Under Floor Heating

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:51 pm

I'm going to lay some laminate and I'm after some advice on UFH. The room is only 12m sq and is concrete with a bitchumen layer base (I assume its bitchumen

). I intend floating the laminate with an underlay/dpm.

OK, here is what I'm after :-
1) Am I on the right lines with the above.
2) Can UFH be used with laminate and if so are there any laminates types you can't use.
3) How is the UFH connected to the electrics i.e plugged in, direct to the cu, or part of the ring main - sparky will be doing this just need to understand whats involved.

Finally, what are peoples experience of UFH - does it provide good heat, is it efficient etc.

Thanks.

bstyle · Post by **bstyle** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:08 pm

1. Not my field so can't comment
2. Yes, although it needs to be a type designed specifically for Laminate flooring, it normally comes in a ribbon. Your best bet is to pop into Topps Tiles, they sell it there.
3. Off the ring main, then fuse rated down via a fused switch.

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:48 pm

never done it myself. just found this if it helps
http://www.neoheat.com/expert-zone/faq/

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:00 am

Cheers guys

Not as cheap as I was expecting

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:01 am

bit like a women once youve married it

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:27 am

underfloor heating is realy background heating and not very efficiant at heating the room
you would still need conventional heating to heat the room properly

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:48 am

big-all - this is one of the things I'm trying to understand. I already have a radiator in the room that is underspec'd (for a reason

). I did a bit of a google last night and the manufacturers were saying UFH can be used as primary heating and gave drawings to demonstrate it over a radiator. As I don't trust a word a salesman says and I treat manufacturers info with a certain amount of scepticism I was seeing if anyone on here has first hand experience of its effectiveness.

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:54 am

personally i wouldnt put ifh under any laminate i fit and guarentee it. thats just my opinion not saying it cant be done.

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:53 pm

skiking wrote:big-all - this is one of the things I'm trying to understand. I already have a radiator in the room that is underspec'd (for a reason ). I did a bit of a google last night and the manufacturers were saying UFH can be used as primary heating and gave drawings to demonstrate it over a radiator. As I don't trust a word a salesman says and I treat manufacturers info with a certain amount of scepticism I was seeing if anyone on here has first hand experience of its effectiveness.

the trouble is with underfloor heating is its indirect heat you have to warm up the elements then the floor [which is quite a good insulator]
so by the time you have warmed the floor to the max and deducted say 20percent lost heat your probably taking 30 mins then possibly another hour or so to start warming the room to a decent temperature thats all assuming its giving out probably about 6kw
where as a 3kw fan heater would warm the room in say 20 mins

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:36 pm

You appear to have the same thoughts on UFH as me big-all. I'm suspicious that the heating element has to produce a lot more heat to compensate for the dpm and laminate being on top of it this is why I want some feedback from someone who has UFH with laminate or even with a tiled floor. Is it efficient, energy wise, and can it be used as a primary heat source as stated by the manufacturers.

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 5:40 pm

my suggestion would be to do an in room calculation for what size of gas central heating radiator required to heat your room [kw output]
then do the same calculation to see what size of mats you need [kw output]

then compare like with like

when you think a kw at gas prices are around 3p per usable kw of heat as compared to around 8p for electric per kw and if you loose 20 or 30 percent in getting the heat through the floor your talking 10p per kw or around 3 times the running costs

pyrogaz · Post by **pyrogaz** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:45 pm

The key to UFH heating being successful is to have a very well insulated house, personally I think it has to be insulated to a level which is at least up to current building regs and preferably significantly better. If it is installed on an uninsulated concrete slab you'll find that you're doing very little more than heating the ground!

It sounds like your floor is an older type solid concrete? If so you may find that laying just an inch or two of PU insulation with a floating floor above will make it perfectly comfortable with your existing radiator; as long as you can cope with the change in floor level.