"With underfloor heating, you won't need radiators in new conservatory" Is this true?

lancslass2008

Hi all

I recently posted a thread on here about underfloor heating in my new (not yet built) conservatory. Well, the builders have started digging out this morning, so I went to the tile shop to look for floor tiles. I have already made my mind up that I am definitely going for under floor heating with insulated boards etc. While I was at the tile shop I checked out the underfloor heating from a company called warmup. I must say, the leaflets and brochures impressed me, and the fact that I already have this in my bathroom has virtually made my mind up. However, the builders asked me this morning "How many radiators do you want, and where do you want us to put them". This is in direct contrast to what the sales rep at the tile place just told me.

"With this underfloor heating, you will not need radiators". Either way, I don't mind but I need the answers now, because I don't want to get 6 months down the line to find that the underfloor heating works fine, but not fine enough to heat the conservatory sufficiently in winter. Therefore, if I need radiators, I need to know now. Has anybody got any info on this?

Will this underfloor heating be sufficient or do I need radiators too?

The exact underfloor heating will be in the form of a mat (WARMUP CODE PFM11), the boards are 10mm Warmup insulation boards (12M sq)

The conservatory area is 4m x 3m.

My preference would be NOT to have any unsightly radiators in the new Cony', and also the builder has just told me "Any radiator you're going to have will have to be a very small one to fit under the cill and between the floor".

Any help please

wonka

We were in a similar situation last year, building a new kitchen with underfloor heating. Having asked loads of people, we got various answers that left us even more confused.

In the end, we had one of the walls plumbed up, with pipes left behind plasterboard in the wall. This was so we could decide AFTER all the work was complete, but not too expensive.

In the circumstances, we've decided the underfloor heating does an adequate job of heating the kitchen - certainly not toasty warm, but still comfortable.

Debt_Free_Chick

My experience of u/f heating is that is creates a warm glow, but not strong heat.

My concern with a conservatory would be the amount of glass, which intensifies the cold and I wonder if u/f heating alone would be sufficient.

I have u/f in my bedroom and it's "adequate"

missile

IMHO it depends on what you want from your conservatory? If you are planning on using it 24/7 all year round it will be difficult to get it warm enough to be comfortable with underfloor heating and radiators.

From manufacturers web site>

Net Area: 12 m Sq.
Heater: 1863 kW
Code: PFM10, PFM02 & XSTAT

I would suggest 1.8 kW ought to be enough to take the chill off your conservatory on all but the coldest days. You could always augment it by a convection heater.

plumb1_2

You need to know the heat loss from the new Coni, they see if the output of the UFheating is .

lancslass2008

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still no further on. lol

lancslass2008

One thing I will say, is we've got this small heater in the office at work. You plug it in to the wall socket and it's fantastic. The room is hot in no time, and it only cost £10. It works by blowing air from the fan over a hot element I think???

kiddy_guy

Okay - probably as good as an answer as you're going to get.

I had u/floor heating installed in the bathroom. It heats the floor, but I need the radiator to get the room warm.

It will not replace conventional heating.

Plumbers_Shop_Lee

Good Evening
If you fill the details of your conservatory in on the link below it will provide you with the heat loss of the room you will then need to match the output of the ufh to the required output

http://www.trademate.co.uk/services/heatloss/default.asp

HTH

Lee

Doozergirl

In a conservatory with a ploycarbonate roof in winter, the only thing in that room to be warm will be the floor. It takes time to builld up heat in a room with underfloor heating - it isn't going to have a strong enough output to counter the effect of not having a properly insulated roof.

When we had a conservatory it did need a proper heater in the winter. Underfloor would only be suitable in a proper room. Also if you're not properly insulated underfloor, you're going to lose a huge amount of heat into the ground too.

And then! For underfloor heating to work efficiciently it's supposedly best not to have carpet or rugs on the floor and to have furniture that allows air to flow from underneath it. Joy.

If it were me, I'd play safe with a radiator.

robv_3

As has been said previously the only way to determine if the UFH alone will provide enough heat is to do the calculations. In general UFH is limited to around 100w/m2 so if its a small conservatory it may not be enough. It also depends on how warm you want it, t-shirt when its -3 degrees outside or jumper when +3 degrees, will make a huge difference to heating requirements.

I would be tempted to install a radiator at the end furthest away from the house just in case.


BTW:- Realistically tiles is the only suitable floor covering for high output UFH.