I am wondering if anyone can help me here. I am currently thinking of installing underfloor heating both in my kitchen/dinning and bathroom.
The bathroom is on existing floor (wooden) and will have ceramic tiles on the top. I know that I will need some concrete based boards down on the floor first before the heating and then tiles go on.
The kitchen will have the same for the cooking area, but the rest of the floor will have a new wooden floor on the top of the existing floor (all wooden).
I want to have underfloor heating on all of this, but can not work out which system would be the best. I would say that I may need a different systems for the wooden and tiles. I think I will be going for an electric system. I would like to do it on a tight budget.
What I want to know is which system/make I should buy.
There are also electrically heated water systems which is, in my honest opinion, easier to install as the water pipes don't need to have heat resistant shielding between them and the combustible materials in the floor structure.
It's amazing how much heat you can get from a small water cylinder and 6 KWatt of dedicated electric heating.
The object of less materials also means less cost and simplest installation.
Electric is OK, but it cos a lot to run - cheap to install though.
If possible go for piped hot water, but there are issues to do with maximum conductivity upwards and minimum downwards to get best efficiency - as with any UFH system.
You don't need to underlay with concrete: You need to underlay with insulation.
UFH is a very simple concept. You use the whole floor area as a low temperature radiator.
There are two practical ways (ignoring hot air) to heat the floor hot - a matrix of pipes, or heating wire.
Efficiency is, if you like, the ratio of the heat going upwards to the total heat supplied, with the 'losses' going downwards. In upstairs spaces this is not lost heat, but heats the room downstairs :-)
In ground floor rooms it creates saunas for moles, which unless you are an animal lover, is not desirable.
Hence insulate under, and maximize upwards conductivity.
The rest of the BASIC practical issues are to do with how hot you have to get the floor - especially the floor INTERIOR - to get the required upwards heat transfer. Running under floor spaces or screeds at 60C is not advisable as most structures will degrade at this temperature, so its always a bit of a compromise between total output, and maximum allowable floor temperature.
The less basic issues are about thermal inertia (delay) and control systems.
Have a look at
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before you decide on electric. Wet is not beyond the DIY installer and it will be cheaper on fuel - at least until a nuclear britain emerges out of the stone age :-) Polyplumb sell a lot f bits to make installation relatively painless, burt not all are necessary - the manifolds and pump circuits probably are - you do really need to drop water temp in UFH - but the pre-made polystyrene insulation is not. Slabs of celotex under wood flooring with pipes located on top somehow are really all you need.
I think if I were doing a UFH system in an under floor space, that is what I would do - lift the floor, add celotex sheets, and then somehow lay pipes on top of that. Probably very simply located with sheets of celotex alongside (or polystyrene foam) and a bit of an air gap above to allow hot air to circulate under the wood and reduce 'hot spots'.
Once you have gone to all that hassle, its not SUCH a big deal to lay plastic pipe back to a UFH module and run it wet, though cables are still a possibility.
Not KEE tripple tube, oh it works fine, but after 10 years the tube split, the guarentee was useless. The guy that offers the guarentte is retired, without a phone or postal address, he owns all the names, but does not make / sell the product.
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