Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

The truth about electric under floor heating?

74 replies

sluj · 20/01/2022 18:05

I need to make a quick decision, do we bother or not? It's for a new 25m2 kitchen / diner extension. We can't have one connected to the central heating as our boiler barely copes as it is due to weird layout of the house. There are 2 radiators but they are suffering from the poor CH too.
I like the idea of UFH but I am worried I will need to have it on very early and all day and it will cost me a fortune.
Can anyone offer an opinion please?
The alternative is a high wattage plinth heater for a speedy warm up in the morning but I will ask for opinions on them in another thread.
Thank you

OP posts:

JangolinaPitt · 20/01/2022 19:13

We’ve had it for 21yrers in the kitchen and bathrooms snd so far has never gone wrong and is lovely to walk on but I have it now switched off in the kitchen. As it is do expensive. Love it in the bathrooms. Am moving soon snd will definitely put it on the bathrooms.

jackstini · 20/01/2022 19:13

We have electric UFH and wouldn't do it again
It is expensive and 1/3 of it is broken and we can't fix it without ripping the tiles up

My Dad has water UFH and would 100% have this. It's lovely, easy to control and much cheaper

Is your boiler new or needing an upgrade anyway? Could be more efficient?

Invasionofthegutsnatchers · 20/01/2022 19:28

Surely if you have good slippers eg Ugg you don't need it?

Original poster

sluj · 20/01/2022 19:30

I think you have persuaded me not to have it. Thank you.
@foggygreyday - what make are your plinth heaters. Are they programmable?

OP posts:

foggygreyday · 20/01/2022 19:39

They're attached to the central heating so they come on with that, and the fans can be off, low or high. Our room is 5 x 7.5 meters, the kitchen is at one end diner at the other. The radiators are at the diner end as no wall space in the kitchen end, so in order for the plinth heaters to really kick out the heat to warm the room they have to be on fan high, which is just an annoying noisy fan noise. Once room to temperature I turn the fans off.
I wish I'd ignored the plumber, took out a loan and got the wet UFH, as now we've not had it, I've realised there will never be a time in the future when we'll dig out the floor and put it in. Especially now my posh new kitchen is in!

BFPDec21 · 20/01/2022 19:41

@slujs UFH can cost a lot to run if you're putting it in a large area. It can take several hours to warm up and feel the benefit, it does not work like CH. So if you're putting it on a timer, it's best to remember that it'll be warming hours after you set it to come on.

@DoorMatCat Not necessarily installed badly, it can be installed on a loop system which doesn't cover every square inch. As it's purpose is to heat the room itself, it may not cover every small area under foot but there should be residual heat covering most of the floor.

Cheshiresun · 20/01/2022 19:55

We have this in the kitchen/family room. It's on its own thermostat. Don't find it any more expensive then regular radiators and it doesn't need to be on much at all, the floor keeps warm for ages.

DSGR · 20/01/2022 22:09

We have wet ufh and absolutely love it!

Thoosa · 20/01/2022 22:24

No idea but might need to know soon so I’ll follow.

I was vaguely hoping I could use a ground source pump thingy for the extension, separate from the rest of the house.

Hairyfriend · 20/01/2022 22:28

Do you have mains gas? Could a gas boiler/UFH be an option instead?

Janedownourlane · 20/01/2022 22:45

We had it and I found the heat radiating under my feet very umcomfortable, especially being menopausal! Couldnt get away from it! I always had to sit with my feet up!
Ours took ages to heat up and ages to cool down, plus it was always too hot even on the lowest setting.
The previous owner had installed it himself and I was always worried that it would leak and I used to be always looking at the boiler to check if the pressure was dropping. We were also warned about using rugs and creating hot spots.
I know some people love it, it just wasnt right for me.

vera16 · 20/01/2022 22:49

I would only get WFH for a big area like that. It is very nice to have. Upgrade boiler?

AuntyBumBum · 20/01/2022 22:57

Any form of electric heating (including plinth heaters) is expensive - four times the cost or gas to produce the same amount of heat. On cold mornings we light all five burners on our gas cooker when we come down and leave them all blasting on high for five mins. In that time the place turns into a sauna

JackyinaTracky · 20/01/2022 23:20

Are you planning to replace the boiler at some point? If you are is it possible to lay the pipes for wet UFH but only hook it up when you get a new boiler?

PigletJohn · 20/01/2022 23:29

Electric UFH is very popular with cats and people who don't have to pay the bill.

It is quite common for homeowners to switch it off the day they get the first winter bill and never use it again.

Energy from electricity costs four or five times as much as energy from gas.

Mumblechum0 · 20/01/2022 23:34

We have similarly crap CH and have just installed electric vertical radiators similar to these. Very toasty.www.bestheating.com/radiators/shop-by-brand/milano/windsor.html

JustJam4Tea · 21/01/2022 07:14

We have electric underfloor heating in our 2 normal sized bathrooms, it’s on for an hour in the morning and it’s lovely and doesn’t add much to the bills.

No way would I have it in a big area. We had wet underfloor heating put in new big extension, It’s lovely and not v expensive to run (just normally expensive for oil these days).

Can you put insulation on walls in kitchen, block droughts, plinth heater…

JustJam4Tea · 21/01/2022 07:15

If you can get wet underfloor heating, do. Do you need a new boiler?

Iamtheweedonkey · 21/01/2022 07:19

We have ufh, it is run off the boiler and has its own manifold. We upgraded the boiler, which tbh was a cheaper long term alternative. Ours takes roughly 6 hours to warm up from off. We have a thermostat, so in the winter it's on a constant 18 degrees. I love it and I wished I had the rest of my extension done.

SW1amp · 21/01/2022 07:22

We have it in addition to radiators

It’s not powerful enough to heat the room but it’s nice to take the chill out of the tiles

We’ve got a smart meter so I can see how much it costs to run when we turn it on, and it’s not crazy. But it’s obviously just a nice to have rather than being part of tjr heating

When we had the builders quotes, it was going to be an extra £3-5k to install wet underfloor heating, so I justify running the electric one by how many times it can be on before I hit the £3k installation cost…

MsMeNz · 21/01/2022 07:23

I actually did some some calculations recently outs was costing £76 a month to run 8 hours a day, as the new prices go up next month it's going to cost me 136 a month to run 8 hours a day. It is insane just to heat out small extension. I wouldn't recommend. We will be using ours for 2 hour first thing to boost the heat then that is it

Heronwatcher · 21/01/2022 07:25

We love ours. Yes it’s more expensive than radiators running off the boiler but you’re not doing that anyway? No way would I put up with plinth heaters in a nice new kitchen, they will also be really expensive and are noisy and inefficient. I’d either do the under floor heating and use it wisely or upgrade the boiler and put radiators in. We had ours in our previous house for 10 years and it never broke.

trumpisagit · 21/01/2022 07:30

Have you looked into upgrading your boiler? Probably better in the long run.

gogohm · 21/01/2022 07:37

I would replace your boiler instead, you need a larger capacity

Original poster

sluj · 21/01/2022 08:26

@trumpisagit

Have you looked into upgrading your boiler? Probably better in the long run.

The boiler is fine, it's quite new but it's up on the top floor feeding microbore pipes 3.5 floors below. We can't contemplate repiping the whole house so we are looking for supplementary heating down in the new kitchen

OP posts:

Flip

1 2 3