Underfloor heating cost

freeisgood

Hello all. 

Under floor heating:

Basically first winter in a five year old  mid terrace house. It’s got underfloor heating throughout the entire ground floor. 
( Rest of house is gas , with normal radiators.)

I’m scared to put the under floor heating on when the weather turns.

I cannot find any information about how much it’s going to cost me to run anywhere online under current predictions. 

Can you help?

 Thanks 

FreeBear

Electric or wet linked to the gas boiler ?

Electric is going to cost a ruddy fortune at the moment. Exactly how much will depend on power requirements. In the absence of any details, a rough estimate of 0.15KWh per square metre. In real money, about 5p per hour for each square metre until the thermostat kicks in (based on October's capped rates).

For a wet system linked to the boiler, it shouldn't cost any more than having regular radiators hanging on the walls.

Bendy_House

It's a 5-year old house, so hopefully superbly-well insulated - it should be cheap to run.

The UFH will, too, be powered by the gas boiler.

You should read up about how best to control it, as they are slow to respond to control changes. A normal rad will come on in a couple of minutes, and will cool back down in, say, 10, but UFH will take, ooh, a good half hour or more to notice any change, so you need to factor that delay in (could even be more than 30 mins, I don't know).

But, as with any heating, the less you use it, the cheaper it will be. So, any room that isn't being used, shut the rad/UFH down to 'frost', and crack open the window to 'vent', and then forget about it until winter is over.

Any room that WILL be used, then work out just WHEN it needs heating, and don't heat it at any other times.

Eg: bedrooms. If you must, then rads on a half-hour before you go to bed, and off before you hit the sheets. Ditto in the morning - wake up to a mild room (so a half-hour pre-heating max), and off as you jump out of bed - it'll take at least a half hour to cool down again. Do star-jumps as you get ready.

NO bedroom heating during the night. Have bedroom windows on vent = little, or no, condensation on the windows in the morn.

Same with UFH - any room not being used, shut it off. For the rest, try and work out its response speed, and set it to come on to give you heat for when you need it. What sort of controls does it have, manual or programmable? The latter is far better.

Try and cope with, say, an 18oC ambient temp, less if you can, and dress to compensate. The heating should barely come on.

Don't heat houses when you are not in them. So if your UFH takes one hour to get warm, then program it to come on one hour before you get home. If it takes one hour to cool down, then ditto to go off one hour before you leave/hit the sack.

daveyjp

If its a wet system and part of the central heating under floor heating is simply hot water pipework laid into the floor and covered over.

Cost to run is all down to the temperature sst on the room thermostats.  The lower they are the cheaper it will be.  

Just be aware as above that it takes time for the screed to be heated through so getting that to temperature takes time, but it will retain heat for much longer than a radiator.

freeisgood

It’s electric by the way. Thanks for your replies  

FreeBear

freeisgood said:

It’s electric by the way. Thanks for your replies  

Ouch. How many square metres ?

macman

Crazy to build a house 5 years ago with gas CH upstairs and electric u/f heating downstairs. Who on earth thought that up?
Unfortunately it'll cost you about 350% more than running the gas CH per kWh. 
Nothing you can do, short of extending the gas CH downstairs, which may or may not mean changing the boiler.

Bendy_House

freeisgood said:

It’s electric by the way. Thanks for your replies  

Are you sure?

As in..are you SURE?!

grumbler

freeisgood said:

I cannot find any information about how much it’s going to cost me to run anywhere online under current predictions. 

 

Check your last year bills and make adjustments in line with the current prices.

Bendy_House

FiG, I'd be astonished if your UFH was electric. It will almost certainly be gas-powered, so supplied by the same boiler as does your rads.

I really really hope.

freeisgood

Okayyyy I’ve discovered a cupboard I’ve never opened with this inside…