Underfloor heating

Pinklepurr

I moved into a new build last year. The kitchen is north facing and part of it is single storey. Over the winter we have noticed that the room is very cold, despite insulation being checked (it was all ok) and the radiator working fine.

It has a tiled floor, so we have been considering whether installing underfloor heating would make the room more inviting. The kitchen is approx 5m x 3m but with the units the actual floor space is smaller than this.

I have some questions such as; How easy would this be to do? I know that taking up a tiled floor would be messy, but can it be done quite quickly? Approx cost per sq m for electric underfloor heating? After all the expense, could it really make a big difference to the room? Should we consider any other options such as a different flooring?

We love our house, and the north facing kitchen was lovely in the summer, but we have been quite shocked at just how cold it has been over the winter! Help!

rob7475

If you've already got a tiled floor, I wouldn't dream of ripping it up to install Underfloor heating.

Underfloor heating isn't designed to heat a room, it will just make the floor warm to touch. We have it in our bathroom but also need a good heated towel radiator to keep it warm in there.

What size radiator is in there at the moment? I'd me more tempted to replace the radiator with one suited to the room size. We have a north facing living room which used to get cold. I replaced the radiator with one of the tall narrow designer radiators with an 8000 BTU output and the room is the warmest in the house now. Cost me about £400 (did the plumbing work myself though).

Pinklepurr

Hello, we have a chrome ladder style radiator which is 1.2m high and 60cms across. This seems to belt out lots of heat but the only possible location for it is at one end of the kitchen.

System

rob7475 wrote: »

Underfloor heating isn't designed to heat a room

:eek::eek::eek:

rob7475

Pinklepurr wrote: »

Hello, we have a chrome ladder style radiator which is 1.2m high and 60cms across. This seems to belt out lots of heat but the only possible location for it is at one end of the kitchen.

A lot of these types of radiators have a rather low heat output. 1200 x 600 doesn't sound big enough to heat a 5 x 3m room. Have a look at this http://www.inspiredheating.co.uk/acatalog/Reina-Neva-Double-Designer-Radiators.html. Has a massive output which should heat any room. Look for the 1800 x 413 size.

Your other option is to keep the current radiator and add a plinth heather under one of your kitchen base units. You can either get one that is plumbed into your central heating (depends on ease of access for laying pipes) or electric ones which are easier to install but cost more to run.

Cheers

rob7475

the_r_sole wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:

Not sure what you mean by this??

OP askes if UFH was suitable to heat a room and I answered

Pinklepurr

rob7475 wrote: »

A lot of these types of radiators have a rather low heat output. 1200 x 600 doesn't sound big enough to heat a 5 x 3m room. Have a look at this http://www.inspiredheating.co.uk/acatalog/Reina-Neva-Double-Designer-Radiators.html. Has a massive output which should heat any room. Look for the 1800 x 413 size.

Your other option is to keep the current radiator and add a plinth heather under one of your kitchen base units. You can either get one that is plumbed into your central heating (depends on ease of access for laying pipes) or electric ones which are easier to install but cost more to run.

Cheers

Thank you for this.

I should have added in my original post, that the radiator heating the kitchen is not the original one put in by the developer. We removed that in order to put in a large fridge freezer and installed this new one alongside. Our plummer recommended this particular size and it had a higher output that the one which was originally there. Anyhow, I shall have a chat with the plummer and also look into other options. Thanks for your help...

System

rob7475 wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by this??

OP askes if UFH was suitable to heat a room and I answered

and i suppose traditional radiators aren't suitable for heating a room, all they do is heat up the surface of the radiator?!

rob7475

the_r_sole wrote: »

and i suppose traditional radiators aren't suitable for heating a room, all they do is heat up the surface of the radiator?!

No - they only started putting the metal fins on new radiators to make them more pleasing to the eye .

You can't compare UFH to a radiator. The surface of a radiator is much hotter that a UFH mat. The UFH mat has to heat the screed, the adhesive and the tile before it can even attempt to heat the air in the room.

System

rob7475 wrote: »

No - they only started putting the metal fins on new radiators to make them more pleasing to the eye .

You can't compare UFH to a radiator. The surface of a radiator is much hotter that a UFH mat. The UFH mat has to heat the screed, the adhesive and the tile before it can even attempt to heat the air in the room.

but surely the surface of a solid fuel stove is much hotter than the surface of a radiator so by your logic a radiator can't be used to heat a room either? all any of these heating elements do is heat up their own surface...
UFH is indeed designed to heat rooms, it just does it in a different way to traditional radiators