Advice on heating system to use in renovated kitchen

[danieljamesscott]

Hi,

I'm planning a kitchen renovation, and are looking at different heating systems.

The kitchen is in a 1980s extension to the original building, and has a concrete floor. It is currently heated via an electric plinth fan heater, and is open plan to the living room, so gets some heat from the log burner.

I'm are considering the following options, I'd love to know the advantages/disadvantages of each, and if there are other options which I haven't thought of. There's not really room for traditional radiators, but there is plumbing easily accessible.

• 1. Plumbed in radiators under the new cabinets
  2. Plumbed in under floor heating (I've found 'retrofit' systems which are only 15mm thick, and appear suitable for my requirements)
  3. Electric underfloor heating

The electric system would be easier to install, and be thinner than a plumbed in system, but have higher running costs, right? I'm leaning towards a plumbed in system, because it will keep things simpler overall, but I'd like to know if the retrofit systems are any good.

I don't think that (edit) that I should go for (/edit) a full plumbed in system. These are around 50mm thick, right? I think that the expense/disruption of installing that would be too much.

Thanks for the help,

Dan

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Have you looked at these? http://www.myson.co.uk/products/kickspace.asp

 

[danieljamesscott]

Not specifically, but they are what I was thinking of by 'plumbed in radiators under the new cabinets'.

The biggest current problem is that the floor is very cold, which is why I'm leaning towards under floor heating. Would these plinth heaters heat the floor?

Thanks for the reply,

Dan

 

[Madrab]

As the floor is concrete then it will take a fair amount of heat to warm it's mass up so it doesn't 'feel' cold.

What covering is on the concrete?

 

[danieljamesscott]

At the moment, there are some sort of vinyl tiles. But we're looking to replace those.

I'm guessing that vinyl or laminate would be warmer, but I think the mrs is set on stone tiles....

 

[Madrab]

Stone tiles and a concrete floor will take a lot of electricity to warm it up to acceptable levels and then keep it there I would think if Electric UFH was used.

Plinth heaters would be hard pushed to warm the floor too as the ambient temp would need to be constant for a long period to heat that mass.

Do you have a wet CH system as well as the log burner? If so have you thought about an UFH zone from that?

 

[danieljamesscott]

Hi,

Yep, that was what I was thinking. Option 2 above. I was wondering if anyone had experience of these retrofit systems. There are central heating flow/return pipes accessible in the kitchen so plumbing probably wouldn't be a problem.

I was thinking that a 'traditional' wet UFH system would be a lot of disruption and quite expensive if we'd have to channel out the floor for the pipes. So, I was wondering if the retrofit systems are OK?

Thanks,

Dan