Underfloor heating in Kitchen- Central Heating? Electric? Your opinions please

Albermarle

Save yourself a £oodly amount and go for one of the other options - column rads (best), wet plinth heaters (seemingly good - have no experience of them), leccy plinth (ditto), skirting radiators (neat, tho' you may not have enough skirting in a kitchen?)

Out of interest why do you not mention conventional panel radiators ( for wet CH) ? I know they look a bit boring but they are cheap. Are they less efficient than a column radiator ?

ThisIsWeird

Albermarle said:

Save yourself a £oodly amount and go for one of the other options - column rads (best), wet plinth heaters (seemingly good - have no experience of them), leccy plinth (ditto), skirting radiators (neat, tho' you may not have enough skirting in a kitchen?)

Out of interest why do you not mention conventional panel radiators ( for wet CH) ? I know they look a bit boring but they are cheap. Are they less efficient than a column radiator ?

D'oh! Sorry! Yes, of course - they are the most sensible option.
I'd just assumed (for no good reason) that wall space would be limited (often are in kitchens), and/or a new kitchen extension  would demand a nicer-looking rad.
But, you are right. 

Chickereeeee

FreeBear said:

Go for a wet system. With the cost of electricity, you will be paying 3 times plus what it would cost to run a wet system. When heat pumps eventually take over from other forms of boilers, having a wet UFH will be ideally suited to a HP.

Just make sure you have plenty of insulation built in to the slab regardless of what type of heating you go for.

How do you mix UFH  and a current radiator system? The existing system will be running at 60C or so, which is much too hot for UFH. How do you get 'warm' water for the UFH?

Also, UFH should be running 24 x 7. Would a conventional boiler be OK with that?

(I am aware you could possibly replace the radiators with much bigger ones, and run it all at low temp., but that's a different conversation)

ComicGeek

Chickereeeee said:

FreeBear said:

Go for a wet system. With the cost of electricity, you will be paying 3 times plus what it would cost to run a wet system. When heat pumps eventually take over from other forms of boilers, having a wet UFH will be ideally suited to a HP.

Just make sure you have plenty of insulation built in to the slab regardless of what type of heating you go for.

How do you mix UFH  and a current radiator system? The existing system will be running at 60C or so, which is much too hot for UFH. How do you get 'warm' water for the UFH?

You use a UFH manifold with a blending valve, which provides a lower water temp just for the UFH.

Chickereeeee said:

FreeBear said:

Go for a wet system. With the cost of electricity, you will be paying 3 times plus what it would cost to run a wet system. When heat pumps eventually take over from other forms of boilers, having a wet UFH will be ideally suited to a HP.

Just make sure you have plenty of insulation built in to the slab regardless of what type of heating you go for.

Also, UFH should be running 24 x 7. Would a conventional boiler be OK with that?

No, it shouldn't be running 24/7, at least not at the full design temperature. Some people have to run their UFH for longer due to the slow response time when switched on, but no one should be running it 24/7. Choosing a lower night time setback temperature rather than off, yes.