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Original poster

Dh wants to take out all the radiators and install electric underfloor heating

48 replies

Gincognito · 05/02/2012 17:37

He's mad, isn't he? We will freeze. It's a 3 bed Victorian end of terrace.

He's from a country where they don't do central heating, and he's incredibly suspicious of it. He also resents the space the radiators take up. We need to replace most of the floors anyway, so he wants to stick down this and take out ALL the radiators. He's started taking my doubts a little personally...am I wrong? Will this work?

OP posts:

Cinquefoil · 05/02/2012 17:41

I don't blame him. If it's possible and affordable, I'd do it. I once lived in a house with underfloor heating, and it was LOADS warmer and more efficiently heated that houses with radiators.

Heat rises.

OnlyANinja · 05/02/2012 17:43

You won't freeze - don't be silly. Why do you think you will freeze? Heat rises, so putting the heat source underneath you makes perfect sense.

BackforGood · 05/02/2012 17:45

I know absolutely nothing about it, but what would worry me is what happens if something breaks / goes wrong / needs replacing / needs some knid of surfacing ? I'ts going to be difficult to get to under the floor

AThingInYourLife · 05/02/2012 17:48

Sounds like a great idea.

Radiators do take up too much wallspace.

Original poster

Gincognito · 05/02/2012 17:49

Really? Dunno...thought I had heard that the electric type wasn't that powerful and only good for heating the floor itself.

And obviously, I am just as biased in favour of radiators as he is against.

The joys of a multicultural marriage :o

OP posts:

MmeLindor. · 05/02/2012 17:52

I lived in Germany where this was very common and it definitely works.

Only thing that would put me off is that I have heard it is bad for the legs - that it can make varicose veins worse but not sure if this is an urban myth. Maybe depends on how high you have it set.

KatyMac · 05/02/2012 17:53

If I could afford it I would but not that system

I'd have a water system run off your existing boiler (or a lovely new one)

KatyMac · 05/02/2012 17:54

I have it in 2 rooms and they are my favourite rooms

Oricella · 05/02/2012 17:56

it will work and you will be warm...

If your CH runs of mains gas you will also have much higher bills

AThingInYourLife · 05/02/2012 17:56

Oh, I don't know about the different kinds of underfloor heating, just that I'd love to have it.

SJisontheway · 05/02/2012 17:57

I would avoid an electric system. It will not be cost effective. I wouldn't rule out underfloor altogether though.

Rhubarbgarden · 05/02/2012 17:58

We have electric underfloor heating. It's a pain in the ass. half the kitchen floor doesn't work at all (broke after only one year) so when you stand at the sink you have one warm foot and one cold one. The thermostat has bust on the other half, so instead of heating it to an ambient temperature it just keeps on getting hotter and hotter till the cats are rolling around basking on the marble floor like it's the African Savannah. Dh is constantly turning it off because as a result of it overheating, it costs a fortune. So I just turn it on as soon as he leaves the house on a morning, but it takes ages to heat up so I have to endure frozen feet for a couple of hours first. To fix it would involve lifting and probably breaking all the tiles which we can neither face nor afford to do. Fortunately we do also have radiators...

I have heard the more expensive non-electrical systems (oil? Water? Not sure) are more reliable.

neolara · 05/02/2012 18:00

We got rid of radiators in our kitchen and replaced them with underfloor heating. I thought my dh was a completely lunatic for arranging this and it was the cause of our very first newly wed argument. However, I have had to well and truly eat my words as the kitchen is the only room in the house that is never cold. I will always have underfloor heating if possible in any future house we live in.

Mibby · 05/02/2012 18:03

We were just talking about this for the perma-frost which is our kitchen floor. How does it work? Presumably you take the floor up, lay the 'heating' (some kind of mat?) and put the floor back. What kind of floor can you put on it? just tiles? or laminate? Vinyl? and roughly how much does it cost to run?

Flibbertyjibbet · 05/02/2012 18:10

Agree with Katymac to have the type that is connected to the boiler.

Your gas bills may go up because the whole floor is now a radiator whereas you'd just have one wall radiator before.

But not as much as your electric would go up if you had electric underfloor heating.

This is the 2nd house where dp has installed underfloor heating on all floors, connected to the boiler. Our gas bills are no more than for normal central heating but the house is soo cosy, the floors are warm to walk on, and we have flag floors (the original flag floor was still in this house so he relaid it over the pipes).

