Underfloor Heating - Age Old System With A Future

High comfort levels, together with low running cost and environmental benefits, have resulted in a growing demand for underfloor heating systems.

All through the ages one of the main concerns of man, besides food, has been finding shelter and warmth.

Simon Green, category marketing manager at Wavin Plastics, comments on one of the most modern and innovative systems available today - underfloor heating.

It is often forgotten, that the method of heating a dwelling through its floors has been practised since Roman times.

Roman engineers perfected a central heating system in which underfloor cavities where flooded with hot air and gases heated by a furnace.

High comfort levels, together with low running cost and environmental benefits, have resulted in a growing demand for underfloor heating systems.

The UK market is currently growing at a rate of 90% per annum.

Underfloor heating is the most comfortable form of heating because it is largely radiant and we have evolved physiologically to prefer this form of heating.

It is completely unobtrusive and some people estimate that this gives an average 15% more useable space in a room.

It is completely safe and more hygienic than radiators.

And it is more energy-efficient.

Radiant energy from the floor is absorbed by the other surfaces in a room, which warm up and become secondary radiant emitters.

We become surrounded by gently radiating surfaces, and this is very comfortable.

There are no floor draughts and the temperature in all parts of the room is even.

Convective forms of heating, such as radiators, use the air in a room as the transport fluid to move energy into the whole room from a small surface that must be very hot compared with the room air temperature.

The hottest air is at ceiling level and the coldest is at floor level, and the air can become dry and cause dry eyes and stuffy noses.

Convection circulation can also pick up dust from the floor and put it into the air we breathe.

Dust and carpet mites need warmth and moisture for their success.

Underfloor heating denies them the moisture they need and this keeps numbers very low, but they can and do thrive with convective forms of heating because these cannot keep carpets free of moisture.

In addition, underfloor heating is the ideal system to be fueled by alternative energy sources such as solar or geothermal energy.

Whereas a radiator based system relies on the boiler to heat up the water to about 60C, underfloor heating requires the water to have a much lower temperature, about 35C.

The energy source can also be changed after the underfloor heating system has been installed and running for some time.

Minor adjustments to the system might have to be made by an installer.

There are now forms of underfloor heating to fit every type of floor construction - screeds, fully floating timber floors, battened and joisted floors - as well as floor constructions that incorporate acoustic components required to comply with Part E.

Underfloor heating is easy to install.

The mechanism for fixing pipe or heating cable into the floor is simple.

Working out where to put the pipe and what pipe centres to use is more complicated.

Sorting out where to put manifolds and controls also requires an amount of expertise.

If it is planned to design and install a small area of underfloor heating, then there are underfloor heating products available through merchants that are easy to use.

If the project is larger, then it is better to seek the help of a professional underfloor heating supplier, ideally a Member of UHMA - the Underfloor Heating Manufacturers' Association.

Back to top