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Underfloor Heating: Best Practices?

hilljd00
hilljd00 Posts: 36 Forumite
edited 30 November 2017 at 5:45PM in Energy
Hello :beer:

I have had underfloor heating since 2009. But no one seems convinced of the best method on how to heat a home using this system.

What do you do and why?
- I'd be interested to know what temperature/hours you have set.

Thank you.

Comments

  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 9,307
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Forumite
    edited 1 December 2017 at 10:16PM
    What sort of underfloor heating. Hot water or electric.

    Is it embedded in concrete. If it's electric are you on an E7/E10 or complex metering tariff.

    If it's hot water, what feeds it, gas boiler, oil boiler. what's your flow temperature?

    How is it controlled - timer, programmer, thermostat etc. If hot water do you have manifolds to distribute the water to differnt areas?

    I've got an overlay hot water u/f system fed by an air source heat pump which runs virtually continuously at this time of the year. The flow temperature varies between 30- 40 degrees, depending on the outside temperature and the house is split into separate zones, each controlled by a programmable thermostat which varies the required temperature at different times of the day.

    We do not shut the heating off but turn it down by 2-3 degrees overnight or in rooms that aren't in use during the day (bedrooms & bathroom) otherwise the place can get too cold and it takes a long time to reheat.

    As it's an overlay system, it's a bit more responsive than a system where the pipes are actually embedded in the floor screed but still quite slow to react.
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,075
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    Forumite
    Compared to conventional central heating, UFH is generally used at low heat for a long period; which is why it is so suited for use with a heat pump.
  • I wrote a bit about this in another post, but roughly my setup is:

    District central heating and wet underfloor divided in 3 zones each with their own thermostat.
    The pipes are laid out in concrete and the pump mix temperature is set to 45°. Pump is running at level 2 velocity. There are 3 levels.

    I usually have it set to turn on the living room which is where I do most of my life at 16:00 and turn off at 22:00 weekdays. Weekends turn on at 7am turn off at 22:00. Target temperature at 21°, the thermostat will call for heat when dropping half degree from the target (so at 20.5° in this case).

    It usually takes to heat the living room from ~20.5° to 21°, about 3 hours.

    The heat inertia means after reaching the target temperature of 21°, it still will rise till ~21.6°, meaning in the same day it will not need to call for heat again.

    But the heat loses when cold and not sunny outside are about 1° after 24h which means almost for sure the next day the heating will turn on again to get back to the target 21° unless sunny and not too cold outside, then it might "jump" a day although that means the living room could drop under 20° and then the next day it will take longer to reach the target.

    Bedroom don't usually need to heat as I like it a bit colder and it is usually around 19°-20° at night. Very rarely under 19°.

    I'm quite new to underfloor heating being this my first winter with it and not sure if I'm doing it wrong. Any recommendations are appreciated.
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