We have a pretty small kitchen with a tiled concrete floor. There is no heating in the kitchen at all and we have got through several years with putting a small fan heater when really needing it and trying to keep the doors closed as best we can to keep the heat in the other rooms but eventually we have decided to sort out some heating in there. There isn’t really a space for a radiator, even a slimline one, unless we put it next to the bin and heat up the food and cause a smell!!

We thought an electric underfloor heating system might be a good way to go as this would create a warm floor and heat the room nicely. This could be done without digging up the concrete floor for a wet underfloor system or raising the floor level much. I’ve contacted an electrician who has suggested using a plinth heating system instead. Benefits being not having to replace the floor and presumably a lot quicker to install so less disruption to us. He says this would also heat up the room quicker than underfloor heating too.

Has anyone got any experience of either of these systems and can you recommend either? Is either really expensive to run etc?

I have a wet(hooked up to the central heating) plinth heater.
Does a decent job of heating the kitchen up.
We just control via an on/off switch although you can control it through a thermostat.
Cost wise it’s just the cost of running the fan to blow the heat out.
It helps though to have the kitchen door closed, although with three teenagers and two dogs this rarely happens in my house.

In addition to the plinth heater you could fit a door closer

Just to add a little more info, the kitchen is about 10m2 and floor area of about 6m2. It has 3 doors at one end (living room, hall and playroom) and a large window at the other end which covers the full width of the wall (about 2.5m)

giant_scum – Member
I have a wet(hooked up to the central heating) plinth heater.
Does a decent job of heating the kitchen up.
We just control via an on/off switch although you can control it through a thermostat.
Cost wise it’s just the cost of running the fan to blow the heat out.
It helps though to have the kitchen door closed, although with three teenagers and two dogs this rarely happens in my house.

If that’s a wet system does it need to be installed by a plumber or sparky?

2 small kids and a cat mean our doors are always open too! 🙄

If you need to have the floor raised to fit an underfloor heating system, won’t the floor under the units also need to be raised to keep it a constant height?

With an electric underfloor heating system it will only be a few mm. If we have a vinyl floor instead of tiles we might be able to recoup some of the height lost by the heat system.

Just to add a little more info, the kitchen is about 10m2 and floor area of about 6m2. It has 3 doors at one end (living room, hall and playroom) and a large window at the other end which covers the full width of the wall (about 2.5m)

Sounds similarish to ours. We’ve got electric underfloor heating in our kitchen, set at 20degC in the mornings and evenings, 15degC in the day when we’re out. It keeps the room ‘not cold’, rather than ‘warm’. We keep the doors into the kitchen closed as much as possible, otherwise it tends to suck the heat out of them.

Given the choice again, I’d have gone for a plumbed in plinth heater.

we (6m x 3m) kitchen were told that a plinth (leccy only) was a waste of time (but we have a small rad that is becoming a large upright rad as the other option) – however this was also due to our kitchen having two doors and the sink/oven/fridge layout so we couldn’t really place the heater in the best place

Swoosh, I’m a spark and managed to avoid drowning whilst doing the plumbing for the plinth heater.
Electrical connection is via a plug top and socket. The central heating pipes that run to it are in 15mm. So most likely you would only need a plumber

If you are on concrete though do you not need some form of insulation between the heating element and the concrete? When I put my wet system in I laid it on about 5cm of insulation (ground floor) before adding the covering. I imagine that would apply to both electrical and wet systems if you are placing them over a large thermal mass? If you don’t have the height a plinth system might be the way to go

…or just leave the oven on 🙂

We have a small utility room that’s cold and has no radiator. We fitted an electric plinth heater, which works well with a 240v thermostat but it’s noisy and the floor is always freezing cold underfoot. Next time we will have underfloor heating, either electric or water although I’ve heard that the narrow galleries in the heat exchanger in water versions make a great place for sludge to accumulate, especially as they are always low down in the system.

Quickest and easiest would be a electric plug-in plinth heater. Had one in my old kitchen and worked well – didn’t take long to heat up the room. Not sure if they do thermostatic ones as mine only had 2 speed fan and hot and cold air option (in fact it’s for sale if you are interested)

Thermostatic plinth heater with a timer might be the ideal solution then.

I quite liked the idea of underfloor heating for keeping the floor surface warm so you don’t have to wear shoes/slippers in there.

Our old kitchen had a plinth heater, I never switched it on because I assumed it was electric and I’m a bit tight.

