Underfloor heating : how efficient ?

[oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends]

I'm thinking of buying a property with partial UF heating.
There is gas CH, but not in all rooms.
The vendors say they keep it on low & use a log burner to heat a very large lounge.
Is the UF likely to heat the room to the 22-23 c. that we want?
I do not want to use the log burner - I want fully-controllable & timed heating.

We'll be getting a Home Buyers Report, but not sure whether a surveyor will be qualified to advise on the above.

Thank you.

Wet or electric?

I don't know, does it make a difference?

How well insulated is the house?

Underfloor is absolutely delicious, but if the walls and windows are poorly insulated it is a total waste.

Thanks. It's a modern extension to a bungalow , possibly 30 years old, double glazing everywhere, EPC is C

I think I have a similar set up and tbh the underfloor heating will heat up the room up to 32 degrees if you want it but it’s £££s to run. Mines is electric and uses something like a maximum of 30kwh. Which I think is about £7 ph. Really just use it in winter to keep the chill out. Live in countryside so lots of tree fall / free wood.

I did use the underfloor heating a lot the first winter bill was eye watering and this was in 2012 so cheaper electric then too.

My ufh is electric, wet is cheaper to run so you should definitely ask which to help your decision.

Wet ufh is much cheaper, we have it in our large kitchen extension and it’s great. Electric ufh costs ££££ to run.

It makes a heck of a difference. Electricity is 4 times the price of gas, unless a heat pump is involved.

Underfloor heating can be a real pain if it goes wrong.

If it's fairly new though hopefully it's in good condition.

If you love the house but the underfloor doesn't heat how you want you could always put in different heating in there. Obviously there would be costs but adding some extra radiators to your existing radiator heating system could be an option.

We don't use our (electric) underfloor heating in our bathroom any more - as others have said, it's extremely expensive to run. I think wet would be better, but also an issue if it goes wrong...!

22/23C is quite a high temperature to heat a house. If you heat it to 20 instead your bills will be dramatically lower, regardless of the heat source.

I'll also be cold.

Just found out it's wet, so could be good news ?

Assuming it’s connected to the gas boiler, yes.

We have wet underfloor heating in our north facing kitchen and it's the warmest room in the house. It comes on 2 hours am and 2 hours pm throughout winter which is more than adequate and our bills are very reasonable.

Under floor heating makes a space more evenly warm. Heat rises so you heat up ceiling space first. Heat from the floor seems to transfer through everything so you may find that you are comfortable at a lower temp.

We recently renovated what had been a derelict property. We added as much insulation as we could and have wet, UF heating downstairs connected to the gas boiler. We do have an aga in the kitchen, but no other heating downstairs, the UF heating does it and its toasty. We have tiles throughout, with the odd rug.

What flooring does this house have?

We have wet under floor heating downstairs. Installed in 2020

Before we had conventional radiators everywhere.

When we first had it installed we noticed that we had the heating on for longer (particularly during winter) but we were paying less for our bills. From a budgeting perspective it was cheaper

Love mine. I like walking around with toasty toes!

Love my underfloor heating. You don't get cold spots in the room. However you do need a bit of an adjustment. You can't just flick it on for an hour as it takes time for the slab to heat up, better to leave it on and use a smart room thermostat to manage the temp. Once it's up to temp, it will retain it easily, provided the house is well insulated.

If they have gas heating and they are not using it it would lead me to one of two conclusions :

a) They are very tight with the heating or

b) The place is very expensive to heat.

Finding out which of these is true in advance might be hard work.

I think heating any sizable house to 22-23 is going to be pricey unless it has very good insulation, but I guess depends on whether it is in Cornwall or the centre of scotland.

The original bungalow has GCH, newish combi- boiler, & the whole house was warmish. I'm guessing the UF in the large extension is probably heated via this.
I really do not want the faff of dealing with a log burner.

Incidentally, my 3-bed semi is set at 22 C, & combined G&E is now £128 p.m. for 16 hours per day.

Thanks everyone for all your input.

Literally just been told our offer has been accepted !!!

It's got everything we want - barring the log burner.

Congrats OP- how exciting 🍾