underfloor heating - have you done it?

6 years ago

As we have to replace most of the floor joists in the new house we are buying, we were considering installing underfloor heating to link up to a combo boiler (which we will probably need a new one anyway!)

I know generally it's supposed to be cheaper to run and a nicer even heat, but I've also read that you have to really keep it on constantly as otherwise it takes hours to heat the room up. So is the cost of having it on during all winter months still cheaper than putting the radiators on sproradically??

I really want to know if it's worth the cost of buying (if we self fit) considering there are radiators already in the house and that we don't always have the heating on as we want to put in a log burner.
We plan to do a larger open place extension out the back housing the kitchen/dining and living area which will be a large space and it would be nice to have this room cosy during the winter months without having to heat the whole house up.

I also work from home so would usually, in the daytime, just run an oil filled electric radiator in the office and only put central heating or log burner on at night.

Thoughts?

Featured Answer

Emmanuelle

6 years ago

Hello! We had UFH in our previous house ... the trick is to insulate your floor properly before it’s laid to maximise its efficiency. Ours was an electric system. It was on a timer and we would put on only for short bursts, such as at the weekend, in the morning, just for an hour. The floor would get warm in 15 minutes, and once the UFH was off , it would stay warm for a while. Now in our new house, our kitchen extension is in the planning, I definitely want the same. I enjoy warm tiles on a lazy Sunday morning... however, it would costs too much to run like a radiator; ie: several times a day.

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Comments (8)

Jonathan
6 years ago
I have never had UFH so cant comment on the running costs. It is worth thinking about how much wall space you would gain if you don’t have radiators
kikiamack
6 years ago
We had a wet underfloor heating system installed on the ground floor of our house when we renovated as we really needed to lose the radiators. Once you turn the UFH on in the autumn, it makes sense to keep it on as it is heating the slab from cold that is the expensive part. So you just have to keep it ticking over. Ours has four zones with independent digital thermostats. The thermostats have three time zones on - day, evening and overnight. We set ours to 19 degrees overnight so the UFH only calls for heat from the boiler if it drops below that. If you want to run a fire in a room, the heat from that will raise the temperature in the room so the thermostat will click off for a while, or you could reduce the temp on the thermostat. We've also found that because the heat is more evenly distributed downstairs, it warms the upstairs as well so we don't have those radiators set as high as we used to and turn them on later in the year as well.
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Tani H-S
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you.
We only have a bedroom upstairs as it's a bungalow and we rarely have the heating on in our bedroom anyway as we prefer it cold, ha ha. So the heat rising upstairs would work fine for us (ie not having UFH upstairs as well)

I've not checked the radiators in all the rooms but the front rooms aren't large so that would really help by not having them on the walls I guess.
Even if we had it only in the open plan area it might be worth doing and would cost a lot less then as that's the rooms we would be in the most.
obobble
6 years ago
What floor covering do you have in mind. UFH works best with tiles or concrete. You will always get movement in wood over UFH even if engineered. The key is having the right number of separately controlled zones so you can set it according to how you use the rooms in daily life and of course decent insulation as mentioned before. As well as the thermostats you can increase and decrease the temperature setting for the water in wet UFH so the effect is more gentle in spring and autumn. You effectively turn it off in summer by programming it to frost setting.
PRO
MagMoo Design
6 years ago
I would recommend a water system over electric due to the high running costs of electric.

The heating should be split into zones, with each zone being controlled by its own thermostat, this allows you to control the temperature in each room/zone.

Insulating the floor properly is paramount as UFH installed on a poorly insulated floor will not work efficiently.

Water UFH works best when installed in a well insulated concrete slab, the pipe work is installed in the screed which tops the insulation.

Systems are also available for installing water UFH on suspended timber flooring, using Heat Emission Plates such as Uponor HEP300/400/411 depending on the spacing of your joists.
Tani H-S
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you all. Our floors (except I think the tiny kitchen will be getting knocked down) are all suspended timber flooring.
We attended the Harrogate home exhibition and found a company that have the pipes set into polystyrene which suspend between the joists. We thought we could add nets underneath and stuff it with wool as extra insulation. Not sure if that's going to be a heck of a lot more work - or be much cheaper than adding actual insulation boards under it.

We would prefer either laminate or engineered flooring in the open plan space. I really don't like tiles as they are too cold when the heating is not on.
User
6 years ago
We have recently purchased a new build with wet undlerfloor heating throughout, also a bungalow. We have engineered wood floor (floating) through whole house except for ensuite and bathroom which are ceramic tile. It does give a lovely even heat and you have the flexibility to control each room individually.

You are correct that it is not super quick to respond because it is heating such a large surface area but this is not something I have found to be a problem at all. It only really gets moved up and down about 3 degress anyway. We have our bedroom very low because we like a cool room and this works well.

Our house is 4 bedroom, approx 136 sqm and at the moment our heating and electric is working out at about £70 a month (this is for everything, no gas or anything on top of this) however, we do have airsource heat pump which adds further to efficiency of the heating.

Also, if it is useful, the cost for us of the UFH installation was about £5500 but this was in new build and not retrofit.

If you have a well insulated house I would go for it! :)

underfloor heating - have you done it?

Emmanuelle

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Jonathan

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underfloor heating - have you done it?

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Jonathan

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