Underfloor heating, is it worth it?

kissaragi

Hi, we are having a lot of work done to the house soon including rewiring, new bathroom, converting flat roofs to pitched and a new boiler.

We need to get radiators put in a couple of rooms but i was wondering if underfloor heating would be a better option from the point of view of saving money?

If we did underfloor heating it would be in the living room and dining room (suspended wooden floors), bathroom (wooden floorboards) and one large bedroom thats used during the day(chipboard floor panels), leaving the kitchen and 2 other bedrooms with radiators.

Would it save us money on our heating bills to do this? Or would it just be easier to use radiators everywhere in the house?

996ducati

I guess it depends on what sort of underfloor heating it is.

Electric would be more expensive to run than a boiler/gas based system

missile

Underfloor heating should give you a more even distribution rather than hot near radiators. Wet UFH is quite expensive to install and I would doubt you would recover the cost. Electric UHF would be more expensive to run.

robstersgirl

I hate my underfloor heating ,it's pants!!

Mummy_Jo

I love mine... We have it in the kitchen. It is electric but the kitchen is very small we have an energy meter thing and it isn't expensive at all to run but it is a small space. I wouldn't be without it!

Basil1234

from the opening post with wooden floors you would have to have electric as usually a wet system is screeded in the floor therefore heats up the concrete. so an electric system for all of that would be expensive if correctly rated when installed i personally in your shoes would give it a miss due to cost. have you thought about installing a gas hot air system?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1200169
i dont where you find suppliers for this my uncle has this in his house and is always nice and warm and he says is very cheap to run for his 3 bed house

kissaragi

Thanks for the help everyone, certainly looks like underfloor heating wont be for us.

I hadnt heard of warm air central heating basil1234, you must have to have a network of ducting and vents round the house? That sounds harder to install than underfloor heating!

fluffymuffy

I was recently send some information about wall heating - it's like under-floor heating but is embedded in the walls. Don't know if it's any good though.

gas4you

In theory wet UFH should minimise your heating costs as it runs at a lower water temperature than a radiator system. Ideal if you have a condensing boiler.

It would be quite expensive to install, needing a seperate manifold, pump, mixing valve, zone valve and room stat in each room it is fitted to, to what you have now.

You can have it fitted in suspended wooden floors

Imp

Don't ever drop chocolate on a heated floor.

hermione47

We had it at school back in Italy (the school was a converted ex convent). My GP said it's incredibly BAD for your vascular system. In time, you'll get swollen legs and varicose veins. AVOID!!!!!