I'm about to buy a new carpet for a new house with electric underfloor heating. Am I restricted to looking at thin carpets and underlay? Or does underfloor heating work reasonably well with most carpets?
thanks,
James
The instructions that came with our electric UFH (which I've just fitted under tiles) say this:
"Carpets While it is possible to use carpets with an underfloor heating system they often absorb too much heat to be very effective. The Tog value of the carpet and underlay must be less than 1.5. If you wish to use carpets with any of our cables, please contact us and we will be happy to advise you of the best options."
It would be worth contacting the manufacturerd of your UFH - the answer will largely depend on the output of the cable.
The cables will heat up, the heat must go somewhere, if the carpet is insulationg, more heat will go into the floor. If the whole thing is very insulating the cables must surley switch themselves off as they will get hot, but the heat won't go to wharming the room.
A heavy insulating carpet, can't be much good for the system, it would be like putting your electric fire under a duvet to wharm the bedroom.
Rick
Reasonably is the key. Carpets are good insulators and so is underlay, but if the job has been done properly there will be a lot of insulation under the UFH anyway, to reduce heat loss downrwads.
In practice, to get the same heating effect, the floor has to run hotter. That doesn't necessarily mean it uses more fuel tho. To get teh same heat 'loss' through underlay and carpet menas using higher floor temps that's all.
I've got 5mm of plastic foam and 8mm of wood lamintae over mine. Not so good as a tiled floor, but good enough.
Agreed you don't want shag pile and an inch of foam underlay, but something like a hair cord on thin underlay should be OK I reckon.
What is important is the overall Tog rating ... which you want to keep as low as possible to allow heat through.
Rick
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