Anyone installed under floor heating in an open plan kitchen and found it wasn't sufficient

[loopsngeorge]

We are in the process of installing wet ufh in a 30 x 16ft kitchen. We have chucked as much insulation as possible at it and ordered triple glazed doors but our builder reckons people keep a back up source of heat ie an extra radiator for particularly cold days.
This seems to go against what Ive heard elsewhere, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone that hasn't found ufh warm enough and what you did about it?

[PigletJohn]

(a) The installation should have a calculated power output. Do you know what it is?

(b) Do you know the planned heat loss of the extension room?

If (a) is less than (b) then the room will be cold on cold days, but if (a) is greater than (b) it won't be.

(the heating engineer or the architect ought to have worked these out, unless doing it by guesswork)

Most of the cost of wet heating is in the installation, adding a bit more piping won't cost much extra.

[LunaLovebad]

We have electric UFH in our kitchen under ceramic floor tiles and the total space is about 12 sq metres. It keeps the whole kitchen toasty warm as well as the open plan conservatory next to it which is another 12 sq m. We've never needed any back up heating, it's perfect.

[junebirthdaygirl]

We have underfloor heating and when it's on its sufficient. However we turn the whole heating system off end of any April and back on this week for whole house. In that time if there is any miserable cold days we have no heat as it takes 24 hours to heat up so no fast heat. A radiator might be useful in that circumstance.

[kilmuir]

We have a biggish kitchen/ family room. 65sqmish. Underfloor heating has worked very well. Not needed any extra heat

[PigletJohn]

looking at June's note, I wonder if the builder was thinking about time delay? I would hesitate to add radiators for that as it defeats the object of UFH. Maybe a fan heater once or twice a year. It's usually enough to set the UFH times a couple of hours earlier than the rads, then adjust as required.

Wet systems are cheaper to run and can be much more powerful than electric systems (the ones in DIY sheds may be 3kW or less due to the extra work needed for a new circuit), so I would not expect a wet system to be underpowered.

It's possible to add Weather Compensation to turn the heat on early if it's colder outside, but this is an extra complication that often annoys householder as it does things without being asked.

[loopsngeorge]

Thanks everyone for the advice, great to hear that ufh seems to work!! We were aware of the slow heat up time, so are prepared for that and that was one of the downsides the builder was warning us about.

PigletJohn - that was what I was getting worried about, I'm not sure what calculations have been done, if any, but I will quiz them about it on Monday. It appears to be Prowarm pipes that they have used, spaced at 20mm, with i think 75mm insulation underneath which was the most we had space for.

[NotCitrus]

We have a wet system and the kitchen has a huge skylight and a glass wall. The amount we spent on getting extra insulated triple glazed glass was worth every penny - not only is it never very cold, but never too hot in summer.

[GiGiraffe]

i am not impressed with our underfloor heating, I wanted radiators and was over ruled. Our kitchen diner is never warm enough in the mornings in the winter (in fairness it's never colder than 19c when it's frosty outside, but I like a balmy 22c) - I'm told it's because we have wooden floors (information that would have been useful before we installed them) I am still campaigning for a radiator - I like my house warm!

[namechangealerttt]

We have tiles over the UFH and it is toasty warm.

[Pradaqueen]

I have a wundafloor wet UFh everywhere in my house. Each room is its own zone with it's own thermostat. Heat is instant when turned on and we're never cold and I'm in a very old house. Downstairs is fully tiled and no other heat source.

[LetitiaCropleysCookbook]

As a side issue, we have underfloor heating in our bathroom , but we don't use it any more , because we were at the huge difference it made to our electricity bill. Maybe we have an inefficient system.

[PigletJohn]

Energy from electricity currently costs four times as much as energy from gas. Electric heating is expensive

[LetitiaCropleysCookbook]

I didn't know you could have underfloor heating by using any other means than electric wiring looping round under the floor. What is the wet system that pp have been talking about?

[PigletJohn]

Hot water pipes. Often laid before a concrete floor is poured over them, sometimes laid on metal trays between the joists under a wooden floor.

Installing them during build is much less work than retrofitting.

The pipework is controlled so it gets warm but not hot.