Under floor heating

[Gusthetheatrecat]

Still planning and thinking on the Never Ending Kitchen Project (TM) and my thoughts have turned to underfloor heating.
My reasons for thinking of it are that I don't want to have to leave valuable wall space free for a radiator, rather than a great desire to have warm floors. But I have read here that under floor heating may not be warm enough on its own? If that's true then, er, what's the point of it?
Is it expensive? Does it last a long time or go wrong lots? Any experiences to share?
Thank you!

we have underfloor heating throughout the house as sole heat source. It's definitely enough - but we have great insulation / double glazing etc as well. The great issue with it is that while therea re plenty of people happy to install a system, I'm finding it really hard to get anyone to come and service / repair it - I've got a few rooms with heating stuck on high right now and don't know whether it's simply the thermostats in the rooms or something bigger; every plumber I called yesterday refused to come out - they don't do underfloor repairs (the system is about 10 years old by the way - has been great for the last 8 yrs!)

Water fed is lovely, electric undertile is a bit crap.
I've sold both during my stints in retail and have known people with both. I've lived in a house with the water fed one.
The water one is a nice, non stifling, gentle heat, but as Tranmere says, servicing can be an issue.
Electric undertile or under laminate is very expensive to run and will struggle to heat a room. When the salesperson says it can be used as a primary heatsource in a "well insulated" room. They mean a lab. Or a super modern house with oodles of heat recycling etc.
Under laminate/lino/engineered wood flooring electric heating cannot be turned up to a point where it would heat the room as it would damage the flooring.

(Tranmere, will the manufacturer not recommended an engineer?)

Hmmmm. This is v useful, thank you. I think that the water option wouldn't work for us as the kitchen has a solid floor (think it's concrete) and we couldn't raise the level as it would be weird to step 'up' from the hall, and the ceiling is not enormously high in any case...

I might turn my thoughts back to radiators. Maybe a tall, narrow one would leave more wall space free?

I have electric underfloor in my very large bathroom and it definitely heats the room! It is truly luxurious! I also have water fed in half of my ground floor and this includes an orangery kitchen which is never cold. It works. We also have two air source heat pumps with a fairly substantial pay back but they are expensive to install. I would not put anyone off electric underfloor in a kitchen because you do get a lovely "all over" heat. What you must do is get the best system available for your space and definitely lay floor tiles if you can as these conduct the heat most effectively. We have ceramic but it looks just like limestone. Tall narrow radiators are good for towel drying but do have heat concentrated in one place. Would suit a small kitchen, but definitely not a larger one. I have a tall radiator inmy laundry room as well as the underfloor heating and that works well.

Hmmmm. Thank you!
Two votes against electric underfloor, one for. Just giving this thread a gentle bump in case anyone else has any opinions or experience.

One more vote for electric ! Put it on a timer so it's off at night ! And if you want to make it even more economical have it on for 15mins off for 10 during the day too !

One more vote for electric ! Put it on a timer so it's off at night ! And if you want to make it even more economical have it on for 15mins off for 10 during the day too !

We have underfloor wet heating. It's only been in since Christmas, but we're very pleased with it. It's in kitchen ( new extension) and dining area.

They dug up our floor to install it, so very dirty, but worth it in the end.