Apologies for raising this venerable topic again but I do have a specific question which I can't find answered elsewhere.
As I understand it, underfloor heating is a slow-response approach: good for maintaining an even temperature over a long time but poor at rapidly heating up a cold environment. But I've read in a couple of places that recent developments in design have made it much more responsive much more quickly.
Is that actually the case?
Many thanks.
It really depends.
In screed has a huge mass to get warm before it really gets going.
Conversely it stays warm all night....
Under floorboards in the void is far less thermal mass.
Thanks for the speedy reply. The flooring at present is T&G boards over a deep (3ft, I think) void, so heat-up times might not be too bad.
I asked the question because I'm planning an extensive renovation and extension to my sixties semi-detached bungalow, currently heated with conventional radiators and an open-flame gas fire. The property is almost completely open-plan with only the bathroom as a separate room, and this arrangement will be kept for the extension and the new first floor.
I need a system which can regularly and quickly heat up the whole of the house from cold: even in warm weather the internal temperature can drop rapidly in the evenings. But because the drop can be unpredictable I don't run the present system on a timer: I use a master wall-mounted thermostat to switch the heating on when it's needed and to adjust it thereafter.
I like the idea of doing away with the wall-occupying radiators but I'm not sure that UFH is really ideal for my needs.
IF you have a huge screed with in-screed pipework heating it, it wont drop like a stone in the evenings!
Arte you in the house all day?
What is the wall construction?
What is the floor construction?
I am not sure what your needs really are. See above.
If you have blockwork wall, are in the house all day and have or would be happy to install an INSULATED solid floor, UFH would suit very well BUT you need at least 3" of screed over at least 3" of insulation to do an inscreed floor.
Similar insulation with pipes under a chip or ply floor will work too.
Mounting UFH in aluminium heat spreader plates under the floorboards is quite common in upstairs rooms. We have those. There is no reason why you couldn't do the same downstairs laying them on top of something like kingspan to stop heat loss downwards. However, the lower water temperature will still give you slower heat up times compared with radiators.
Use a predictive controller such as those shown here :-
The only system which will heat up a large space quickly is warm air. UFH most certainly won't, and will be expensive to run (if on electricity) or expensive to install (if using hot water circulation). You could, of course, use it for background heating and then use fan heaters to bring it up to a comfortable temperature.
It seems to be hated by everyone else, but I love warm-air CH, and if fired by gas, is no more expensive than radiators (and a lot less expensive to service, as all it needs is a quick vacuum of the filter now and again). If you are flush with money you could include a cooling system (ie air-conditioning) with it. In any case, it is much easier to fit in a bungalow than in a house with two or more storeys.
Why does the temperature fall so rapidly in the evenings in your bungalow? With decent cavity-wall insulation and good insulation in the loft the temperature shouldn't fall that rapidly as there is no loss of warm air by convection upstairs. We have around 20 cm of insulation in our bungalow loft, and cavity-wall insulation (which is old and probably not very good), and the temperature doesn't fall rapidly even in winter with a gale blowing outside.
Much depends on how its installed. If its on top of a significant layer of insulation, and not covered by a particularly insulating floor covering, then it will be far more responsive than if installed for example under a concrete slab.
We have been looking at houses to buy for many months. Some of the otherwise fairly attractive houses we looked at (on paper/screen) were rejected because they had underfloor heating. Some people just cannot cope with underfloor heating and would actually rather have underfloor cooling, if anything, much of the year.
(It is different if the house can sensibly be heated by other means, so an electric bathroom floor you can just switch off would not have been a deal-killer. But when the whole place is designed for it, changing to another heating system can be awkward.)
Weir-Mitchell disease
It remains my favourite heating system of all time. Hot air second
I have experienced underfloor heating in a few places. For myself, maybe, but with a partner who suffers, then absolutely no way.
We now see "disabled" facilities everywhere, such as flat access, WCs large enough for wheelchairs, etc. Some people are effectively barred from places with underfloor heating. The thought of it becoming more widespread is not pleasant.
I have never experienced even vaguely satisfactory warmed air heating.
In what way does your partner (and other users) suffer with underfloor heating?
Severe pain in feet and legs. Seems to be moving up and also affecting hands a bit. There are quite a number of videos - mostly poorly presented/filmed or very individual. This is better than many:
Why?
I am at a loss to understand your bigotry
Never been to a supermarket?
WTF has that to do with underfloor heating?
Because warm floors cause the flares which are so painful. I have witnessed it many times in seemingly trivial situations such as where a hot water pipe runs under a floor. Or walking on paving that has warmed up in the sun. Not talking about barefoot on scorched ground - just spring or autumn slight warmth.
The best floor for it is probably cool ceramic.
Perhaps you had better install underfloor refrigeration then
And forget about heating the house.
Ah I see, thanks for the explanation. Seems to be quite a small but significant number of people affected.
I did come across UF heating as a potential issue when I used to be involved with sheltered housing, but we could never identify any tangible association, and from what little I understood at the time, likely problems could be avoided/designed out in most (but obviously not all) cases.
Which is what I said. But that can be problematical with respect to condensation, etc.
Official figures seem to be around 1:400,000 - sometimes I think it is much higher, but often not diagnosed. Partner was only diagnosed after telling her GP that was what it was. Followed by appointments with several specialists who were of no help whatsoever. Eventually being diagnosed by a dermatologist. (Actually, about 30 of them. She was asked to attend a training session where they all came in prodded, looked, asked questions and went off for a discussion. Unanimous.) Dermatology is the specialty that diagnoses - but they have no idea whatsoever about treatment.
Surely that would need it to be very much hotter so any flooring material would need to be ok with this as would peoples bare feet! Brian
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