Calculating the running cost of underfloor heating?

Joined
14 Sep 2010
Messages
7,034
Reaction score
874
Location
Rochdale
Country
United Kingdom
I have an 800w underfloor heating mat in my bathroom but don’t use it much because I don’t know how much it costs to run.

Would it use 800w when it’s turned up full? Once it’s warm does it still use 800w to maintain the heat?

I’ve googled and there are calculators but not much info on if you have it on low power constantly compared to having it on and off in the morning and evening.

Does anyone have any ideas other than ‘its expensive to run’.

Thanks.
 
Sponsored Links
800W for an hour is 0.8kWh - 0.8 of a unit. 16p (or whatever you pay) x 0.8 12.8p per hour when on.
If on constantly - £21.50 per week (at 16p/unit - yours might be different). Lot less at night if you have E7 or similar but more in the day.

Once it's warm it will switch off and use no power costing nothing, but how long it stays off before cooling and switching on again is dependent on your situation and anyone's guess - too many variables.

If you have no settings it will be 800W when on and 0W when off.
 
Let's say you want it on for one hour every morning to warm up the floor, rather than warm up the room as such. It won't have warmed up enough for the thermostat to turn it off yet, so we know it's 800 Watts continuously, for the whole hour. So...

0.8kW * 1hour * 365days * £0.17(check your bill to see what you pay) = £49.64 for a whole year of doing that.
 
On the screen the max is 35deg and minimum is 5deg.

If I have it set at 20deg, would it power at 800w until it gets to 20, then turn off until it gets to 19 then 800w again until its back to 20?

Or would it run at 800w upto 20 and then maintain 20 by running at 1/2 power?

It is to just warm the floor so was thinking 90 minutes in a morning for 6 months of the year.
 
Sponsored Links
If I have it set at 20deg, would it power at 800w until it gets to 20, then turn off until it gets to 19 then 800w again until its back to 20?

Pretty much, yes.

then maintain 20 by running at 1/2 power?

No, but think about it like this. If by chance(dependant on loads of other factors, as said), in order to maintain 20° it was on for 5 mins, off for 5mins, on for 5, off for 5, etc, etc. Then that is running at half power, just not in the sense which I think you meant (like turning down a gas hob a bit).

90 minutes in a morning for 6 months

That's £37.23 then(assuming 17p per kWh).
 
Last edited:
Why not get one of these cheap power measuring devices available.

Wire through it and then whilst the result may not be over accurate it will be more so than guesswork.
 
Would it use 800w when it’s turned up full? Once it’s warm does it still use 800w to maintain the heat?



Thanks.

Yes. It will run at 800W whenever it is on. As to 35 degrees setting... IF it gets there it will go off, but, more likely it will never get there, so be on all the time.
 
I’m just jealous. Was gonna do underfloor heating in mine but was out of my peanuts budget.
 
The problem is so many variables, assuming it was fitted correctly i.e. some one band jacked the floor up and fitted insulation first before fitting the underfloor heating mat, then what goes in must come out into the house, so running cost is simply difference between gas and electric price assuming gas central heating and fitted to ground floor.

But since heating up times are so long, you would need to run for at least 2 hours any shorter is waste of time, and this leads to how different forms of electric heating is compared. Forgetting heat pumps and inferred all electric heater give out what is put in, so run 24/7 they all work out the same. Where this changes is where not run 24/7, so a room we will say is inhabitable when the temperature is 18°C even if idea temperature is 20°C, we will assume it will cool to 14°C when heating turned off for 12 hours, so difference between heating methods is speed, room used for 1 hour and it takes 1 hour to heat then 50% efficient, if it takes 2 hours to heat then 33% efficient. But used for 2 hours and one hour to heat then 66% efficient, so because underfloor heating takes so long to heat the room and a bathroom is used for such a short time the efficiency is very poor with underfloor heating and best with a fan heater.

However in my bathroom the underfloor heating is not really there to heat the room, it is there to dry the floor, so with underfloor heating 2 hours after a shower the floor is dry, with a wall mounted fan heater it would also take 2 hours, but fan heater is 2 kW and underfloor heating is 800W so underfloor heating is cheaper, however open the wet room door and switch on the extractor fan and dry in 4 hours so that seems the cheapest option until you start to count up how much gas is used to heat the air blown out of the vent.

Cheapest method is a mop.

As far as warm toes go, well as soon as the shower is turned on then the tiles are temperature of shower water, it really does not matter if UFH is on or off.

As to running cost, there are two sensors in the thermostat, one buried in the floor to ensure the floor does not get too hot to stand on, and one in the room measuring air temperature, at which point each starts to cycle I don't know, to measure I would need to disconnect the supply in the consumer unit and use a plug and socket so I could fit a energy measuring device, or use a clamp on measuring device.

To quote "If on constantly - £21.50 per week" which is unlikely, so the question is, does it use enough to worry about? A simple electric clock connected to thermostat output would show how long the mat is powered for so from that you could work out what it uses, however to connect the clock in a safe manor and go to all the trouble to measure for a max bill of £21.50 per week seems to be going a bit OTT. If I want to watch TV I simply turn it on, I don't work out how much it will cost, same with UFH do you work out how much it costs to dry your wife's hair? It could likely cost the same as using the UFH while having a shower, I would never recommend fitting UFH but if already fitted then why not use it?
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top