Underfloor heating

Roamer59

I am about to look at a flat which sounds ideal apart from my reservations that it has underfloor heating. I know this is electrically sourced and has been installed within the last five years. The flat does have double-glazing and is 1 bedroomed. Carpets are in 3 rooms but not in the shower room and kitchen. My main reason for moving is financial (I rent) so I don't want to take on a place, then end up spending a shedload on utility bills.
Any advice please?

Ebe_Scrooge

Electric heating tends to be more expensive to run than gas or oil. The type of heater is largely irrelevant (whether it's a fan heater, a cheap plug-in radiator or whatever) since all electric heaters are 100% efficient near as makes no difference. So from that point of view, underfloor heating would be no different to a fan heater - you still burn the same amount of electricity to heat up the flat to the same temperature. If you're limited to electricity (i.e. you don't have the option of switching to mains gas, oil or anything else) then the underfloor heating as such shouldn't be an issue in itself.

You may want to consider the flexibility of it. By which I mean - with a fan heater or plug-in radiator, for instance, you have the option of only heating one room if you want to. Does your underfloor heating have zones, whereby you can choose to heat only certain rooms or only part of the property ? It obviously costs less to heat only part of the property.

But probably the biggest factor, in terms of running costs, is the type of electricity your using. If you use standard-rate electricity then it's going to cost quite a bit more than if you're able to use cheaper off-peak (Economy-7, or whatever it's called these days).

Sorry, I know this doesn't give you a definitive answer ! But hopefully it'll give you some things to consider.

matelodave

Most underfloor heating systems will be buried in the floor slab and will work like a storage heater. They would normally be used with an E7 or E10 tariff. Charging up during off peak periods and releasing the heat during the day/evening.

They aren't as controllable as conventional storage heater as they dont have output dampers/controls and so jut release their stored energy during the day.

Retrofit u/f systems consisting of a heating mat under the floor covering are the sort to be avoided as they use peak rate electricity and will be very expensive to run.

wavelets

Roamer59 wrote: »

I am about to look at a flat which sounds ideal apart from my reservations that it has underfloor heating. I know this is electrically sourced and has been installed within the last five years. The flat does have double-glazing and is 1 bedroomed. Carpets are in 3 rooms but not in the shower room and kitchen. My main reason for moving is financial (I rent) so I don't want to take on a place, then end up spending a shedload on utility bills.
Any advice please?

Refer to the EPC for an indication of utility costs.
Ask the current occupants about their utility bills.