Is Underfloor Heating Efficient

D.K.

Hi,
I'm thinking of tiling my kitchen and diningroom (large area). They face North and only have 2 radiators (gas) which are not very efficient. I read somewhere that electric underfloor heating is an effective and efficient method of heating.
Does anyone know if that is indeed true?

Thanks,
D.

lea76

Hi,

I am not sure if its efficient, but i have got underfloor heating in my conservatory and it just feels warm on your feet it certainly doesnt heat the room. We dont have any radiators in there.

HTH

Cardew

It depends how you define efficiency.

Electric underfloor heating is, like any other form of non-storage electrical heating, the most expensive way to heat a room available.

For the same amount of heat they will cost 3 or 4 times more to run than your gas CH radiators.

Far better to get bigger radiators - even double or triple radiators.

D.K.

Cardew wrote: »

It depends how you define efficiency.

Electric underfloor heating is, like any other form of non-storage electrical heating, the most expensive way to heat a room available.

For the same amount of heat they will cost 3 or 4 times more to run than your gas CH radiators.

Far better to get bigger radiators - even double or triple radiators.

Yeah, I suspected that.
I had read something about an energy efficient house but if I remember rightly I think it used a heat pump so maybe it wasn't electricity it used.
I'll take your advise,
Thanks
D.

samtheman1k

I don't think that it's quite that simple though is it? Surely the method of heat delivery does have some impact on the total amount of heat required to heat a room? A standard 3 bar fire will be very hot nearby, but will only heat the other side of the room via convection. Much of the heat will be lost on transport as the heat travels round the room through the ceiling and through windows and walls etc.

With UFH, the heat comes directliy from the floor and thus there is much less opportunity for heat to be lost before it reaches the person (assuming that the floor insulation is good).

The other issue is the comfort level. Radiators will cause a room to be hot near the radiator and cooler at the opposite side. UFH will create a uniform temperature throughout the room.

Also, if you are also looking at a water based UFH (fired from your boiler), then the water temperature will be lower than that required by radiators, meaning less loss through the pipes on route to the UFH manifold (as the rate of loss of temperature increases with increasing temperature if I remember my Physics right!).

suey2

When we bought our bungalow 18months it had no central heating and no gas, we thought long and hard and decided to go with underfloor heating, we have carbon electric underfloor heating in the half of the house we have renovated, its laid on insulation called 'depron' then a 3mm layer of carbon underfloor heating is laid then a plastic membrane then we laid 'Quickstep' laminate over it. We have it in 2 bedrooms. [one is used as an office,] both of these rooms are large also in the bathroom, [tiled over so we used cable heating for that and also in the hall which is quite large also] The bathroom is set constantly at 22c the office is all all day between 8.00 & 12.00 then 1.30 to 4.30, the bedroom is on Morning and evening, same with the hall, we also have an electric immersion heater, large.! and although we knew the out put for all in KW we were really pleased with our electric bill [ On click energy 4] which was £204.00 for the quarter, Oct. Nov Dec. The heat is as said above a good heat, it is all over the floor and rises nicely to neck level, what I think is called an ambient heat. All the floors work by seperate digital thermostats which can be programmed to your choice of heat, these then switch off when the right heat is reached and then come on again 15 mins later to either heat back up or remain constant. I would thoroughly recommend this kind of UFH to anyone, warm rooms and warm floor.!

Hope this helps
Sue~

D.K.

Very many thanks samtheman and suey2.
It sounds good now...I'll maybe get some quotes.
D.

dawnybabes

I have no idea how efficent ours is - we had the cable type put in the kitchen/utility under tiles about 18 months ago and I wouldn't swop it for the world !! I also saves on tumbe drying costs as I now use a clothes rack in the utility and it dries them beautifully .....

D.K.

Thanks Martin,

That's fascinating. I think we have too many breaks in our walls in these rooms but would be really nice in the living room.

D.

samtheman1k

D.K., I should also mention that you can get two types of UFH, either wet or electric. Wet is connected to your gas central heating system and acts like one massive radiator, and as such, will cost the same price as a normal radiator to run in terms of KW output (although lower temperatures are required). Electric UFH, although probably cheaper to install, will cost around 3 times as much to run as a wet system, so will probably not be cheaper to run than a wet (gas) radiator (or wet ufh) system.

D.K.

Thanks again,
I think I'll need to get quotes and I've got a funny feeling that it's gonna be much cheaper to replace the existing radiators with better ones.

Cheers