Underfloor heating

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Campo Steve
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Underfloor heating

Postby Campo Steve » Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:24 am

Whilst completely doing up the bathroom, including replacing the floor tiles, we are considering installing underfloor heating. The type that comes as a mat overwhich the tiles are laid. It is powered by electricity.

Anyone have any experience of this type of heating, ease of installation, running costs etc.

We aren't looking to create a sauna. Just to take the chill out of the air when going for a shower/bath and have warm tiles to stand on.

Do they sell the kits in Leroy Merlin? Better still, is there a supplier in, or near, Velez Malaga? I doubt it is something the normal ferreteria will sell.
I've got an inferiority complex, but it's not a very good one!

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby ajtg1952 » Thu Jul 07, 2011 12:31 pm

The kits are very easy to install. You cut the net and lay out the wire to suit the geometry of the bathroom. There is a thermostat that can be a bit finicky installing [it goes under the tiles] and a wall control timer and switch.

It won't turn the bathroom into a sauna, as you said, but it kills the chill and is wonderful to walk on bare foot.

Take some photographs, with a measuring tape on the floor, of any areas you may want to drill into in the future; e.g. for a door stop etc. Better than drilling through the wires.

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Mowser » Thu Jul 07, 2011 2:06 pm

How about running it off solar? Quite a few companies in the Velez are install this.
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Campo Steve » Thu Jul 07, 2011 2:34 pm

Did have a look at solar. Roof is the obvious place for the panels but the sloping roof faces east/west. Therefore most of the time the sun would be hitting the panels from the side. A Velez installer advised against that for efficiency, especially in the winter when it would be needed. He did suggest some form of gantry on the roof would solve this so the panels could face south. However, he also suggested that it would look ugly and not something he would recommend. We agreed with him so took it no further.
I've got an inferiority complex, but it's not a very good one!

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby esteponaman » Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:27 pm

100 watts / 150 watts per square metre depending on mat .
Absolutely brilliant , get a digital thermostat with an integrated timer
they cost about 110 euro

TH132-F (not sure of Brand)

Remember to make small chase under tiles for thermostat probe .
This probe should be in a small conduit/ flexible tube so that it can be replaced if it bercomes faulty

you need two conduits /tubes from stat, one for mains wire and one for thermostat probe

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Mowser » Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:38 pm

100 watts / 150 watts per square metre depending on mat
Let's say a bathroom is 6m2. That would be up to 900 watts which is about 12 cents per hour.
As it would take time to heat up, isn't the cost a bit much simply to heat a bathroom?
Even if it's on 12 hours a day, that's €1.44 per day or €4.32 a month just to take the chill off your feet.
Wouldn't it be better to put in a wall-mounted ceramic heater? They're about €30.
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby julian » Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:41 pm

a shot of whisky taken internally will also take the chill off your feet..not sure whether it works out more expensive though.

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby El Cid » Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:47 pm

julian wrote:a shot of whisky taken internally will also take the chill off your feet..not sure whether it works out more expensive though.

If it's Blue Label it certainly is :)

Seriously though walking around on warm tiles is much nicer than just having a bathroom heater - even if it costs a bit more.

We have electric underfloor heating. It was fairly cheap to install when the house was built but it didn’t look too difficult.

There are sheets of polystyrene covered with aluminium foil under it for insulation and efficiency. There are two thermostats for each room – one is a safety one at floor level and the second is a normal C/H type on the wall.

Any form of direct electric heating is going to be expensive but with a bit of common sense it can be minimised. Having a timer on the circuit is essential and off peak electricity helps a lot.

We have about 150m2 of floor heating with 10 separate circuits. If it was the only form of heating it would cost a fortune. In the winter it is on in the bathroom every night for three hours timed to go off at 8am. It takes about 3 hours to really get going and the residual heat lasts for at least two hours. I doubt that you would need even 1kw of matting to do the job and that won’t be too expensive.

If it’s really cold we have it on in the living area for the same amount of time just to take the chill off.

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Mowser » Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:52 pm

In the winter it is on in the bathroom every night for three hours timed to go off at 8am.
What if you sleep in and want a bath at 10:00am?
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby El Cid » Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:55 pm

Never happens - our cats wake us up in time!

Sid

ps They love the underfloor heating!

