Electric underfloor heating vs electric heater

Asker

Hi I'm doing up some rooms in a terraced property with no gas.

Can either put in electric radiators or electric underfloor heating.

Any idea which will be cost less to run?

Electric rads would probbaly dissipate heat stranght up but I'm guessing electric underfloor would evenly heat up from thr floor thus better?

(another option is to install gas central heating as I'm guessing that'd be far more efficient to run but I may be wrong and no idea how much it'd cost to bring gas up to the house)

macman

Since electric heating is all the same efficiency (100%), it should make no difference. The cheapest form of all- electric heating by far is to use NSH's (and an immersion heater) running on an E7 meter, which will run off cheap rate power at about a third of the cost of single rate on the other systems.
Gas CH is far less efficient, maybe 80% at best, but since it's so much cheaper per kWh, it will still be cheaper to run than any electric heating by about 250%. Don't confuse efficiency with cost. If the capital cost of installing gas is workable, it's by far the best option-and will of course add considerable value to the property.

Skools_Out

Asker wrote: »

Hi I'm doing up some rooms in a terraced property with no gas.

Can either put in electric radiators or electric underfloor heating.

Any idea which will be cost less to run?

Electric rads would probbaly dissipate heat stranght up but I'm guessing electric underfloor would evenly heat up from thr floor thus better?

(another option is to install gas central heating as I'm guessing that'd be far more efficient to run but I may be wrong and no idea how much it'd cost to bring gas up to the house)

Gas central heating via radiators is generally considered the best option, and this will be reflected in added value to the property.

But if you have no gas, then it could be expensive if not impossible. If there is already gas in the street (e.g. next door has gas) then the cost of installing the gas alone will start at about £1000 for a typical installation.
Depending how much pipework is required it may cost more or may not even be possible.

So if electric is your only choice of fuel, then you should be looking at E7 storage heaters. Cheap to install, uses low cost electricity and is virtually maintenance free.

Underfloor heating is generally a convenience and comfort decision. Often fitted in bathrooms or other rooms where there is no room for wall mounted heaters/radiators. Expensive to run, and very expensive to repair if it ever goes wrong. Many people who have fitted underfloor heating in other rooms hate it as the floor is hot to walk on in winter.

Nuff_Said

Hi Skools_out, I'm no expert but I struggle with your view of underfloor heating. I'm sure it can be expensive, but then any heating system can be. If used in the right way, especially as part of something like a ground source heat pump system, it can be far cheaper than alternatives, and with the Renewable Heat Incentive, almost free to run. So many current reasons for choosing it are nothing to do with convenience or comfort.

And all the opinion about warm floors I've seen has been positive. They are meant to be a much lower temperature than radiators (40-45 degrees c I think). Anyone who finds the floor too hot to walk on isn't using it correctly! Rooms have no cold spots, there's no floor space or pipes needed for radiators and heat is evenly distribured about the room.

Having said this, they tend to be electric, so will be more expensive to run than a gas system, if nothing is helping mitigate energy use. If you can run it from a gas boiler though, I can't see a downside.