underfloor heating, what's your experience?

[BlardyBlaaaaa]

Hi there

I know this has been done a thousand times, but could anyone please tell me if I'm deluding myself that having underfloor heating in our kitchen-extension-to-be is a good idea. Is it really extortionate to run the electric kind? Just been to stay with in laws who have it in their bathroom (obv not as big as kitchen) buy say they have noticed no real change to their bills.

I grew up in a cold house, our current house is pretty draughty and the kitchen floor in particular is arctic in winter. It's just a dream I have....

Or how about the wet kind? We'll probably have to have a new boiler anyway... Or is that a nightmare if you have a problem/leak etc?

Thanks, fellow Mumsnetters, in advance.

We are just coming to the end of an extension. In the downstairs kitchen/diner we have wet ufh. We have only been enjoying this new space since Christmas Day so I can't really give an opinion! The rest of our house was built in the 1870s, so the new extension is much warmer to start with.

We have had a new boiler installed. It is lovely to not have rads on the walls. Our room is North facing with bifold doors. It doesn't feel cold at all and the heating is not on high.

achlike what temperature do you run it at with what on top?

Great until it breaks and you have to take the bloody floor up to fix it . Then, not great!

We have it in our house and you input the price of electric and the controller tells you how much it cost to run it

For our living room for 1 month it's just over £100

Yes it's extremely expensive

My family have underfloor heating in the living area and bedrooms. There are thermostats in each room to adjust temp or turn on/off. Usually turn on via boiler and keep it on low as the temperature in the rooms gradually build-up. Husband finds it too hot. When really hot, the children & I become cat-like and lounge about; it's easy to give-in to the heat.

We've just had UFH put in our new extension. Only been living with it for a few weeks, but blooming lovely... Just requires us to add or shed jumpers as we move from our warm extension into the rest of the draughty house!

Wet in kitchen extension put down 5 years ago..absolutely glorious and adored by all, high ceilings and tiled floor that stays warm for ages..also smells lovely when mopped with a bit of zoflora.

Not noticed much difference in bills but put in new boiler at same time.

Can anyone please recommend their wet UFH supplier? Sacbina, have got yours thanks. Anyone else? I'm hoping to avoid radiators altogether. Thanks!

My sister put electric under floor heating in last winter in their kitchen diner and cranked the thermostat up for 3 months without thinking about it. Their electric bill was £1000 and they've not put in on since.

It never felt that warm so I think if you're going for electric you probably want rads too.

A friend has wet system and it seems much much warmer.

Both have tiles floors.

either can deliver enough heat, but energy from electricity costs about three times as much as energy from gas.

It is more work to lay wet heating because the pipes have to go in/under the floor, so the best time is during build.

We have electric underfloor heating in our conservatory (in addition to a radiator) and it's lovely. We don't have it running constantly though, just on very cold days or when we have people over and are using the room. But I would be worried of the energy costs if it was on constantly, and would probably have opted for wet underfloor heating if we'd chosen it ourselves.

I should of said ours is electric UFH,

Luckly we also have oil cebtral heating so don't use the UFH due to the high cost

We've just had electric underfloor heating (rather than a wet system) installed in our new kitchen extension by Allbrite and absolutely love it, we know friends who have wet systems and are happy with that too.

Sitting here in my lovely new extension but feeling rather cold Wish we had bitten the bullet of the extra cost and had wet UFH put in.

I am planning electric UFH for the family bathroom. Has anyone ever had any issues with their electric UFH not working and did you have to break through the bathroom tiles/floor to get the issues resolved?

We have electric ufh in our house (tiled floors). I have it on all day at the moment (not maximum heat but so that it clicks on and off; think the thermostat is set at 20 deg) and turn it off at about 9pm. We have open plan downstairs with a kind of open plan upstairs so it's a huge area to heat. Having it on for a couple of hours in the morning or a couple of hours in the evening just does not cut it. No rads downstairs and don't use the upstairs ones much at all. We do have a wood fire (on in the evening) which you need to get that really warm feeling. In the day, I am often to be found in my dressing gown à la Winston Churchill. I am dreading the next electricity bill.............

We do have cold spots e.g. under the (open tread) stairs and around the fireplace where I suspect coils weren't laid.

I think part of the problem with our house is that it is so open plan. If you are heating just the one room and can shut the door to keep the heat in, you may find it doesn't make such a difference to your heating bills.

Sunflower, I have a friend who has installed ufh in his bathroom and downstairs loo (anywhere he has replaced the floor).

It's a good question you ask and I have no idea what the answer is. We are removing the entire tiled floor of our downstairs and are planning on having the ufh system completely checked out before re-laying the new tiles. Absolutely no idea what you do if this is not the case. Maybe it never breaks down???

Marking spot!