Underfloor Heating - Opinions?

Hello,

We are planning to get an entire flat tiled, and have under floor heating beneath. Can we then get rid of the conventional radiators? i.e. Is the heat generated comparable, or better than the conventional radiators? Or does it just keep your feet warm!

Also, is tiling living areas common these days? i.e. Anyone out there doing / considering doing it?

Would any of you prefer to live in a flat that has a tiled, under floor heated throughout as opposed to carpeted or even wooden floor?

Opnions of any kind welcome!

YES ! Yes ! and em' Yeeeesss !!! :-)) LOL

It seems to be fairly common in Germany, a son and family who were posted there were enthusiastic about it and have tiled the English houses they've lived in since they came back.

I wouldn't. I hate having hot feet. At the end of a day when I've been in such a building I feel drained. It's a personal opinion.

Plain wooden floors with central or or gas or other fire heating would be my choice. Tiles don't give anything you drop a chance and carpets have Things living in them. Well, they did here.

Mary

Your choices would be electric unter-tile heating or a wet UFH system driven off your boiler. The first is cheap to install and expensive to run, the latter ... well, you've guessed it :-)

If the flat is small and well draughtproofed and insulated however, the electric option may still be worthwhile. E.g. if you can get your heatloss down to 2 or 3 kW worst case (google 'heatloss') and had some reasonably intelligent controls (e.g. sensor driving the system predictively from the outside temperature) the economics might still favour the electric system over a wet/gas-fired one for any realistic payback period for the higher cost of the latter.

I'd prefer UFH any day. Contra what Mary says proper UFH shouldn't give you hot feet but make the room just feel comfortable, unlike 'radiator' heating which tends to give you a warm head and cold feet which feels stuffy and is (for some people) conducive to headaches. I've UFHed my kitchen in a cheap'n'nasty way with pipework under the floor but no spreading of the heat and walking on it in bare feet there are patches that are distinctly warm, others distinctly cold, and others that are just right (this is with ceramic tiles).

-- John Stumbles

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-+ Bob the builder / it'll cost yer Bob the builder / loadsa dosh

I think the secret is insulation. If the floor has to get so hot as to be noticeably hot, rather than just warm like a floor in the sun in summer, then you are losing too much heat anyway.

Yes. getting even heat menas taking care at design and installation stages.

My kitchen UFH (currently off becase warm winter and aga makes it not needed) deliberately left sections, where units were going, unheated. You can tell the difference allright, as you can in the passageway where loads of pipes runn off to other rooms.

I may be a strange person, but I do not *like* walking in stockinged or bare feet, only to feel the floor warm beneath. It just doesn't seem natural. I don't like standing at the sink in the bathroom having a shave with the floor beneath my feet curiously warm. Tiles are supposed to be icy cold, and if I decide to stand on them, I'll just slip into my slippers!

So, no, I would not recommend underfloor heating.

MM

Quite.

It's not a matter of the tiles being hot, it's the efft on the body which matters.

And I don't shave ...

Mary

Sorry to come in late on this one. You may need to check the terms of your lease. You are frequently required to fit carpet, for soundproofing.

Christian.