Underfloor Heating

Having a good heating system at home is a necessity. If you’ve been considering switching to underfloor heating, the questions that linger in your mind are whether it’s effective at heating your home and how you can get the most out of it.  We’re here to answer your questions. 

What is Underfloor Heating?

Underfloor heating (UFH) is a central heating system that uses either water or electrical elements to heat the floor. The elements embedded beneath a finished floor are then conducted, radiated and convected to create heating for an entire household or structure.

How Does Underfloor Heating Work?

Unlike radiators which mainly just heat the air, underfloor heating generates radiant heat to create a more constant supply of warmth enough to cover an area while having fewer possibilities of having cold spots. 

Underfloor heating and radiant heat emitted from the floor give warmth at the floor level and provide a more uniform heat dispersion than conventional heating techniques. This means that the entire floor functions as a massive radiant heater, heating people rather than objects and avoiding overheating and energy waste.

Benefits of Underfloor Heating

The main benefits of underfloor heating lie in its ability to heat a room more evenly than traditional radiators can. Because underfloor heating works by emitting heat upwards rather than downwards, it creates a warm and even temperature throughout the room. Moreover, because it provides this type of heat without needing to be switched on or off, you don’t need to worry about ambient temperature levels; underfloor heating will provide continuous warmth throughout your home all year round.

Types of Underfloor Heating

There are two types of underfloor heating, hydronic or ‘wet’ underfloor heating and electric underfloor heating. 

Wet underfloor heating

Wet UFH is best installed on the get-go of constructing your home. They are basically underfloor pipes concealed within the floor, powered by boilers or heat pumps. With that said, the flow and pressure should be thoroughly tested before and during installation to avoid any possible leakage related problems. It’s also highly advisable to insulate your pipes, especially external ones. This should help prevent freezing of the pipes, which may cause the pipes to break and split in the long run. 

Electric underfloor heating

On the other hand, electric underfloor heating is best used in a smaller area or structure as using electricity as a source of heat is more expensive than wet underfloor heating. For this type of UFH, you need to check for possible faulty wirings before installation, the system power output, thermostat settings, area airflow, and even the type of floor covering you’re using.

Is Underfloor Heating Enough to Heat a Room?

Yes, it is. It can generate enough heat to have a warm and comfortable environment to live in as it is an energy-efficient method of heating a home. 

Given that the household or structure is checked for compatible floor covering, properly installed electric wiring or pipes, proper thermostat programming, external and internal pipe insulation and is being regularly serviced and checked —underfloor heating is an incredibly effective way of heating your room or property without having to worry about patchy heating in some areas of your home. 

Over the years, the world has seen winters getting colder and summers getting hotter. More often than not, households in the temperate regions have heating and cooling systems installed in houses. These installments often take at least 50% of the energy bill.

Saving energy costs often will have to come from the heating and cooling systems. A great way to keep a place cool during the summers and warm during the winters is through the use of central heating services, especially an energy-efficient heat pump.

Why You Should Invest in a Central Heating Service

Firstly, investing in a central heating service is one of the smartest decisions one can make. Central heating is efficient, effective, economical, safe, and adds comfort to the day-to-day lifestyle.

Living in a temperate region means experiencing both the harsh winters and implacable summers, having a central heating efficiently lets you adjust the temperatures in any way you want! It warms your whole house to the temperatures that you find fancy by using a timer, room thermostat, and thermostatic radiator valves that lets you set each room with different temperatures or timers to certain times.

It is also efficient with the use of energy, as it circulates temperature-controlled air through sealed ducts, managing the whole house with a reasonable amount of energy used. Heating the house with one source using radiant heat is definitely the way to go.

Why Central Heating is the Smart Way to Go

Central heating is effective in warming the whole house with just one system! It is definitely the economically smart way to heat up a house instead of using gas or single log burning fires (which are not equal in distributing heat and is a cause of sickness during the cold season) because the initial set-up costs will be paid back by the long term benefits this system has in store.

Using the central heating system effectively can greatly reduce gas bills and upgrading an existing system kicks back an annual gas bill by at least 30%. You may choose from a variety of vectors like gas central heating or oil central heating and still save a lot of money in the long run.

Safety and comfort can definitely be felt when using a central heating system. Installing one will keep your home at the healthy 21 degrees Celsius standard set by the WHO, eliminating the greater risks and chances of getting sick due to the cold.

Children and the elderly are kept safe because there are no open flames and no elements exposed. As for those who are sensitive or have problems especially with the respiratory system, it is safe because there is no forced air flow.

You are able to control the temperature using a thermostat and you can customize it to your needs. Other methods of heating create hot spots and cold spots, or an uneven distribution of heat.

