HELP Needed for Underfloor Heating

CashStrapped

@Miserly Martin

Yes, this suspect this is true. Especially in the case with electric underfloor heating. In isolated areas, such as a bathroom etc, it may indeed be a nice feature but is not designed to heat a whole property (specifically electric UFH I mean).

If installed correctly there is a layer of insulation beneath the heating element/conduit so that very little should be lost below. Even if it did warm (lets assume a concrete subfloor) it would end up acting as a giant radiator and slowly give of the heat it had absorbed from the element/conduit. So the overall heat loss may not be that much.

In this instance, as I suspected in my previous posts, I think the landlord ripped out a perfectly good storage heater set-up (probably the cheapest way to heat the property) and installed underfloor heating under the impression that it is more modern and sells the flat better. Although in the case of the latter ,they may be right as an uniformed prospective tenant may see it as a luxury.

Unless as per above it is some form of hybrid water/storage system.

coffeehound

OP also needs to know a) how long it takes, from a cold start, flicking the power on to when all heated rooms are warm enough. S/he probably already has some idea but it's a good thing to actually measure this for laggy heating systems. And b) when the electric meter switches between peak and off-peak. Really you need those facts before making further decisions on settings, tariffs, etc.

YorkshirePete

Many thanks all for your replies.

Its definitely electric heating and not water based. My landlord new nothing about it as he had only just bought the flat, and we are the first tenants.

I guess the proof is in the pudding when we first use it and see how long it takes the rooms to warm up. We are on the middle floor and we are insulated well as far as I can see. Im only going to heat the bedroom and living room and see how that goes using the thermostats

Im just weigning up whether to put it on for a few hours to warm up the room OR leave on all day ? at a lower temp, to keep the rooms at a constant temp

CashStrapped

Obviously if you are not in - do not heat an empty space.

Underfloor heating usually works at a much lower temperature anyway.

1) so it will not burn your feet

2) because the materials around it...flooring etc. cannot handle very hot temps

3)Limitations of electric underfloor heating.

So it is unlikely to be as responsive as normal radiators. You may therefore find it takes a lot longer to heat up a room.

Good use of the timer for the hours you are in, and thermostats is key to making it work.

Remember, the thermostat (if it is a thermostat) does not control how hot the underfloor heating gets. It (should) just tell it to turn off when that temperature is reached.

But, any day time use is using the very high rate.

matelodave

Some underfloor systems use elements embedded in the floor slab ans will act just like a storage heater - storing heat during the cheap period and releasing the heat during the day. Other systems have an element just under the floor tiles/floor surface and will be much more responsive.

I guess you'll have to do some experimentation to see how long it takes for the floor to get warm and find out whether the system is connected to the off-peak circuits by checking/reading the meters during peak and off peak periods and adjusting the thermostats/controls to see what happens.

greenbee

The first one is the kind I think my grandparents had matelodave - but suspect that it won't be that in a middle floor flat. It's probably just a heating mat, which would be better on a normal tariff. I have it in both my bathrooms (mostly because if the bathrooms are warm I tend not to need to heat the rest of the house during early spring/late autumn, but also because it's not impossible that I might run out of oil, so it's good to have options). As coffeehound says, you need to know roughly how long it takes to get up to temperature, and whether your controls allow for preheating (i.e. will the room will be at temperature by the time you programme it for or will it turn on and start warming up then?).