Jump to content

Recommended Posts

La Piba and I are trying to work out if underfloor heating should be left on the whole time or controlled by thermostat.


I've scoured on line only to find all advice utterly contradictory, often in the same piece of advice, so hoping the brainy bods of the forum are better than that.


It's only in the open plan area of the house, kitchen/living room/hall, about 1600 sq ft. with 3 statted control zones.

Floor is well insulated and surface is limestone tile, heats up nice and quick and conducts well. probably too much glass, but all triple glazed, and no draughts at all (airtight house).


Someone said this being the case keep your heating on 24 hours at 16 degrees. But does that heat up the room to more than that, is it somehow cumulative, as 16 degrees sounds bloody chilly to me?

There would be other sources of heat to bring the room(s) up to a higher temp though.


Solar - sun shining in through windows (granted a rarity where you are)

Radiation - from human bodies and lighting

Electric - tvs, computers, fridge, oven etc etc


In an airtight house I'd imagine they'd all add another 4 degrees which would keep you at a balmy 20 degrees?


Not to mention the odd time you light the wood burner.

haven't got the wood burner in that room yet, the other one is not going to add enough.

Granted when the sun is shining it gets roasting even if the outside temp is cold, but it can go months at a time without sun in the winter.


I'm not convinced the other things will provide enough heat as it's a vaulted ceiling and double heighted in the hall so we;re talking alot of air to heat with one telly.


I reckon thermostats may have to be the way forward then, at least until we get the burner installed.


Cheers for the feedback D_C, I knew the forum wouldn't let me down.

I'm also struggling with this one. I've got electric u/f in a rear ground floor garden extension under sandstone tiles. The problem is that it's like a very slow radiator and takes 24 to 26 hours to warm up the room to a reasonable temp (if it's cold outside) and then you have to keep the fucker on all the time. I cant work out if its cheaper to keep it on all the time at a lower temp than the spike to warm it up each weekend.

We have similar, under limestone tiles (and a small wooden area in the dining area of the kitchen). Three "sectors", all controlled by separate sensors. We have it on thermostat, to heat up the space to 20 degrees morning (comes on at about 5:30am, off at 9:30) and evening (4:30 till 9:30ish). In between those times it's set at 17, and it's only on the very coldest days in winter that it comes on outside of the standard times.


Same goes for our central heating. I never switch either off during the year.


Best decision we made when we refurbished our house. Our underfloor is electric and initially I was worried that our energy bills would increase - actually we have found completely the opposite, after a year of paying the same monthly direct debit as before the heating was installed we were significantly in credit.

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> haven't got the wood burner in that room yet, the

> other one is not going to add enough.

> Granted when the sun is shining it gets roasting

> even if the outside temp is cold, but it can go

> months at a time without sun in the winter.

>


Jeez - where do you live!

Intereting pickle.


we also have solar thermal, which meant we barely swtiched the gas on during the summer when you don't need to anyway, but of course in the winter means it probably won't be much use, though even with little sunlight it's probably enough for the underfloor.


It's looking like we use about a third of a tank of gas a year on current experience, that's about ?650 for heating, hot water and cooking. That's cheaper than it was in london which was a about a quarter of the size this place, (the london flat, not london, a quarter of the size of rosbercon would probably be an MP's duck house) but hard to say as we only caught the tail end of a mild winter.

MrBen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm also struggling with this one. I've got

> electric u/f in a rear ground floor garden

> extension under sandstone tiles. The problem is

> that it's like a very slow radiator and takes 24

> to 26 hours to warm up the room to a reasonable

> temp (if it's cold outside) and then you have to

> keep the @#$%& on all the time. I cant work out

> if its cheaper to keep it on all the time at a

> lower temp than the spike to warm it up each

> weekend.


Any reason why you went for electric MrB?...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...