Underfloor Heating is it worth it? We take a look

Underfloor Heating

Underfloor heating is becoming increasingly popular in the UK as more & more people realise the benefits that it can bring. In this article we aim to find out just what is underfloor heating & its various types, thadvantages of underfloorheating, & fianally the disadvantages of underfloor heating

What types of underfloor heating are there?

There are 2 different types of underfloor heating that are avaialable in the UK. These are electric underfloor heating – this is where wires are layed into the flooring screed as its being layed & is then insulated & “hooked” into the mains to provide flooring heat. This is probably one of the best ways to do underfloor heating as it doesnt require as much maintainance as a regular heating system or water driven underfloor heating system option. in fact on average this system generally only needs a maiantainance check every 10 years or so which should be carried out by a fully qualified electrician & on all electrical items to ensure full electrical safety within the home

As I said before there is however a second option this is the water driven solution that I spoke about earlier. The way that this option works is that piping (instead of wire) is layed/ plumbed into the mains & added under the floor in a coil fashion (just as with the wire option) whilst the flooring screed is being layed. This is then plumbed into the boiler (for an underfloor heating system its perferable to have a condensing boiler as these are far more effiecient for this type of operation), before the connection is made to the boiler though to complete a curcuit the system may need to go through a pump that has a higher rating than is currently installed in your heating system. This is because the back pressure from the UFH system can be much higher than in a conventional heating – your installer should be able to advise you as to what will be the best for you system being installed & your current heating system

What are the benefits of UFH?

There are many benefits to having UFH installed in your home such as:

• Better Cosmetic Design of a room
• Provide healthier living environments
• A much better safety record than a typical central heating system

UFH provides a better cosmetic design within the room, this is because ugly, unsightly radiators can be removed as they would no longer serve a purpose. Now that the radiators have been removed you will have more wall space which can be as you like, you may even choose to add a new plasma TV in that space or leave it blank. There are now limitless design ideas that you can bo with the free space you have gained

With UFH now installed your living area health would also be massively improved as well becasue there is now no breeding ground provided for microscopic nasties. A regular heating system causes warm, dampish environments behind radiators which are a breeding ground for dust & microscopic nasties. With UFH that has been correctly installed there is no breading ground available for these microscopic nasties – this will dramatically improve the health of your living rooms & of yourself particularly if you suffer from alergies

The safety record of UFH mainly comes from the fact that once installed there is little to go wrong with the system (provided that the system has been installed correctly). For a lot of people though its the child friendly aspect of UFH. UFH has an impecable safety record wher young children are concerned, this is because there is no chance of grabbing hold of scalding hot pipes or radiators.

Are there any downsides to having UFH

As with anything else there are a few downsides to havig UFH installed but these are few & pretty much limited to these below:

• UFH will take a while to warm up
• UFH can realistically only be installed in rooms that are going to have fixed furniture – such as bathroom or kitchen

Due to the way that UGH works as I have said before it can take quite a while for the flooring to heat up – this can be a bit of a bind particularly if you are in a hurry, there is though a plus side to this as well in that it take UFH a similarly long time to cool down as well after it has been switched on for some time. The length of time that it takes to warm up & cool down though does depend on the type of flooring that UFH has been installed under.

Realistically when installing UFH you need to ensure that it will be uinstalled in a room that will have fixed furniture such as a bathroom, this is because if it is installed in a room that has dynamic furniture (such as a living room) the you could inadvertantly do some dame to the furniture within that room – the wooden furniture inparticular could beome damp & suffer from rot. Ideally UFH should also be installed only on vancant floor space such as the space between a bath & sink or space that wouldnt have furniture build on it