# Underfloor heating



## mt8 (Jan 7, 2011)

Thinking of fitting electric underfloor heating to the kitchen, dining room, utility, downstairs toilet and ensuite bathroom, question is when i remove the 5 radiators from the central heating system will this lead to issues with the boiler? As this is nearly half of the rads in the house being removed.


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## rf860 (Jul 24, 2011)

would not replace rads with electric underfloor heating. very expensive to run and depending on floor coverings might not give the output you'd expect. personally, i'd just keep it to the bathrooms and have it setup on a timer to save money on running costs.


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## turbosnoop (Apr 14, 2015)

We have it at work (not electric but warm water) and its a pain as it takes a long time to heat the room, then if it gets too hot, you have a floor full of heat , so it keeps heating the room. I personally much prefer a radiator. 
That's all just in my experience though. It would probably heat a house room up quicker I would guess than the large rooms at work


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## mt8 (Jan 7, 2011)

rf860 said:


> would not replace rads with electric underfloor heating. very expensive to run and depending on floor coverings might not give the output you'd expect. personally, i'd just keep it to the bathrooms and have it setup on a timer to save money on running costs.


Thanks for that, was originally looking at just the ensuite with a timer, but thinking of having new kitchen fitted this year so just looking at the options at this stage.

Will removing several rads from a system cause any long terms effect on the boiler?


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

It will not cause any major problems, it just means it will be oversized for the load that is left. If it is relatively modern then it can modulate the gas valve to match the load which reduces this issue. 

Electric UFH can be sized to provide primary heating for your room, although you will be looking at 170-200W/m2. You will also need programmable stats with floor sensors for each room too to control the electric heating. 

Electric uMUFH is normally much quicker to respond compared to wet UFH as it is not normally laid in/under a concrete screed, but on top of the sub-floor just under the floor finish.


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## Clancy (Jul 21, 2013)

Have you had it before ? It's a very marmite way of heating a house 

I personally do not like It, I had it under oak flooring on the whole downstairs of a previous house and did not like it. The floor heats up lovely but you find you end up walking around barefoot with sweaty feet all the time. Then if your sat on a sofa your feet are on fire but your not that warm. The end the room gets too hot but it's all stuck in the floor and hard to get rid of 

Plus sides if you have electric under a wood finish it is very quick to heat up, no delay like conventional heating. Can be horribly expensive if your Covering A large area and have it on a lot 

It is good, just depends if you like It or not, would advise to try it somehow if possible either in a showroom or a friends hosue etc. Sorry if you've already done your research just giving my experience on it


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## mt8 (Jan 7, 2011)

Clancy said:


> Have you had it before ? It's a very marmite way of heating a house
> 
> I personally do not like It, I had it under oak flooring on the whole downstairs of a previous house and did not like it. The floor heats up lovely but you find you end up walking around barefoot with sweaty feet all the time. Then if your sat on a sofa your feet are on fire but your not that warm. The end the room gets too hot but it's all stuck in the floor and hard to get rid of
> 
> ...


Thanks for your feedback, some good points raised there.:thumb:

i have tried it at a friends house and it felt a nice warm feeling without being too hot on bare feet, but this was under ceramic tiles so may give a different sensation under wooden flooring.

Cheers.


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

I've got wet UFH in the house (concrete screened floors throughout) with a mixture of stone, tile, engineered oak, and laminate floor coverings. My hat source is a ground source heat pump in a well insulated house. My water flow temperature feeding the manifolds is only 38 degrees centigrade which mans you can feel the warmth on the stone/tile floors, but not so much on the timber/laminate floors, so no sweaty feet in my house  My rooms take approx 2 hours to come up to temperature from their setback setting, and control to within approx 0.5 degrees of my chosen comfort temperature. 

I have a stacked double garage with rooms above (attic trusses) which has electric UFH. This is fitted underneath engineered oak flooring, and when on is set to achieve a surface temperature on the oak of 28 degrees (the upper limi suggested by the oak manufacturer). The room is kept at 10 degrees when not used, and can be brought up to 20 degrees in under an hour when required. Again I control the heating within approx 0.5 degrees of the desired temperature. 

In my case I use the Honeywell Evo system to control both systems.


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## ardandy (Aug 18, 2006)

Like everything in life. If you're going to do it, do it properly or not at all.

Electric UFH is significantly more expensive to run than boiler driven systems.


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## Rayaan (Jun 1, 2014)

Not worth doing one or the other. 

Radiators are better but if you want, just use it to heat tiles up not the room so you don't get cold feet. I.e use in conjunction with rads 

Not recommended for wooden floors. Wooden floors have a tendency to expand and contract, underfloor heating will eventually lead to splits


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## Clancy (Jul 21, 2013)

Rayaan said:


> Not worth doing one or the other.
> 
> Radiators are better but if you want, just use it to heat tiles up not the room so you don't get cold feet. I.e use in conjunction with rads
> 
> Not recommended for wooden floors. Wooden floors have a tendency to expand and contract, underfloor heating will eventually lead to splits


Its fine under a floating engineered timber floor, wouldn't put it under laminate though


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

It's not a problem under laminate either, most laminate is more stable than engineered wood and is often thinner which means faster response times. I've had laminate and engineered wood over wet UFH for more than 8 years and there has been no issues (no movement, splitting/cupping etc). Providing you have conditioned the flooring in line with the manufacturers recommendations and keep the floor temperatures within the specified limits for the flooring there should be no problem.


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## the-selkie (May 10, 2014)

I'm a big fan of UFH & have spec'd electric & wet systems in work. If you are going for a wet system make sure to pay the extra and get screed sensors as it picks up changes in the system faster. I wouldn't be going for electric over a large space when you start to look at the running costs.


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## mt8 (Jan 7, 2011)

Thanks for all of your thoughts and real experiences, I need to look into this a bit more and find a solution that works for me.

Think I will do the 2 bathrooms with electric underfloor heating as have small floor area so hopefully shouldn't be too expensive to run on a day to day basis.

The kitchen/dining room is not too large an area at 18m2 approx, so will weigh up both wet and electric ufh options along with/without the rads.


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