consider an alternative source of hot water, as there is no boiler at present, but it seems pointless to get one for just heating water. Mmmm, lots to ponder!