Underfloor Heating - Is it really worth it?

[Celledora]

We’re FTB and have just had some very inefficient and ugly roads taken out of the living room and kitchen/diner with the intention of getting UFH. Plumber and electrician (in to do other bits) both advise electric would be better for us due to concrete floors...looking at running costs however puts me off! Has anyone got any experience/advice? Shall we just get some nicer rads and love with them taking up precious wall space? Help!!

Oops...radiators, not roads.

We've got wet underfloor heating in our open plan kitchen/living room and it's under polished concrete. It gives a fabulous ambient heat throughout the whole room that lingers for ages.
I don't think electric is recommended in a large area. Why can't they put in wet UFH?

We have underfloor heating and they had to dig the tunnels for pipes downstairs and we have floating wooden floors over them. Radiators upstairs and two downstairs.

No issues with ours.

We have concrete floors as well so is UFH better than rads ? Must be more expensive though?

I've always been told that electric UFH is much more expensive than wet in terms of running costs.

I think we have to cover just under 40sqm. Good to hear those with wet UFH feel it works well - how long did it take to install on concrete/how expensive p/sqm was it roughly, if that’s not rude to ask? We’ve got wooden flooring on order so keen to get the heating sorted ASAP, struggling to find out what will actually be more efficient.

Is the floor already laid? Not worth it

Are you talking about electric? Not worth it.

For people building a new house or extension, so the underfloor insulation and wet pipes can be incorporated in the build, Yes, it is worth it.

Thanks Piglet, I see you’ve experience with these issues! Why isn’t it with it in your opinion? Our wooden flooring hasn’t been laid yet. It’s not a new build. Do you know wether wet underfloor/radiators are more energy efficient in a terraced house?

*worth it. Damn you, phone!

btw energy from electricity currently costs about four times as much as energy from gas.

it varies, but for example
Gas 4.28p per kWh
Electricity 16.56p per kWh

On a concrete floor, you might want a DPM and 100mm insulation under the concrete, then embedded pipes cast into the concrete, them a finish screed, then tiles or engineered flooring on top. If you have a concrete floor already in place, it is impractical to dig it all out and lay a new one.

If you have a suspended floor, insulation, pipes and spreaders can be laid between the joists and the floor laid on top.

My wet under floor heating is cheap to run but was extremely expensive to install (£4k I think when we had our kitchen extension built).

I once had to pay the bills of a business that had electric underfloor heating, don't do it! We're having wet UFH in the extension bit and a couple of radiators to help keep the room warm

We're having wet UFH installed as part of a kitchen refurb in the house we've just moved into and because it's what's known as a retro fit – i.e., the floor is already laid, it's not a new extension – it's eye wateringly expensive for the relatively small space, more than 3k.

Have you looked at the retrofit overlay boards for wet UFH? They allow wet UFH to be installed over concrete without the need to dig it out. I had it done, works really well

I used this: www.polypipe.com/housing/polypipe-underfloor-heating/underfloor-heating/overlay-system

It was c3k for 26 sqm including the boards/pipes/levelling latex before hand, installation etc.