underfloor heating

[swes]

Hi, would like to know about underfloor heating . The project were on has a concrete floor with 50mm insulation and chip board on top ....Can i put underfloor heating on top of this chip board and then cover with solid oak flooring thanks.
Ps what wattage does this run on

Martin

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Install a wet system, not electric.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Depends on the make and what system.

There's all you need to know here: http://www.warmup.co.uk/
The videos are quite useful.. http://www.warmup.co.uk/wmv-VTS_22_1_SJ_UK_Introduction.wmv.phtml


PS Other manufacturers are available!

 

[Steve]

If you are using UFH, its more normal not to use wood in the floor structure. Wood is a good insulator - no good for convecting heat from a floor, for example.

Concrete > insulation > UFH > SCREED > final surface.

Such that the UFH is embedded in the screed.

Electric UFH will be astronomical to run. As with any electric heating system. And elctric UFH frequently goes wrong. . .

As Ban says, use a wet system. It will probably be cheaper to install too. And you can rig up any number of fuel sources to it. Gas boiler, Ground source heat pump, electric boiler if you want to stay in the dark ages, oil boiler, aga, back boiler, coal fire, you name it. Much more practical. Nobody fits electric UFH to a whole house,its just stupid.

 

[1john]

AFAIK putting solid oak floor over UFH is asking for trouble, you would be better using engineered flooring. a wet system is the way forward.

 

[seasickstevie]

Wet Wet Wet

 

[swes]

OK Thanks every body,Its not my property so im not bothered just doing as asked. Sounds lika a wet system is the way forward.

 

[Taylortwocities]

How many rooms and what square meterage per room are you talking about?

Electric mat is about 200watts/m² so that is a kilowatt for a 5m² room - and it will really only warm your feet - not effective as a space heating system.


Now calculate your room floor areas and look at the cost of electric.

There is a cost calc on the WarmUp site. Ignore their hours of useage as it states (for a living room) 3 hours a day. But you'll need it on at least an hour before to get warm, and then you might be in the room for 6 hours.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And then, of course, people often have rugs in living areas with wooden floors, which is a bit like lagging your radiators....

 

[1john]

You may even want it on longer than one hour to warm up a room if it has 18mm+ of insulating timber over it.