The reason gas/boiler method is more efficient/cost effective is that it works on thermostats. So once the floor gets warm, the water circulating round does not need reheating so much. The heat stays in a solid floor for HOURS after the heating goes off, unlike radiators that cool down very quickly.

With the electrical type you either have it on, in which case the electricity is pumping out at full charge, or you have it off. So to avoid big bills you'd have to keep getting up switching it on and off and being a human thermostat thing.

The boiler type is much more work to install, as you have to lay pipes, and if its a solid floor then grooves for the pipes may need to be cut out.

But, in a room with underfloor heating, there are no cold spots. The floor is warm all over and the heat rises evenly over the whole room. Brilliant.

pootlebug · 05/02/2012 19:34

We plan to get underfloor heating through most of our downstairs when we do some other work later in the year, but a hot water system, not electric. There's no way I'd go for electric - way too expensive to run.

There are various hot water systems - some that go between the joists, some that can sit on top of a concrete sub-floor etc. I'd look into what you can do off the existing hot water system (or with a boiler upgrade). It will be more expensive to install but much more efficient to run.

ChippingInLovesEasterEggs · 05/02/2012 19:41

If you get the right system you will love it - it's incredible.

Why not compromise, get it installed but keep the radiators until the end of next winter, if you don't use them/need them next winter, get rid of them.

Flatbread · 05/02/2012 19:50

We had 'wet' underfloor heating installed in summer. What a difference it has made! No cold spots, nice even temperature throughout.

For the system to be effective, it needs to Be on all the time. Our plumber told us that our heating bills would be lower as the water needs to heated to only 30 degrees or a bit higher, not 70 degrees as was the case with radiators.

The downsides for us- our boiler is old, so not sure how well it is interfacing withe underfloor heating. It seems to come on a lot.

Plus we do worry about the pipes freezing, especially when we are away for a few weeks. We had antifreeze put in, but is still a worry.

Finally, a small niggle. The rooms ate warm, but not hot. That is probably because it is an old house and not well insulated. We have left the radiators in place for the moment, and also have two wood burners. So no trouble keeping toasty.

We only put the underfloor heating downstairs as we have stone floors there (in France). Don't think the wet underfloor heating works with wooden floors, but I may be wrong.

fresh · 05/02/2012 21:13

I put electric ufh in when we converted our garage to my office. Then we got one of those meters which monitors usage. Every time the heating came on it would pull 2kW in power to heat the room, i.e. it was incredibly expensive. For a whole house it would be too expensive I think. Wet ufh is a much better bet but if you have floorboards, you won't be able to fit it under those. Usually wet ufh is put in when a solid floor goes down, either during first build or major renovation.
We love our radiators, but then we used to have a 1970's warm-air system which was like having lukewarm dusty air blown at you!

Original poster

Gincognito · 05/02/2012 21:39

We are having Amtico (vinyl) throughout, so the thickness probably wouldn't be an issue as it would be on top of the original floor (which is in poor condition).

We reckon it will cost about 6k to get all the kit and have it installed. Expensive! And a wet system is more expensive than that. I just don't know if we have enough to stretch to it.

Worst case scenario would be getting all the work done and then being so cold/shocked by the electricity bills that we have to have radiators reinstalled...

OP posts:

thirdfromleft · 05/02/2012 21:47

Another vote to have underfloor water heating. It is awesome. Much better than radiators. In our house we have it together with an electric water heater driven off a ground heat exchanger, triple glazed windows and properly isolated walls. We keep the house at a toasty 23C year round and running costs are less than £100 a month.

Flatbread · 05/02/2012 21:56

third, that sounds lovely. How much did the ground heat exchanger cost? Have you had any problems at all with it? That would be my dream solution!

Original poster

Gincognito · 05/02/2012 22:19

Hmm, so if the choice was between electric UFH and leaving everything as it is, the consensus would be do nothing?

OP posts:

KatyMac · 05/02/2012 22:22

I work from home, in the bit with electric UF heating it's 42 ft by 12 ft
My heating bill is £2400 a year, the rest of the house is heated by a woodburner.

It wouldn't add up for me

Flatbread · 05/02/2012 22:24

For me yes, electric underfloor heating is not reliable, is expensive and not worth the cost of installation (unless in a small area like a bathroom)

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