Underfloor heating: tell me more...

[Officebox]

Never had underfloor heating. Is it worth it? Pros/cons?

Do you still keep your radiators?

How does it impact your heating bills? Notice any differences?

This probably won't help that much OP, but we have literally just had it put into our ground floor (I do mean literally - the job finshes today!), and so far I think it is worth every penny. No, we haven't kept any radiators downstairs (apart from the towel rad in the bathroom). Walking about on warm floors is just wonderful, especially given our ground floor used to be freezing cold due to lack of insulation.

Can't comment much about impact on bills, as it's too new.

We also have it in a couple of bathrooms elsewhere in the house, but that's electric rather than water. We rarely use it because DH won't let me turn it on but I do enjoy it when I do.

Honestly? I hate ours. It takes forever to heat up then it’s suddenly roasting in the house. It seems nearly impossible to get the balance right. We’ve had it for five years and still can’t keep it comfortable 🤷‍♀️ We don’t have radiators in the areas with underfloor heating so can’t supplement with those while waiting for the floor to do it’s thing

We had done on our ground floor over a year ago. Main reason for doing it was because of a lot of glass on our new extension, there wasn't an obvious place for radiators and also from staying in places with underfloor heating in the past, I love the feel of it underfoot. And I have to say I do love it and touch wood we haven't had any issues with it. I will say that we had it done as part of a huge renovation so the house is now really well insulated and that probably helps maintain a steady heat.

We have it. Two different types. The ground floor is a wet system and it’s as easy to control as radiators. No problems whatsoever. So if it’s not controllable there’s a fault somewhere. It’s the same as a radiator but under the floor. Thermostats control the temp.

We have electric in a couple of bathrooms. We have big towel radiators but they don’t heat the bathrooms.

We have had it for years so I’ve no idea about bills. It’s just what we have. You are blessed with no ugly radiators on walls. Furniture is placed where you want it. We do have two fireplaces but we don’t need them. They were just in the house but do look great when lit. I would say go for it. Works best with engineered wood, stone or ceramic.

My Dad has it in his conservatory and it stopped working years ago. My Mum also had it in her house but in the kitchen and that stopped working too

Basically, if it stops working it can be very awkward to get to

We too have a highly insulated house.

We had electric underfloor heating put in our old house when we had an extension. We didn't research it properly and although it was lovely, it was also astronomically expensive to run!

We have a wet system on our downstairs, we got it installed as we had a side return extension and so it made sense as we were getting rid of a load of internal walls and had a few very small rooms. Not having to make space for a radiator on a wall is one of the best benefits, it's such a shame when people have extensions and then fill it with radiators, it looks awful! I love the kind of heat it creates, we have it with a tado system so it provides heat when you need it. It retains the heat beautifully in the day, too, so you don't need the heating on but it's just warm all day downstairs compared to our upstairs rooms. We are moving and will be doing it to the next house too when we renovate.

A wet system should be much more efficient than radiators because the wider surface area means the water in the system does not need to be heated as much - so saves energy.

You need to use that right flooring with it - tile, stone etc also hold onto the heat well and so stay warm after if is turned off.

Electric underfloor heating is a totally different beast and can be very expensive.

@mojomoon

I don't think it's true that UFH uses less energy.

A house with X insulation, maintained at Y degrees warmer than the world outside, will lose Z amount of heat per hour.

The walls, windows and roof don't know what source is used to heat the house, and it does not affect their ability to let it escape.

And when you have a concrete or stone floor, yes, it takes longer to cool down; but equally, it takes longer to heat up. it doesn't manufacture extra energy, it's just a thermal lag.

Our electric UFH was a disaster. Very expensive and hard to get the air warm if that makes sense. Also very hard to access to trouble shoot. Gave up in the end, never again. But if I did, only with a wet system, properly installed.

