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Original poster

Electric underfloor heating

38 replies

Mariayves · 29/11/2022 17:30

Hi mums! We just bought a house and would love to have underfloor heating on the ground floor (around 55 sqm). The property is 20 years old and reasonably well insulated.
We requested a few quotes and electric underfloor heating is not only much cheaper to install (£3000 vs £9000 for wet) but also a lot easier (our boiler and water tank are on the top floor so they would need to run pipes all the way down which would be quite a big project in terms of redecorating - we already live in the house with small kids so wouldn't really want our house to become a construction site)
I'm aware that the running costs of a wet system are much cheaper. Does it actually make sense at all to even consider installing electric UFH on such a large surface or would the bills be so high that we would just never use it? Would love to hear from others who have electric/ wet system in their homes. Also we were told that even with the electric solution we would no longer need the radiators which sounds quite optimistic... Would love to hear your advice.

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Original poster
Mariayves · 30/11/2022 23:17

bananamum13 · 29/11/2022 20:16

Interesting responses here - I have electric in my conservatory (no boiler/gas) and it's brilliant and doesn't cost much to run, and is brilliant for drying clothes in winter - loads cheaper than running a tumble dryer as well as keeping the room a comfy temperature.

How large is your conservatory and how much do you pay for the UFH?

OP posts:
junebirthdaygirl · 30/11/2022 23:32

Sorry ..what's wet? We have underfloor heating running on electricity in our whole house..upstairs and downstairs and while it's expensive it doesn't cost us any more than getting 2 fills of oil a year. Its on 24 hours a day from Oct to April but night time is half price electricity. Each room has its own thermostat so we can keep it as low as possible most places with kitchen and living room nice and warm.

jackstini · 30/11/2022 23:48

Ours is electric, only 2 out of 3 mats work now but of course we can't sort it without taking up the tiles!

Approx 45sqm costs us around £10 a day for 3-4 hours a day. We've only had it on twice this winter as our bills went up by about £3k year even on current rates

My Dad has wet system and costs about £2 day

So if you plan on having it for over 5 years, wet!

LagoMaggiore · 01/12/2022 00:32

We’ve recently moved and have saved about £10 a day by switching off the electric underfloor heating in the (not massive) kitchen. We had the wet system in our old house. No comparison!

cansu · 01/12/2022 06:39

Two bed bungalow. 600 pounds a month bill.

greenacrylicpaint · 01/12/2022 08:24

wet - pipes filled with water (usually) connected to your central heating system.

dry - electric wires that heat up (similar to the heat element of a toaster)

Freysimo · 01/12/2022 08:29

Don't do it. We had it installed in a new bathroom. Took ages to heat up (timer v complicated!) and very expensive. This was before fuel bills went up! We never use it, waste of money. Lovely and warm though if you're a millionaire.

CoffeeInTheClouds · 01/12/2022 08:42

We had an electric system installed in our conservatory, and I can't remember the last time we switched it on. It costs a fortune to run, and doesn't even take the chill off in a cold room.

We gave up on it 3 years ago when we installed a wood burner, which makes the room usable in the winter.

Rocksludge · 01/12/2022 08:57

I had it in the hall in a previous house. It was ridiculously expensive to run for very limited benefit. I would never consider electric UFH. Especially given how much more energy costs now.

Rocksludge · 01/12/2022 08:59

It really is one of those send less up front but it costs you far more in the long term.

so much so that the initial cost is largely wasted because you simply don’t use it because it would probably be cheaper to burn actual money to heat your house. 🤣

Lupinhollyhocks · 01/12/2022 10:26

You could consider heated skirting boards, which can hide electric or gas pipes. I rather like the idea, I would have installed them if my house was suitable, but I can't attest to their functionality www.discreteheat.com

Reallybadidea · 01/12/2022 10:28

You mentioned needing to run pipes down to the ground floor, so what heating do you currently have downstairs? Also, are you being quoted for digging up the ground floor if you go for wet ufh? There are low profile wet systems now that can be laid on top of existing concrete floors. You lose a tiny bit of room height but if you do it on the whole of downstairs then you won't have any difference in height between rooms, so you probably won't notice any difference.

In terms of running costs, if you put in your room sizes here www.theunderfloorheatingstore.com/room-calculator it will tell you what size mats you will need. Every kWh that you need will cost about 34p per hour when running at full pelt. Once it's up to the temperature you want them the cost per hour will be less but assuming you want to heat it up from cold twice a day will give you an idea of baseline hourly rate.

Original poster
Mariayves · 03/12/2022 22:06

Reallybadidea · 01/12/2022 10:28

You mentioned needing to run pipes down to the ground floor, so what heating do you currently have downstairs? Also, are you being quoted for digging up the ground floor if you go for wet ufh? There are low profile wet systems now that can be laid on top of existing concrete floors. You lose a tiny bit of room height but if you do it on the whole of downstairs then you won't have any difference in height between rooms, so you probably won't notice any difference.

In terms of running costs, if you put in your room sizes here www.theunderfloorheatingstore.com/room-calculator it will tell you what size mats you will need. Every kWh that you need will cost about 34p per hour when running at full pelt. Once it's up to the temperature you want them the cost per hour will be less but assuming you want to heat it up from cold twice a day will give you an idea of baseline hourly rate.

We have gas radiators downstairs but the boiler and hot water tank are on the second floor and they say they need to run pipes from there
The link is super helpful, thanks

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