RE: Underfloor heating...

["Hawes,Timothy Edward (GEG)" <haweste@xxxxxxx>]

Mark,

At my last house I installed UFH into a bathroom, underneath ceramic floor
tiles. The only way I'd allow tiles in the bathroom was if there was UFH in
the room too. I fitted electric UFH from a company called Devi-Heat (http://www.devi.com.au), they're now
selling kits in Homebase. The mat is around 3mm thick and is stuck to the
floor with tile adhesive or similar. Control is via a temp sensor embedded
in the floor that feeds a thermostat, you can also get a time switch
although I'm guess you'd want to do that through HV instead. I would
certainly recommend it for a bathroom.

For a wet UFH system, the pipes are laid in the floor screed - this is
typically 75mm thick. If you want to go this route it's much more involved
as a retrofit. It's also going to be pretty costly for a single room. 

Yes you can have radiators and UFH in the same house, this is how a lot of
self-build houses have their heating. Many expect to be able to turn off
the radiators upstairs, but put them in 'cos it's a cheaper backup option
than whole-house UFH.

If you're putting down a wooden floor be careful, as you will probably fit
a layer of foam on top of the heating mat / pipes. This will effectively
insulate the concrete and reduce the heat transferred to the floor. Some
type of "laminate" flooring don't cope well with UFH. Solid wood
can be better but requires careful acclimatisation before being fitted.

Upsides:
In bathroom I loved getting out of the shower onto a warm floor. Spilt
water also dried quicker and there was no soggy carpet.
It was nice in summer with the UFH off as the tiles kept the room
cooler.
You don't have to worry about where you put furniture as there are no
radiators to consider
Installation of an electric system is possible with DIY skills.

Downsides:
Some people don't like their feet being warmer than their head
Response times can be very slow (not a problem in my 1.5m2 bathroom
though)
Cost, electric UFH will probably cost you more to run than a wet system,
but you may find retrofitting a wet system would cost a fortune. 



HTH, let me know if you need anything else,

Cheers,

Tim H.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Harrison
> 
> This is aimed at those who have it:
> 
> 1: Would you recommend it?
> 
> 2: Can it co-exist in a house that also has radiators in other
rooms.
> 
> We have a lot of work to do in the sitting room, including 
> replacing the
> old, nasty carpet, with a wooden floor. Mary would like individual
> control of each room's temperature, and is happy to do this with xAP
/
> Homevision... but would also like underfloor heating.
> 
> Comments, suggestions, recommended suppliers?
> 
> The good news is that the sitting room is adjacent to the utility
room
> (wherein lives the boiler), with only an internal wall between
them.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark
> 

+

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