Undefloor Heating

Radiators work by convection heating. They wam the air, which rises to the ceiling. The warm air then propogates down. Consequently the temperature of the room is hottest at the ceiling and lowest at the floor.

Underfloor Heating works differently. The heat warms the floor which then radiates up. Hence the warmest part of the room nearest the floor, with the coolest part of the room at the ceiling.

The result: the total energy required to warm a room is less for an underfloor heating system than a conventional radiator system. The typical temperature range for an UFH system is 18-21 degrees c at the floor and 21-23 degress at the ceiling.

When a person's extremities are cold i.e. feet, your body feels cold. with an underfloor heating system, the feet are the warmest part of the body.

Since we have just discussed that the total energy to warm a room is lower with an underfloor heating system, we necessarily have a lower running carbon foot print system. If the floor has a large concrete slab, then the floor acts as a heat store.

The temperature of the incoming water in a warm water underfloor heating system is much lower than for radiators. Hence the energy required to raise the temperature of the water is lower.

Typically, when coupled with a suitable boiler, energy savings of 20 - 25% can be achieved. For larger properties, energy savings of 40% is possible.

Another consideration is: which type of underfloor heating to use - electric or warm water. When assessing from the point of view of carbon foot print , electric underfloor heating has a high CO2 generation cost. Currently Gas and Coal fired power stations push out large quantites of CO2 and are not very efficient compared to the modern generation of home boilers.

Underfloor heating imposes no room layout and design constraints. There are noradiators on walls that prevent the use of the wall. If you stick cupboards, desks, or book shelves on walls with radiators, you will reduce the effectiveness of those radiators. With underfloor heating, there is no wasted wall space. The only downside: you may need to raise the floor a little to accomodate insulation.

Undefloor heating systems gives you seperate controls for each room to control the temperature independantly. Modern controllers can also detect how long the room takes to get upto temperature, and can start warming a room earlier so that it is at the right temperature at a specific time.

When an underfloor heating system is installed on top of a concrete slab, this may effect the time the room takes to get up to temperature. It also means that a room will stay warmer for longer after the heating has been switched off. With this latency effect, it may be necessary during sudden rappid heat changes to add suplementary heating for a short period of time.

Radiators generally have individual controls each having moving parts. The more moving parts you have, the greater the opportunity for failure.

Although from an operation stand point, the only maintenance of radiators consists of occasionally bleeding the radiators and draining the radiators to remove silt.

Aesthetically however, when you change a room's decor, you may need to repaint the radiators. Painting radiators is a chore that simply does not exist with underfloor heating

Warm up times depend on the base that the underfloor heating system sits on. If the system sits on top of a large concrete slab, then the warm up time will be slower. The cool down time will also be much longer. Typically the underfloor heating system operates for 24 hours per day, with a 4 degree temperature drop during the night. This is beneficial for properties that are occupied for large periods of the day.

Uneven heating may result adjacent to cold spots like doorways and walls. To compensate for that, the pipes can be laid more densely around these areas. A good supplier will provide an underfloor heating design layout for none or little cost. This should be 1 of the questions you ask your supplier.

Probably the biggest concern is water pipe leakage. The modern warm water underfloor heating pipes are supports by long guarantees backed with reputable insurance companies. again check that your supplier offers guarantees.

This hub was created by David Kyte