We have one in our 4 bed home. New build 2 year old house with good insulation.
We also have the air to water system so maybe like previous posters we have a wet system. Upstairs we have rads. The floor is just normal not hot or cold just normal temp, you don't feel the heat just nice temp.
Downstairs thermostat is set to 18 degrees and upstairs is 16 throughout the winter. It is left on and never turned off until mid-late March when the hearing is off. We have induction cooker so everything is electric and in the winter bill is around €200/every two months. During Christmas with lights and decorations closer to €300-350. We have small children and 10kg wash twice a week and dryer occasionally no dishwasher. Service every 12-18 months.

I should add with DH working from home since March the electricity bill has increased.

Our wet UFH is really good. Worth every penny.

It keeps the entire ground floor pleasantly warm. There are no cold patches.

We've had it for 4 years - haven't seen any noticeable impact on bills.

We have tiles and a thick screed. Once it's warmed up it stays nice without being too hot. We adjust it once (temperature and timings) for summer and again for autumn/winter and it stays good.

Someone said to me that you can't insure UFH on your normal home insurance. Is that true? And anyone know how easy / difficult it is to fix faults?

On the whole brilliant. Very bad if you like to have a real Christmas tree though as the under floor heating will kill it.

Wouldn't be without it.

Have had wet UFH in two homes - (1) a poorly insulated new build overseas, running on gas and (2) a rural farmhouse with single-glazed windows running on a ground source heat pump (GSHP).

The best thing is the ambience UFH gives - no cold spots (if properly specified/installed) and none of the draughts that often arise with radiators relying on convection.

It's true that our UFH takes a couple of days to bring the house up to temperature (but we have wood-burning stoves that give spot heat in our living rooms).

The best combination would be a heat-pump, UFH and great insulation, because the HP is not designed to heat water to radiator temperatures and therefore works best with UFH. Even in our relatively poorly insulated (solid stone walls) house the bills are certainly lower than they would be with oil boiler / radiators.

If we ever buy another house, UFH will be very high up our list of desired features.

Thanks.

Well it’s definitely good for thought!

Does anyone have it with engineered wood flooring? Does it still give off enough heat? I really don't want tiles if I can avoid them (too hard and stuff smashes when dropped - or the tile does! )but I don't want to pay lots for beautiful flooring that I can't feel my wet UFH system through!

Any recommendations for particular wet systems v welcome too.

Yeah we have engineered oak, works really well. We replaced real wood floorboards with it and loved how different it was - it was so draughty before, you could feel cold air move over your feet when you were standing on it.

Ours is under stone flooring downstairs and regular oak floorboards upstairs. Engineered oak is lower risk. The Nu-Heat website (the system we have) gives lots of useful info about installation with wooden floors.

Thanks both. I read that everywhere that stone and tile are the best conductors of heat, with engineered wood coming a distant third in those terms, but I so much prefer it for aesthetics/feel/smashability!

Yeah it's nice but 5 years on the engineered oak in our kitchen / diner is becoming a bit shabby from wedged in dirt and places it's got a bit of oil splashed on it, I don't think it's as long lasting in a kitchen as tile and I don't think I'd have it again as it'd be a pain to swap out around fixed kitchen cabinets.

Yes...we had a large extension done and had it all fitted with wet UFH connected to the main central heating system. Honestly it is fabulous. The heat is so much more gentle and balanced than the umph you get from radiators.

The controller is very sensitive and keeps the temp to within 1/2 degree to that set. You have to have in sewerage timing as you need it coming in earlier than radiators, but equally ours goes off at 6pm as the room stays at the same temp until at least midnight.

Apparently it is 25% cheaper than conventional radiators...don't know why but our heating bill has changed very little despite the new build.

We have 18mm laminate and it works fine through it.

The only thing I don't like is the warmth on my feet....just personal dislike that's all.

You do need a professional underfloor heating engineer. Not all plumbers are.

I love the warmth of the floor on my feet - but not as much as our cats love it... You can tell which way the pipes run from how they lie face down on it!😻