Furniture with UFH

House I am about to move to has a large conservatory with underfloor heating - I believe it is a wet one as there is a box/tank inside a cupboard in the kitchen that the sellers spoke of as having "top up". Anyway the type is probably immaterial.

My question is really related to placement of furniture on the tiled heated floor.

I have 2 yew (probably veneered) cabinets that I intend to put in the conservatory - one is a display and one is a buffet unit.

Do you think it is safe to do this or will the underfloor heat cause damage to the units (peel the veneer?). They are both on plynth bottoms with solid sides, no back and a carved swirl off the floor in the front.

Not being an expeert on furniture, I would have thought that the humidity of the room would be more likely to cause veneer problems than just heat.

perhaps this is not quite the right forum for this question

Well Gas4You, there are an awful lot of posts here about underfloor heating and I thought perhaps there might therefore be some first-hand experiences of people with it fitted.

I used to come home from work on the bus and often sat with an antique furniture restorer who told me a lot of interesting things about furniture.

I also did a boiler repair at a piano sales warehouse.

Whilst I have no knowledge about your particular furniture all I can say is that if its regularly heated then I would not have expected any problem.

However if you cover up an underfloor then the temperature on the surface can rise to about 50°C.

If the unit was on legs like much furniture then I would not have expected much problem but I think I have interpreted your description to mean its covered at sides and front down to the floor.

In that case there might be a problem and certainly it should be spaced at least 50 mm from anything behind to allow heat out from behind.

The problem will come from the high temperature fluctuations from 0° to 50° if you are timing your heat provision. If it were on 24/7 I dont think any problem would arise but timed to cool completely then perhaps!!!

Tony

Thanks Tony.

The plynth is really 3 pieces of 15-20mm thick stuff (veneered chipboard I expect) in the form of a square 'C'. The back is open, the sides right down to the floor and the front only on the floor a little bit from where it joins the two sides - the rest is a decorative scroll cutout going upwards. So the floor is only actually covered for some 15-20mm strips. I guess the plynth is about 100mm high.

From what you said, it looks like I am worrying needlessly as there would appear to be enough ventilation to stop the bottom of the actual cabinets heating up significantly.

I was anticipating having to put some sort of thermal shield in between.

Generally speaking UFH does not cause problems because;

- the floor does not fluctuate widely in temp because the screed takes ages to warm and cool

- the heat is relative, so because UFH has less stratification the entire piece of furniture is likely to be at a similar temperature

- there is less significant convection involved so air movement is minimal

- the furniture becomes a heat emitter in itself

However, if the wood is damp then warping/shrinkage could occur as it dries out.[/list]

Thanks Simon.

Nuff said.