Underfloor heating? Anyone got it as their main heating in a house?

[scissormister]

We're probably moving into a house that needs a heating system putting in. I've had underfloor heating in a small flat previously (dry, electric) and it was great. But this is a 3 bed 2 reception house. Will it work as the primary and/,or only heating, do you think? Concerned it may be very expensive and not give off enough heat on its own. I am thinking dry electric system as i don't think taking the floors up to install wet will be practical.

Firstly is the house well insulated? If not then you'll need supplementary heating and plenty of it.
Secondly your electric bill will be high unless you have very good insulation. Electric heating will cost nearly 4 times as much to run as gas although cheaper to install.
If you install electric under floor heating downstairs you still have to take up the floor to insulate, otherwise most of your heat will go into the ground, making it even more costly.

It will be very expensive. I have a friend who has it in her (large) extension, but rarely put it on as it's too expensive. I have another friend who has wet UFH in her barn conversion and that is great. It's always toasty warm and the warm floors feel lovely underfoot in winter.

IME if you need the temp to rise/lower quickly by turning down the thermostat, you won't get this. From my experience it took 12 hours for the change to be actioned.

This was in a brand new build house 15 years ago. Maybe it's changed since?

Think wet is cheaper to run. We have it in our big open plan kitchen diner. It's still not cheap but very effective. Takes ages to cool down and heat up. We turned it off when away over xmas and it was freezing for two days while it heated up again. We have other rooms downstairs but we tend to live in this one in the winter. I do love having warm toes!

gas fired heating is far far cheaper to run than electric.

As for concrete or stone floors holding the heat, yes they do, but if a room needs (say) 20kWh of heat to warm it for a day, then that's the amount of energy you need to put into it. If you only run the heating for an hour, and only put 2kWh of heat into it, it will be cold.

If the concrete takes a long time to give out its heat, it will take a long time (and lots of energy) to get it hot.

Thanks, that's all useful to know. I had the impression wet ufh would be a lot more hassle to install, but perhaps not.

wet UFH is more work and expense to install, unless you are already going to lay a new floor, for example in an extension or a new build.

We have wet for most of the ground floor apart from the study and the lounge which are the older parts of the house. They have radiators. It is great but we have air source heat pumps so our whole system is electric: we replaced oil. No gas in village. We have electric u f h in bathrooms and I wouldn't be without it. If you can do wet u f h in a new build I would do it. Your furniture can go where you please. We have engineered wood and ceramic tiles and they are great with the u f h.

Thanks for the advice. It is not a new build but needs the floors replacing in the main ground floor rooms. Would it be fairly straightforward to lay wet UFH if the floorboards are coming up anyway? I am also concerned about cracking floor boards due to change of temperature (saw this can be an issue on another forum). Would engineered wood be OK?

yes, AFAIK. You fit spreader plates over the pipes to let the warm air dissipate.

Find some manufacturers' websites and have a look at their guidance.

Yes you can used engineered wood, but not solid. If you look on flooring supplier websitest they usually say if it's suitable for UFH or not.

Thanks,!