Electric UFH overheating and wooden damaged

[vessy1]

A builder has installed electric (cable not mat) UFH in a screed floor in 2 bedrooms. The UFH heating in each room is independent. The floor is wooden laminate from Ikea and is suitable for UFH. The thermostats have been set at 22°. One room is barely heating and the other room is overheating as a result the floor is very hot to touch (the heat hits you as you walk in the room) and the wooden flooring has shrunk and has resulted in gaps throughout the room.

Our builder has told us there is nothing wrong with the UFH , he has changed the thermostats. But we cannot understand why there is such a huge difference in temperature between the 2 rooms when the installation is identical. He has told us to lower the thermostat in the room that is heating excessively but this doesnt seem right, we would have to set it at near 15° to produce an ambient temperature.

Does anyone know why this might happen? Could something be broken?

Many thanks[/u]

 

[DP]

Check if probe sensors are crossed over i.e. the room that is not heating or poorly heated is powering the other room UF element.

 

[Agile]

The heat output is obviously too high in the hot room and too low in the cold room.

The room stat settings are not directly relevant.

The output should be about 100 W per m².

You need to measure the power input. that could be by measauring the curent taken or at the electricity meter if you can disconnect everything else. Either will need some knowledge or advice from here or the electrical forum.

The indication is that he has done something very wrong! ( That translates to "expensive to correct" ) Thats why the advice is always to use a very trustworthy person for foundations or screeded floors where its not easily accessible afterwards.

Tony

 

[vessy1]

Tony, thank you very much for this. To add to the mess we are dealing with a french builder. But are trying to get a local specialist to help out. Your answer gives me good idea of where to begin and what questions to ask. We may have to ditch the ufh and install radiators.

Do you know if there is a particular type of screed floor that should have been used?

many thanks

portia

 

[Agile]

Sorry, I did not note your Swiss location.

Is that a Swiss builder who speaks French or a French builder who nips over from Plombiere les Bains?

The fault is with the power input. I cannot guess what he has done at the moment.

They type of screed is not very important as far as operation as long as its quite dense and does not end up airated.

There may be one or several heating circuits and they may be connected in parallel, serioes parallel or just in series.

When the power input has been measured I may be suggesting a resistance measurement of the heating element(s).

Untitled

• Agile
• 4 Apr 2009
• 29

Bit too far for me to nip over from Limoges though!

Tony

 

[vessy1]

hi tony ,

smallish world!

we live on the Swiss French border so it a true frenchman we are dealing with...

thank you very much for the extra information. just hope we can sort it out. the builder is not being very cooperative so it has been long process.

many thanks

portia