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby gus-lopez » Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:54 am

A pair of slippers is cheaper , surely ? :lol:
Mowser wrote:
100 watts / 150 watts per square metre depending on mat
Let's say a bathroom is 6m2. That would be up to 900 watts which is about 12 cents per hour.
As it would take time to heat up, isn't the cost a bit much simply to heat a bathroom?
Even if it's on 12 hours a day, that's €1.44 per day or €4.32 a month just to take the chill off your feet.
Wouldn't it be better to put in a wall-mounted ceramic heater? They're about €30.
That's 43,20€ a month ! :crazy:
Todos somos Lorca.

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Mowser
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Mowser » Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:47 am

gus-lopez wrote:A pair of slippers is cheaper , surely ? :lol:
Mowser wrote:
100 watts / 150 watts per square metre depending on mat
Let's say a bathroom is 6m2. That would be up to 900 watts which is about 12 cents per hour.
As it would take time to heat up, isn't the cost a bit much simply to heat a bathroom?
Even if it's on 12 hours a day, that's €1.44 per day or €4.32 a month just to take the chill off your feet.
Wouldn't it be better to put in a wall-mounted ceramic heater? They're about €30.
That's 43,20€ a month ! :crazy:
Correct. Dot in the wrong place! I can't see the reason to pay €43.20 a month simply to have cosy feet!
Thanks for the correction.
(€4.32 a month would be well worth it)
:thumbup:
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby julian » Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:06 am


El Cid
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby El Cid » Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:00 am

Mowser wrote:
Correct. Dot in the wrong place! I can't see the reason to pay €43.20 a month simply to have cosy feet!
Thanks for the correction.
(€4.32 a month would be well worth it)
:thumbup:

It's nowhere near that expensive.

2 or 3 hours would be more than adequate to heat the bathroom in the morning which is when it is most needed. There is no way you would run it all day - that would be a complete waste. If you did, the thermostat would keep it switched off most of the time.

If you want it on again in the evening then you will find it warms up much quicker due to the residual heat in the floor.

Sid

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Campo Steve » Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:26 am

Bathroom is about 6 sq. metres in total. However, by the time you factor in not having the heating mat under the bath, shower cubicle, WC and wash basin cabinet the area of floor tiles under which there would be matting comes down to about 2 sq. metres. That would bring the running costs down by two thirds. Maybe needs to be on longer to heat the room but as long as the tiles we walk on are warm and the chill is out of the room then that would achieve what we want.
I've got an inferiority complex, but it's not a very good one!

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Mowser » Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:14 am

Sid

So what you're saying is that if the figure of roughly €43 was for 12 hours and it needs a maximum of three, the cost is down to just under €11 a month. Add in the fact that you're on a thermostat, it would be much less than this? Once the temperature has been reached are we looking at around €5 a month?
That's only the price of a packet of cigarettes and a coffee. The figures seem better now.

Campo Steve is talking about 2m2 so the cost would be around a third of my figures. We're now down to around €2 a month. Seems a good idea then. I wish I had thought of this BEFORE I had three new bathrooms installed.
:(
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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby El Cid » Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:48 am

Add to that the fact that we only pay half that as we have an off peak meter and the cost really is small.

When it's really cold we may have the living area (50m2) on for 6 hours but that's still half price until midday. Now that burns the watts but that's not a lot for a few days in winter. Usually 3 hours is enough. In the evening the wood-burner is on.

Whichever method you use the cost of heating a large room with loads of windows is never going to be cheap but there's not a lot we can do about it!

Sid

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Re: Underfloor heating

Postby Miro » Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:52 pm

We have underfloor heating in our bathrooms. It was already there when we bought the place new (off-plan buyer was Finnish and had specified it - probably used to saunas and cosy warm floors etc.)
Never use it. It takes SO long to even begin to register any warmth (far longer than I ever spend in the bathroom anyway), and electric prices being what they are, and not being bothered to do the complex calculations, I just can't see the point. A fluffy bathmat does the job (and the cat likes it too!) Nevertheless, I fully intend to sing it's praises as a USP when the time comes to sell. :wink:
If you're fixing up the bathroom, I can thoroughly recommend the curious shower hose attachments that Mr.Fin specified in place of the traditional bidets, however. Once you're used to them, they're much better than bidets, plus very useful for filling a bucket and even the cat's water bowl. :thumbup:
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