Under floor heating

[countessa]

Can anyone please tell me the advantages and disadvantages of underfloor heating compared to conventional central heating. Also which is the best and cheapest form to run - electric or gas. Any info would really be appreciated as I am building a house in the Axarquia region of Malaga province and have to decide by next week.

[poshtotti]

I can't give you an account of having it in Spain but we have it in our home in the UK, it was a barn conversion so was easier to put in as we were building, ours is oil.

The plus is waking up in the morning & not needing to search for chunky socks & getting out of the bath/shower onto lovely warm floors.....bliss.

The downside, it's too damn warm!! - Even with a thermostat, we always have to have the windows open or it gets too hot - Kind of defeats the object of paying for heating?!?! It's expensive to run.
It takes about 24 hours to reach it's optimum temperature when you turn it on, so if you've been away for a while your home will be cold & underfloor heating is no where near instant heating! - When we go back to the UK our neighbours kindly switch it on 48 hours before we get back. We ended up turning off the system in the bedroom because it was like a sauna.

I personally would not bother with it in Spain & we haven't. We opted for dual a/c, when it gets cold, it heats up the rooms instantly & after an hour or so it goes off again, also set it for an hour before we get up. Much more of a cost effective option, again, in my opinion.

[katy]

I find it doesn't heat the house up in Spain, yes it does warm the marble floors but the rooms are still chilly. Everyone I know who has it has an alternative form of heating. I have gas but for convenience and instant heat posh totti is right, can't beat the a/c when its suddenly gets chilly as the sunsets.

[geegee]

I too had it in the UK, the electric pad version, and it was fantastic, very efficient and cheap to run and had no probs with heating up because it was on a seperate control system. Had it in a huge conservatory/dining space with high ceilings and lots of glass and it kept the place warm all winter with no other form of heating in the room. Also had in the bathroom and yes, it was bliss in the mornings on the tootsies!

I think how efficient it is depends on the material you lay it under - I had it under slate and limestone which were good conductors of heat, but think, as Katy says, under marble it would not be ideal. Terracotta, though should be perfect.

I found it very easy to control because of the seperate thermostats, which meant it adjusted automatically to the ambient temperature of that particular room. The rest of the house was heated traditionally on GCH.

Underfloor heating is generally considered efficient and eco-friendly, but you do need to do your research for your particular circumstances. I couldn't recommend it highly enough from personal experience, but its not the best choice in all cases. Have a look at the following link for the UK-based green building press, lots of discussion on the topic:

http://www.newbuilder.co.uk/testing/sea ... &x=11&y=17

[El Cid]

We had UF heating installed when we built our house. It is electric which is cheaper to install than a wet system. There are 10 separate circuits each with a room and floor thermostat – about 150m2 in all.

It heats up within an hour or two. If you use it for whole house heating it is hideously expensive to run. Ours takes 17kw if it is full on. We in fact only use it in the bedroom and bathroom and only for about 4 hours. It switches on at 4am on the off peak supply and keeps the floors nice and warm – the cats love it!

Our normal form of heating is the aircon units which we have in all rooms. They are much cheaper to run as they are 3 times more efficient than the UF heating.

The only reason we had the UF heating installed was because it was so cheap – we only paid 2500 euros for the whole lot – I think the builder got his prices a bit askew!

If you want an eco friendly system you can have a wet system run off solar panels and a heat pump. These systems can even be used to cool the house instead of aircon. They are very expensive though.

If you do go for an electric UF system make sure that you have an adequate power supply – you will probably need a 3 phase supply if you have a whole house system.

Sid

[countessa]

Thanks so much everyone - it has all been really useful. As I will be renting the house our as much as possible I thought the UFH would be a big pull but if it is going to be so expensive to run it might not be such a good idea as it might be abused? My house is about 140 sq meters and I have been quoted about Euros 6,000 so I reckon you did well, El Cid! To show my ignorance on these things are the normal air con units noisy or can you not hear them. Can they be put on a timer and thermostat? Thanks,
Angie

[El Cid]

are the normal air con units noisy or can you not hear them. Can they be put on a timer and thermostat? Thanks,
Angie

Yes they can be timed and they are always on a thermostat.

Some units are noisier than others but they all have variable speed fans so at the lowest setting I doubt that you would have a problem with the noise. The unit in our bedroom is on all night in summer. The cooling switches in or out on the thermostat but the fan runs all the time so that provides an additional cooling effect.

I would still recommend UF for the bedroom and bathroom as it costs very little on an off peak supply.

Sid

[daneinspain]

There are some beautiful marble heaters that go on the wall that heat up rooms cant remember the name though. But I think they are basic electric heaters.

I have just got some Infra Red Halogen heaters for my terrace and I understand these can be used indoors too - they are very economical to run.