Underfloor heating in kitchen and bathroom - anyone got it and would you recommend.....

[MadameGazelle]

Currently replacing kitchen and bathroom and am pricing up underfloor heating to run through kitchen, into back porch and in bathroom, a few people I have mentioned it to say the costs to run are ridiculous, so just wanted to hear from anyone who had this and if it was worthwhile installing. I will be having a small radiator in the kitchen and a chrome wall mounted towel ladder in the bathroom so underfloor heating won't be the only method if heating - just really to use in the morning and evenings. TIA

@wilbur - i agree in essence, but its cheaper to install an electric system and in the case of the original poster its not always possible to dig the exsting floor out to accomodate the water pipes versus an electric system that requires very little floro build up making perfect for retro-fitting and renovation projects. But to get back to the original question - yes we have it, we use it as primary heating (no radiaters in the room) and we love it - we couldnt have water because we wasnt prepaird to dig up the floors.

We have electric in our bathroom,and it's fab. We also have it in our utility room which is great for keeping a constant temp (and drying dogs and clothes) and under oak engineered boards in sitting room.

In the sitting room we use it to get the room to 18 degrees, then have a wood burner for the rest - there are no radiators in there as it's a converted forge and we wanted the wall space.

All of it we installed ourselves, just using an electrician to wire up at the end. We were told that the water systems were more expensive to install, but cheaper to run, while the electric was cheaper to install, and more expensive to run.

We haven't noticed a huge leap in our bills, but we don't have the house especially hot. I would never have a bathroom without it again - warm tiles are bliss!

has anyone out there added a wet underfloor system to their existing radiators eg when putting in a conservatory? my last (self build) had wet underfloor throughout and it was brilliant - cost peanuts to run and was pretty responsive too I thought. We had thermostats and timers in every room. Oh how i miss it!

Have been looking at this with interest - we are going to do a large extension and have wet underfloor through most of the ground floor.

We are going to end up with new bathroom and new en suite, I guess you don't have wet underfloor upstairs its all electric? Anyone know?

We have warmup heating under tiles in our kitchen (plumbed stuff not an option as the ceiling is too low as it is) and it is wonderful - you have no idea how much difference having a warm floor makes. When/if we manage to find the money to re-do our hideous bathroom it will almost certainly have the same but under engineered wood flooring (the bathroom-safe stuff) as the house 'flexes' too much for ceramic tiles upstairs.

If I were building from scratch I would have the 'wet' stuff throughout - a friend basically re-built her house herself (single-handed ) and laid it under all the floorboards - her house is toasty warm with no radiators and very reasonable running costs.

So you can have the wet stuff upstairs eh...

Interesting thank you

We have electric underfloor heating in our kitchen. We have just had a ridiculously high gas and electricity bill! First one in new (old) house. We bought an "OWL" and the underfloor heating takes our electricity costs up from a background (few lights on, middle of the day, some things on standby) cost of about 2.5 - 5p per hour to 40p per hour. So it costs about 35p per hour for us! When we first moved we had it on about 6 hours a day. Over a month that is £60 approx!! So now we are wearing slippers!! It was lovely though and I wish we had it in the bathroom instead as you don't wear slippers in a bathroom and you can in a kitchen!!

Cripes that's scary.

• although actually since the thermostat failed ours is on a regulator which 'time slices' (so it is on for, for example, 3 out of 10 time intervals IYSWIM) so we are 100% in control of how much power it uses. Electric underfloor heating should never be the sole source of heating in a room, either - doing anything more than taking the chill off the floor would be very expensive.

V useful thread, should have read it before posting new one!

Does anyone know if plumbed underfloor heating under engineered wood boards works well? We have solid oak in the rest of the downstairs, and are building an extension at the back...its north facing and lots of glazing, so heat is extra important.

One heating engineer we've spoken to tutted and shook his head, saying lots of people end up freezing and need radiators as well - or even a wood burning stove

My understanding is that engineered wood works just fine with UFH, from the point of view of it not warping or anything, the manufacturer would be able to tell you though.

Don't know how quick it would heat up though.

We are probably getting amtico flooring which I think will warm up pretty quickly.

The biggest issue, as I understand it, is whether your boiler has enough oomph to run it (ours doesn't, even if digging up a floor were an option ) - I would imagine it would heat up quicker than tiles, though (and probably cool down quicker as well)

Heating engineers are born pessimists, IME.

Yes, thats my understanding too. Just think it might be isolating to let heat up effectively? Should ask a flooring company, yo'ure right.

x post, stealth - I would have thought that, but apparently wood is a great isolater? Anyway, hope you're right: this engineer is obsessed with boilers (its all he ever talks about ) and thinks ours has the oomph. Its just extensions he has a thing about - though to be fair, he just fitted a wood burning stove for some people in a nearby road whose extension still wasn't warm with underfloor AND rads. Eek.

Thats very reassuring! Thanks.