Underfloor heating yay or nay?

[pepinanalilyplant]

Looking at new house to move to and have found one we love. It has downstairs underfloor heating which DH is completely against based on one bad past experience.

Anyone with underfloor heating how has it been over the years? Any issues?

Thank you.

We lived with ufh in both bathrooms at our old house. No problems. They had been fitted as part of alterations.
Theoretically it should work out well if you have Solar panels on your roof. I wonder if it does.

If it's electric then it's expensive to run, like all electric heating (I unfortunately live in an area without gas).

I'd ask about their energy bills. Speaking to a friend in a beautiful newish build which has electric underfloor heating and an air source heat pump. In this weather it is costing her up to £20 a day to run so I'd want to know about the costs associated (quality of the insulation likely to be the big factor here).

No, electric underfloor heating is horrendous in comparison to a a properly installed wet (heat exchanger, gas or even oil) system.

I have solar panels. In summer, they make a useful amount of electricity between 9.30am and 4pm

In winter, when you want heating, next to nothing.

I’ve got a large area of electric ufh it’s never on after I got that first bill. Wet is cheaper though.

We have a wet system, from all the research I've done it seems to be better. It's cheaper to heat the house than it is with radiators, I've saved about 10% on the gas bill in 2024 compared to 2023.

Electric - Nay (except for small infrequently used areas such as bathrooms).

Wet - Yay (provided properly specified / installed) and you appreciate how it is intended to be used. We have it throughout our house (with a GSHP), and in our cottages powered by oil boiler.

We have wet ufh in the extension and it works well. I love that my boots get dry quickly when I leave them in there! It was fine with gas; now fine with heat pump. Ufh is ideal with heat pumps as, with such a large area, none of it needs to be especially hot, making the heat pump super economical to run.

Yes. Have it throughout ground floor. No need to use radiators upstairs as heat from downstairs rises.

My underfloor heating is expensive to run.

I’d say it can work well with a stone tiled floor. With a wooden floor, not so much.

That's interesting, is the difference really noticable? Can I ask if you just moved houses or changed flooring in same house?

Bloody hell, how big is her house?! I live in a 2 bed newbuild with a heat pump and UFH, and my electricity bill (all electric) is about £1100 per annum!

(Caveat: my heating is only set to 18. And I live in one of the warmest parts of the country).

If it’s wet u/f heating, then yes.
if it’s electric u/f heating then no. It’ll cost a kings ransom to run.

1. Wood is not a great conductor of heat. It’s why metal cooking utensils sometimes have wooden handles.
2. You have to limit the temperature of the wooden floor to 26°C maximum or risk damage to the wood. You can go higher with stone tiles.
3. The cat prefers to curl up on the heated tiled floor to the wooden one.

Sorry, the maximum you can heat a wooden floor to is 27°C not 26°C. I misremembered. Doesn’t make a lot of difference, though.

We have UFH across all three floors of our house with an ASHP - it's amazing. Our house is SO warm and our heating bills are tiny. Go for it!

Love it. No radiators in the way, makes the whole house feel pleasant rather than hotspots. I can't speak for cost effectiveness or maintainence issues as it was my parents house and powered with a ground source heat pump, but it's lovely to live with.

As for your second question, we renovated our house a few years ago to make it more open plan and there’s a kitchen area where the stone floor is adjacent to the wooden floor. The stone floor always feels noticeably warmer than the wood. If I could do my time again, I’d have stuck to radiators.

We had electric underfloor heating in a small extension - it was useless and very expensive to run. Never again,