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[pscocoa]

I have solid floors downstairs and thinking of ditching the wall radiators in kitchen area and going for underfloor heating.

Seems to be very varied experiences on asking around on bills and whether electric or water heated is best. At this stage I have the option of tiles or wood floor.

Electric seems to be less problematic - any experiences from OOF members? Area is 27 sq metres but some of that taken up with units so no point heating under them so say 17 sq metres net.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Wet is very reliable and economic if fitted correclty, will be doing the same in the new extension.

I shy away from electric (excluidng small spaces like toilet) as the rest of the house has central heating so any larger areas I prefer to operate off the boiler.

[I_want_an_Omega]

In the 60s my parents had a new bungalow built - with underfloor electric heating in the large living space.

It was only used for a few months - until the electricity bill arrived  .

It worked well enough but was expensive to run - even using off peak.

In those days the concept of insulating a floor was quite novel - so it turns out that was the root cause of the ££££ problem.

Nowadays a significant quantity of underfloor insulation is added for new builds/extensions - but how feasible this is for you I don't know.

Ideally underfloor heating would be water - fed from a ground or air source heat pump. That's a whole new subject area and obviously not suitable for everyone. The recovered heat is at a lower level (40 to 50 c), so much more suited to this than feeding radiators. You would need a large garden to bury the pipes - or somewhere to site the air source unit. They do generate noise - so that's an important consideration for you and your neighbours.

All IMHO.

HTH - Rob

[Marks DTM Calib]

You can get insulation panels for retrofit purposes:

http://www.thefloorheatingwarehouse.co.uk/acatalog/Insulation.html

[I_want_an_Omega]

You can get insulation panels for retrofit purposes:

http://www.thefloorheatingwarehouse.co.uk/acatalog/Insulation.html

Doesn't that raise the level of the floor though?

[Marks DTM Calib]

You can get insulation panels for retrofit purposes:

http://www.thefloorheatingwarehouse.co.uk/acatalog/Insulation.html

Doesn't that raise the level of the floor though?

Yes by 25mm but the pipes are already raising it by 16mm plus retaining clips so the additional is not so great

[pscocoa]

You can get insulation panels for retrofit purposes:

http://www.thefloorheatingwarehouse.co.uk/acatalog/Insulation.html

thanks - have you used this system or know someone who has had good results please?