In my Mum's new house, the vendor was saying how the floor won't be cold because there's 6" of insulation under the concrete slab - yeah right. This same house doesn't have a supply for a "proper" cooker - the assumption is that you WILL use gas and so there's only a double socket off the ring for the ignitors etc. ****ing cheapskates about sums up various aspects of the fit out.
I would agree, however to be fair the electric hob has only in the last 10 years become better than gas. Today I am sure if some one invented the gas cooker they would be told no way that's not safe. But it's down to what one is use to, after getting use to an induction hob and an oven with 12 options on how it is heated, when going in the caravan or mothers house it is so easy to make errors, we expect the hob to auto close down as the pan is removed, and to auto start up again if returned to hob within a short time, but lock out if removed for long time, we expect to be able to wipe clean as we go without the kitchen role paper going on fire.
I would use gas central heating but would not consider gas cooking other than when camping out. Even the range cooker does not have naked flames, although for them you need quarry tiled floors so in an emergency you can rake out the fire.
Insulation has a major problem, water. As long as dry the insulation works well, but get it wet and it's useless, it can also absorb the liquid so one is unaware of the problem for years. We had a leak on the roof, when corrected it was found to be due to a tile being cut wrong, so it was there from when first built, but took 10 years before we found we had a leak.
Yes wet underfloor heating does work better, but that is also slow, my son has it to sink the heat from range cooker so the water will not boil, and with a range cooker you don't light it for 1/2 hour to cook then turn off, it runs all day and night, so the heating is never off, at least in the winter, working out how long it takes to warm up is hard, as never off, the gas central heating adds to it to maintain the heat at the set level. The problem is in the summer, the whole house gets too hot.
I have fitted an induction hob, and use stand alone pressure cooker, LED lights, and fluorescent tubes not just to save energy but to keep house cool in the summer. The idea of first thing in the morning having to decide if we will want heating that evening is to me daft, even worse is working out the night before what off peak power you want.
Windows are also a problem, Oh the K glass is wrong way around they said, but was it, it was fitted so the room did not get too hot in the summer, I don't use radiant heaters so heat will not escape through the double glazed window, the allowing radiant heat to escape but not enter the house was right way around to my mine, but the window guy tells me it is designed to make out house into a green house in the summer!
The problem is a house should be viewed as a whole, not each item on it's own, may be if I had North facing windows the glass should be the other way around. I have made many mistakes, Myson radiator for example, small, fast to heat room, water can be hotter as no exposed hot metal parts seems great, but as soon as it turns off room starts to get cold, hard to integrate with condensing boiler, and you have to turn up TV volume every time it kicks in. In the kitchen would be A1, also good in bathroom as circulates the air drying the room out, and fast to react.
In real terms every room in the house has likely different temperatures and speeds required for the heating, this is why Nest and Hive are not suitable for most British houses as they only sense the temperature in one room. But Evohome costs a fortune. So we muddle on with a hotchpotch system with loads of faults, but it works near enough for what we want.
