Underfloor heating

[GreyBird84]

So DH & I are amidst a renovation project.
Its a bungalow that has never had any central heating.

Plumber has recommended underfloor throughout with a radiator in the utility room for tea towels etc.

I think it would give us a great deal of wall space (rooms are not massive) and I was intending on having it in the open planing living kitchen diner and bathrooms.

I'm unsure about the bedrooms - he says while carpet isnt the most ideal heat conductor, carpet in bedrooms with underfloor heating is fine.

We are planning on installing gas heating not oil if that makes any difference. We live in NI and our weather is generally shite all year round so not concerned about build up of heat etc.

Any experience or words of wisdom?

Price of UFH and radiators is on a par (it seems I have expensive taste in radiators) so thats not a consideration.

[StepAwayFromTheThesaurus]

Carpet and underlay will really affect how effective your heating is. Could you use skirting board radiators instead?

[GreyBird84]

This is my concern too.

I dont want to be tied to kearndean or engineered wood in bedrooms - carpet is much cheaper and we have a small family!

Skirting board radiators - again with furniture infront of them Im not sure how much heat will circulate? Same issue with radiators generally I guess! Bedrooms are not massive and we will need to use all the storage solutions we can get.

[StepAwayFromTheThesaurus]

If you're building in storage, could you do it floor to ceiling and then have the skirting radiators run along the front of it?

Or could you use those plinth radiators that you put in kitchen kick boards but in the plinth at the bottom of built in wardrobes?

[sacbina]

We have it under carpet and it's fine. As long as you choose low tog. You use ufh differently, it's ambient hear so the whole area stays warm.

[sacbina]

The only thing to be aware of in a bedroom is the amount of furniture covering the floor and to get a bed frame where air can circulate, so not a divan

[GreyBird84]

Off to google plinth radiators!

Great to hear from someone with carpet & UFH.
Bed isn't a divan but planning on fitted furniture but I guess that's not same as a bed is not covering as large an area.

[sacbina]

And with fitted furniture = less space to heat and less cost for pipework.
If you have an idea of the amount of surface area you will have available talk to a ufh provider to check it will give you the heat required. Our dds room is the smallest and does feel cooler than the others if it's really cold, as there are less pipes to heat up. But a good company will advise you of what's possible