Only when we ripped out the kitchen I realised it was a wet plinth heater and I’d been putting up with a cold kitchen for months.

We have wet underfloor now, it’s lovely, but did mean shifting approx 15 ton of concrete.

I’ve elec underfloor on top of 10mm of insulation board. Heats up in 30 min & holds temperature for ages.

If there is not any good insulation under the current concrete scree the electric heating will be very inefficient

At work we visited a luxury flat once where the owners had a horizontal mirrored radiator as a splash back above the worktop, looked pretty good and the lady of the house said it worked well

dantsw13 – Member
I’ve elec underfloor on top of 10mm of insulation board. Heats up in 30 min & holds temperature for ages.

Does the room get nice and warm as a result? What finish have you got in the room e.g. tiles? vinyl? laminate? etc

Hi
I install all of the afore mentioned systems. If you don’t have a radiator in the room already any wet option will be expensive as the flow and return will have to be bought in from another room. An electric plinth heater will warm the room but not the floor and will cost the same as your fan heater to run.
The popular option with our customers is to take the tiles up. and install electric heating mat over insulation board. Float that over with flexible self levelling latex and then lay a nice cushioned vinyl. Warm under feet, warm room and controllable via thermostat. Also there is usually no real difference in thickness compared to floor tiles. Plinths only need trimming down by 5mm or so.

If there is not any good insulation under the current concrete scree the electric heating will be very even more inefficient than pure electric heating already is

Any form of pure electric resistance heating will be horrendous to run. That goes for underfloor or plinth although I suspect the plinth will be better and respond quicker.

Any form of pure electric resistance heating will be horrendous to run. That goes for underfloor or plinth although I suspect the plinth will be better and respond quicker

It is the other way round. The heat mats heat the room evenly and are generally much lower wattage than a fan heater whereas the plinth heater still uses outdated technology that blasts air over a hot element in one direction therefore taking longer to heat the room and never making the floor warm. Also electric plinth heaters are generally on or off and heat mat is usually temperature controlled by a thermostat.

but the OP would be laying it directly onto an uninsulated floor that wasnt designed for underfloor heating.

Correctly installed from would be better but I suspect trying to add it will not go well and prove to cost so much to run it ends up being turned off after the first winter.

We’ve got UFH connected to our combi boiler. There’s nothing quite as nice as coming downstairs in the winter and having toasty warm feet. The cat loves to curl up on it too 😀

we’ve just had underfloor heating fitted as per mikedabear’s suggestion – concrete – insulation board – heating matt – latex, but we have porcelain tiles.
it takes forever to heat up, but I suspect that’s the tiles more than anything.

Swoosh, my wife likes tropical temperatures, and I’ve had to turn down the ufh thermostat, and turn off the radiator in the room!

It’s a big kitchen (8mx7m) with south facing bifold doors, so we get a lot of passive solar heating too.

Brakes – mine is under 15mm stone tiles. Maybe your insulation boards aren’t up to the job, or possibly the mat is a lower wattage (cables too far apart)?

interesting, but to be honest I’m not bothered – I never use it, waste of money, but I was railroaded into it. I actually like cold floors!

mikedabear – Member
Hi
I install all of the afore mentioned systems. If you don’t have a radiator in the room already any wet option will be expensive as the flow and return will have to be bought in from another room. An electric plinth heater will warm the room but not the floor and will cost the same as your fan heater to run.
The popular option with our customers is to take the tiles up. and install electric heating mat over insulation board. Float that over with flexible self levelling latex and then lay a nice cushioned vinyl. Warm under feet, warm room and controllable via thermostat. Also there is usually no real difference in thickness compared to floor tiles. Plinths only need trimming down by 5mm or so.

Where are to Mike? Anywhere near Nottingham?

Does the room heat up quickly with the vinyl floor finish? Presumably quicker than dense tiles?

I know better than to install the electric mats straight onto the concrete without insulation, don’t want to pay for heating up the soil!! 😯

, but we have porcelain tiles.
it takes forever to heat up, but I suspect that’s the tiles more than anything.

Porcelain is a very poor conductor.

Anywhere near Nottingham?

No I am in Essex. A decent flooring shop should be able to sort you out. See if you can get any feedback about your locals try the independents first.

Does the room heat up quickly with the vinyl floor finish? Presumably quicker than dense tiles?

The best is normal ceramic tiles as they warm up quick and stay warm. With vinyl it warms up quick but has no heat retaining properties so you need to keep it running more.