We are revamping the living / dining room and putting laminate down. Mrs. C has mentioned that it might be nice to lose the radiators and investigate underfloor heating. As it is a concrete floor I'm guessing that the only real option would be the electric wire-type option. Anyone got any experience of this, i.e. cost, effectiveness and longevity / reliability?
Ta in advance.
Can't tell you the cost (depend on the system) but effectiveness wise, its fricken ace!
We had the electric matting put down in out kitchen under tiles, and though I was very dubious, it work really really well. The animals loved it too, especially as our systems control pamphlet might as well have been in Thai, for all the sense it made (download the full one from their site and it all became easy and clear). So ended up using it for the first couple of week at max, though this was in January, so no-one complained - cats and dog just spent the whole time asleep on the floor.
Surprisingly though we didn't remove the only rooms radiator, there is no need for it to be on, unless it's bitterly cold (probably not even then). Heating from the floor just seems to make the rooms a much nicer places, no hot spot by the radiator and cold by the doors. Warm tiles on a mid-winter morning are great - in fact it puts the front room to shame now (wander round in the kitchen shoes less, go into the front room & you need to get the woolly socks out!
I believe you limited to the electric matting unless you want to increase the floor height, or dig out channels for the piping. Though obviously more expensive initally, it's no doubt more economical long term. IIRC you'll need to run seperate heating circuit from the boiler, for the under floor stuff, to you normal radiator system (differing pressures?).
To re-iterate, from a complete "doubting thomas", I.m now a fan of these systems.
Thanks very much z1ppy, much appreciated. Anyone else?
Underfloor won't be *as* effective under laminate as z1ppy's tiles (given that laminate insulates).
Just a thought.
I did a cost analysis for electric underfloor in my flat. Worked out cheaper to install a new gas boiler as it is not that cheap to install (+ would have needed at least 1 instant water heater for the sinks) and the running costs can be horrific.
Bascially about 3-3.5x more to run than gas which was 4x the cost per unit (electic heating uses the kW more efficiently).
Another option is skirting board heating - again can be electric but can also be plumbed in. Much more effective than radiators and quicker response than under-floor due to lower thermal mass but similar comfort levels which are much better for both than radiators.
No experience of the running cost (as I wasn't paying the bills) but we loved the underfloor heating we had in our house in Germany.
All floors were concrete, with hot water piped around under every floor except the cellar.
Ground floor was tiled, first and second floors both laminated.
Can't speak highly enough of it. Never noticed it there until you took your shoes off, just doing its thing. Must be a better idea than directly heating your exterior walls with a radiator.
Another option is skirting board heating - again can be electric but can also be plumbed in. Much more effective than radiators and quicker response than under-floor due to lower thermal mass but similar comfort levels which are much better for both than radiators.
ahh nice to find someone with real world experience of it. Have a friend with the electric stuff in a brand new flat - well insulated etc etc but my flat is in an old building so lots of ways for heat to escape so possibly not as good in that situation.
Just to point out by response I mean "damn I left the heating off" kind ofr thing which radiators are very good at but underfloor takes ages to warm up. With underfloor you want to maintain the temp not let it get cold but the temperature is a lot lower than you need for radiators (obviously as you wouldn't be able to walk on the floor). I think skirting stuff is in the middle so a mixture of benefits and flaws.
Yeah - and the vast majority of the walls we have it on are new (had it fitted during an extension project) so have been insulated with Kingspan behind and there is a thermal sheet directly behind the skirting too. It does have one massive benefit though - it is pretty much bomb-proof with regards to getting chipped (due to it's alloy construction) and never needs painting. And we can put furniture wherever we want to. If I had the choice to make again I would go for it still but would probably have compromised and put in one smaller rad on one wall to help get a bit more heat in the room. Saying that, quite a lot of the coverage of ours has furniture banged up against it so it will lose lots of output because of that AND the extension has quite a bit of glass so the room will naturally be colder.
I believe there is a calculator on the site to work out if it is suitable for your room too.
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