which under floor heating???

[rajk]

Looking into undefloor heating for new kitchen extension.
Floor will be concrete.

What do you reccomend;
1) water - nuheat.co.uk. Can fit heat pump on this system.
2) electric - theres plenty of suppliers, not sure about running cost, sounds expensive.

 

[marklondon]

from previous experience I would go for electric on concrete floors, only problem with that is it takes longer to warm up the concrete when it first comes on so you would need to have a setback mode on it that would keep it at a set temperature during winter. I have water UFH but its under a wooden floor

 

[mointainwalker]

I find the above post puzzling as it talks of

\ longer to warm up the concrete when it first comes on so you would need to have a setback mode on it that would keep it at a set temperature during winter

Obviously a UFH ystem takes longer to warm up. that is because of the mass and that - and the time to cool down is mostly the advantage - because it can be run at a lower temperature for the same "received "temperature

With these questions you are however only scratching the surface and need to consider"

1) Depth of screed

2)Depth of insulation and therfore total of floor

3)Buy a system or buy components

P.S. Something that I have often read but have no experience of, is that electric systems are very expensive to run

 

[rajk]

mark - what UFH water system do you have?

The extension will be approx. 20m^2 and nuheat.co.uk sell a kit which comes with 2 coils.

Agree - concrete takes longer to warm up and depends on depth of screed. However, all the builders have recommended water based system.

 

[jaffar]

Try http://www.floorheater.co.uk/ . (water based system)
Don't know how they compare to nuheat but the stuff looks to be good quality; I'll know more when I get round to fitting the kit I bought from them.
Good points are ...low build height , extra insulation to a floor that may not have any, easy to fit and without the warm up delay of a screeded floor.

 

[mointainwalker]

@jaffar

Just had a look at the system you have bought and the following comments spring to mind.

extra insulation to a floor that may not have any

Well, anybody can buy the same commercially. It's nothing special to this kit.


[

..low build height

There's no screed to diffuse the heat, so the run of the pipe will be one long hot-spot and obviously cooler in between. Is that going to be comfortable ?

Under different types of floor you have to have an extra sheet of ply or whatever. They say do not exceed 22 mm of wood ! 22mm is an awful lot insulation ( wood is reasonably good insulation ) in a situation where best possible conductivity is what you are striving for..

That apart, the amount of insulation below the pipes is not enough to prevent significant heat-losses to the sub-floor.

I would say this site is more notable for its selling techniques than any product advantages. In common with other kits they are probably fairly expensive ( one of the testimonial;s says "..it certainly wasn't cheap..."