Underfloor Heating Cost

purpleozzie1

Hi guys,
Moved into a new house a Last Februaty ago and it has Underfloor Heating..
Since moving in our electric bill has been ridiculously high (about £180 pm, just for Electric) and the underfloor heating doesn't seem to work very well.
I put the underfloor heating back on yesterday at a pretty standard setting, less than 24 hours later and our meter has run on by almost £6 and the floor feels cold to the touch, I can feel a very light heat but it's not much at all.

The floor was fitted by Wren about 5/6 years ago, need to dig out the information. 

What do you think could be causing the problem and would this still be under warranty??
Cant afford to spend loads ripping a floor up right now but we need heat and cant afford the current bills..

Cheers,

Homer_home

Do you have any other form of heating apart from the underfloor?

Electric heating is notoriously expensive and underfloor heating is normally only used as background warmth rather than heating the entire house 

If you have gas I would consider central heating as not only is this cheaper it will increase the value of your house 

purpleozzie1

Open plan kitchen diner is only electric underfloor heating, Living room and upstairs is radiators..

Still think it's too expensive tho... I looked somewhere which said it should cost about 89p per 10m2 per day...

purpleozzie1

And t feels cold to the touch...

Homer_home

I would disconnect the underfloor heating and get a rad or two installed, much cheaper and warmer 

Given that 10m2 is a very small area that cost will quickly add up cause I'm betting your kitchen/diner is a lot bigger than 10m2!

Homer_home

£6 a day to heat one room is shocking , even with the cost of having a couple of rads installed you will soon make that money back as it will cost a few extra pennies to run a couple of extra rads off your existing boiler which is on anyway heating the rest of your house 

Homer_home

Not forgetting if like me , you have an open door policy then you might find that the extra rads don't cost you anything cause the existing central heating won't be working overtime to heat a cold part of your house 

Jack_Cork

You can use electric UFH to heat a whole room, it depends on the spacing of the cable & wattage. I've just fitted a 1m x 1m area in the ensuite, room probably 2m x 1.5m. Was a 150w cable spaced at 65mm. It does heat the room well and cost about 20p a day to run, but will monitor over the winter months as I an sure it will go up. I dont really heat upstairs much in winter as like it cool, but wanted the ensuite warm for a shower. I think the trick is to have it on all the time so it maintains the temperature, however I've no experience of a large room I would agree it it might cost a bit to heat it. At the outset it needs to be specified correctly and as soon as you mentioned Wren I have my doubts 

Apodemus

Of course, if the UFH was installed without properly insulating the slab, or if it is trying to heat a poorly insulated room, then it will have its work cut out trying to achieve any meaningful increase in temperature.