Wet underfloor heating....is it chilly or toasty?

[Moveslikedragon]

Hello

We’re thinking of putting wet uf heating in our ground extension and we’ll be installing new double glazed windows too (if that’s relevant). Does it do the business and get rooms toasty warm quickly or is it too gentle so that it has to basically be on 24/7 to have any effect?

I’m a bit sceptical about it (!!!) so any insight, good or bad, it would be gratefully received!

[Moveslikedragon]

And does it gradually become ineffective after a few years? I’m imagining a limescale clogged kettle style situation developing under the floorboards after a few years....

[flatoutpanic]

You need to be a bit more organised than with radiators as it’s not as quick to warm a room. However, the floor holds the heat, so the room stays warm for much longer.

We've had ours for 15 years and it hasn’t diminished in power.

[Elephantscantfly]

Best thing we ever did, takes a while to heat through but it’s just like a giant radiator under the floor and it stays warm for a long time. If you can, put in a dual control for your heating so you can use it separately, or at least a separate thermostat. It made a previously unusable space into on of our favourite parts of our home 😀

[elfofftheshelf]

We have in throughout the ground floor of our barn conversion and it's great. We have ceramic tiles in kitchen and hallway, and amtico flooring in the other rooms. Each room has it's own thermostat and it's brilliant. Heats up quickly, and is easy to control. It's been in for about 10 years, we improved (upgraded / brought up to date) the thermostats and the manifold pipes (as some weren't working when we bought the house) and it now works really well.

[yomellamoHelly]

PIL have it. It has be on for ages before the room feels the benefit. Me and the dc always found that room cold when we stayed with them (and got up four hours earlier than them). Used to boost the central heating to max and camp out / eat breakfast in the lounge as that would cosy up fairly quickly.

[massistar]

Love our underfloor heating. If you have it on a timer so it's on before you get up it's great. Toasty feet at breakfast. It also stays warmer for so much longer after it's gone off. Lovely ambient heat in the whole room.

[minipie]

It’s toasty but yes you do have to have it on more continuously, as it takes longer to warm up. You don’t have to have it at full heat overnight or anything like that, but you’d probably want it set so it stays above say 14 overnight so it’s not starting from scratch in the morning.

It’s considerably more efficient once it’s heated up compared with radiators, so doesn’t actually cost more to have it on more iyswim.

Might be a bit annoying if you have a random cold snap in June or early September when you wouldn’t usually have the heating on and just want a quick boost of warmth. You could always have one electric radiator somewhere for that purpose.

My parents have had it for 11 years and it doesn’t seem to have clogged or got less effective.

[Moveslikedragon]

That’s so helpful - thank you all.

Last question - if you’ve got w.u.f, what have you got flooring wise? Tiles, solid wood or engineered wood? Trying to work out what might be best.

(I’m not sure if solid wood is even an option with underfloor heating which is causing angst as I’ve been eyeing up highly polished probably highly impractical wood floors -oops).

[Megan2018]

We have natural riven slate flooring in most of downstairs, carpet in sitting room. It’s all lovely underfoot.
We do have a fancy air source heat pump heating system though which is very efficient and it was all built in with the house construction.
Upstairs (apart from bathrooms which have tiles floors with underfloor heating) is carpet with radiators.

[minipie]

We have it under tiles in kitchen and under engineered wood in sitting room. It works a lot better (quicker) with the tiles. Although could be partly as the sitting room is a colder room anyway

[minipie]

PS I don’t think ufh is recommended with solid wood flooring as solid wood isn’t stable enough to cope with the temperature changes

[Chilver]

We have ceramic tiles (that look like wood) and keep it on low heat all the time in winter and its fabulous. Cost effective and toasty warm - best decision we made with our renovation.

[massistar]

Engineered oak in dining area and polished micro cement in kitchen. The kitchen is v toasty!

[TheFnozwhowasmirage]

We've got it all over the house. No radiators apart from towel warmers. I love it,quick to warm up ( I moved the thermostat on our bathroom up at 6.30am today,by 7 I could feel the difference). We have tiles and laminate flooring downstairs,carpet in the upstairs sitting room and bedrooms. We were advised not to have very thick carpet as it doesn't work so well. Our UFH is a wet system heated by an air source heat pump,and the house is a self build so super insulated. The whole house(2000sqft) is electric,no gas and we pay roughly £100 a month on our direct debit.

[FurierTransform]

My experience when visiting friends with UFH - it has never been warm enough - takes the chill off a room, but still feels cold to me, not toasty underfoot which is how I imagined. May have just been a bad setup?