Underfloor heating as main source

DullGreyGuy

gzoom said:

movilogo said:

How difficult/expensive to install gas underfloor heating in concrete floor? I guess it requires significant amount of digging. 

Others have answered this, but it's not an DIY or none disruptive job. You have to insulated, than lay the pipes, than pour screed and finally finish the top.

My wife deicide she wanted radiators in half of the downstairs despite us having the opportunity to make the whole downstairs run with UFH. She now wishes we had done that, radiators work fine, but UFH gives nicer 'warmth' and feels very nice under foot.

Good looking finish, though pity the fridge/freezer sits proud of the units. 

We had in floor electric heating in a previous place but it was in effect storage heating using the floor plate as the thermal mass. It was ok, other than it had died in two rooms and clearly not easy to fix when it's in the concrete. The downside was that for the "boost" function it was in the ceiling rather than the floor so if it got chilly in the evening you put the boost on and the top of your head gets hot and your feet stay cold. 

vacheron

DullGreyGuy said:

gzoom said:

movilogo said:

How difficult/expensive to install gas underfloor heating in concrete floor? I guess it requires significant amount of digging. 

Others have answered this, but it's not an DIY or none disruptive job. You have to insulated, than lay the pipes, than pour screed and finally finish the top.

My wife deicide she wanted radiators in half of the downstairs despite us having the opportunity to make the whole downstairs run with UFH. She now wishes we had done that, radiators work fine, but UFH gives nicer 'warmth' and feels very nice under foot.

Good looking finish, though pity the fridge/freezer sits proud of the units. 

Ours does too. It's not the lack of depth, it's because the doors on american style fridges swing outwards, so they won't open fully unless the doors are in front of the adjacent units. 

movilogo

Sensible thing at the moment would be to install radiators in the original half of the house, fed from your new boiler. That would be your lowest running cost.

Providing update after discussion with professionals. The above suggestion is indeed the cheapest & easiest option. Wet underfloor heating installation is hugely disruptive work (more than what I originally envisaged). Traditional gas radiators (wall mounted) + cavity wall insulation will keep the house warm enough at lower cost.

I still have the option to install electric UFH via roll on mats which are easy to install under laminate flooring. But then it will be in addition to standard gas radiators and not as a replacement. 

ThisIsWeird

movilogo said:

Sensible thing at the moment would be to install radiators in the original half of the house, fed from your new boiler. That would be your lowest running cost.

Providing update after discussion with professionals. The above suggestion is indeed the cheapest & easiest option. Wet underfloor heating installation is hugely disruptive work (more than what I originally envisaged). Traditional gas radiators (wall mounted) + cavity wall insulation will keep the house warm enough at lower cost.

I still have the option to install electric UFH via roll on mats which are easy to install under laminate flooring. But then it will be in addition to standard gas radiators and not as a replacement. 

Check out the respective running costs and you'll likely decide not to bother with leccy UFH. 

onomatopoeia99

ComicGeek said:

If you retrofit wet UFH, then you would install a profilled panel which is just installed over the existing concrete floor - something like https://www.underfloorheating.co.uk/profi-panel/. This is an insulation board with foiled grooves, within which the UFH pipework is placed. Depending on the product you then either use a thin latex screed to level for floor finish, or install plywood and floor finish over.

The benefit is that the floor heats up quicker, and doesn't have the slow responsive times that full screeded systems do - the disadvantage is that more heat is lost down through the floor as the insulation isn't very thick.

I've done this in two rooms as I've completely refurbished them, under a slate floor in the kitchen and an engineered wood floor in the study.  I did the heat loss calculations before I started and it works - the rooms come up to temperature and even though I retained the radiators just in case I miscalculated, they haven't been needed.  Bonus is the warm floor is so nice to walk on in my socks.