Why Heat Pumps Are Effective

A heat pump is an effective central heating system, because instead of making heat, it extracts the heat from the outside. Two typical types of central heating systems are air-to-air heat pumps, which extract heat from outside air, even during the winters! The other type is the ground-source heat pump, which removes heat from the ground. In order for this to work, flexible pipes are buried in trenches below the ground, and these pipes are filled with a liquid that absorbs heat from the ground and transfers it inside the house.

Ground-source heat pumps are most efficient because they take their source of heat from the earth itself. They last longer than other types of heat pumps, and there is less wear on the compressors because they operate on a smaller range of temperatures because it is underground.

Underfloor heating helps make a heat pump even more efficient, because it is important that the heat pump’s outlet temperature is kept as low as possible. Using an underfloor heating, mounting the underfloor in screed is the ideal way of installation. Using the screed as a thermal mass allows you to run the heat pump on off-peak tariffs further reducing the running costs. Combining this with the ground source heat pump, efficiencies of over 400% can be achieved.

Heat pumps are energy efficient as for every dollar of electricity invested in it, a return of 2-4$ are returned. Heat pumps also double and acts as a central air conditioner when needed, making it versatile for all types of temperature year-round. It doesn’t just save you money, it’s also helpful for the environment because it is energy efficient.

Heating a home with a heat pump is a great investment because it also provides return on investments with the amount of money being saved. Knowing which one is good for you will save you from the unwanted costs of changing the system.

Firstly, make sure that your garden is suitable for ground loops, and it is efficient that your home is properly insulated as ground source heat pumps provide the best efficiency when producing heat at lower temperatures.

Keeping a warm home is a feat yet to be toppled down. Keep it warm with underfloor heating – heat pumps makes it easier to achieve.

Underfloor heating or radiant in-floor heating is increasing in popularity among Kiwi households due to its many advantages. Not only are heated floors lovely to walk on, but they are also economical, comfortable and energy efficient to run.

Unlike other heating methods, radiant underfloor heating encourages heat to rise up through a space via convection, rather than forcing it down. In-floor heating can either take the form of hydronic heating or electric resistance heating. We’ll focus on the first one.

Hydronic heating involves laying a network of pipes onto the subfloor and circulating a heating fluid through the piping. The heated fluid radiates heat into your floors, warming your home evenly and comfortably. Hydronic heating operates silently, which is another plus.

The fluid can be heated in various ways: by using a heat pump, using fossil fuels or electricity by means of a boiler heating unit. Heat pumps generate hot water at around 40^oC, which is ideal for heated floors. On the other hand, gas and oil boilers heat water to 65-85^oC, which will scald your feet. Using these systems will require mixing hot and cold water to bring the temperature down to a comfortable level, which is highly inefficient.

Air-to-water heat pumps take the heat from ambient/outside air and transfer the heat into the water via a heat exchanger in the cylinder. Some heat pump systems can be configured to provide part of the energy needed for domestic water heating. With the integration of a heat pump, your underfloor heating system will have the potential for zoned control. This means that rooms can be heated on an on-demand basis, helping you to cut down your energy consumption. In addition, heat pumps offer the versatility of switching between heating and cooling modes for year-round comfort. Heat pumps generally use less energy to maintain the heat when the target temperature is reached. Some units can control the temperature as accurately as 0.5oC. When there is a big difference between the desired temperature and the actual temperature, some heat pumps automatically adjust to a higher frequency to increase the temperature rapidly. Modern heat pump technology also has a smart-defrost feature that allows faster recovery by reducing defrosting time and extending heating time. This further enhances heating efficiency. And since they are designed to work well into the winter season, heat pumps typically have inbuilt anti-freeze protection along with other protection controls, such as water flow switch protection, compressor overload protection, high/low pressure protection.

In summary, underfloor heating powered by a heat pump is a convenient and efficient way to heat your home.

Installation

Underfloor heating is often integrated in the design of a new home build for practical reasons. It is easier to lay the pipes before the floors are laid than to retrofit them.

In existing homes, casting the pipes is a lot trickier as there are items of furniture and fittings in the way and some floors can be difficult to work with. For elevated homes, the pipes can be retrofitted via “diffusers” spread below your timber floor. For concrete slab floors, the pipe is attached to a mesh profile and topped with a concrete screed that may be tiled or carpeted.

As you can imagine, a more complex installation means higher upfront costs. But if you think about the comfort and long-term energy savings, a heat pump-powered underfloor heating system can be worth the investment.

For more information or inquiries, please contact us on 0800 443 284.

We just finished a preslab underfloor heating system installation for a home in Silverdale, Auckland. The is a new home being built, the perfect time to get underfloor heating installed.

Our specialist laid underfloor heating pipe on top of mesh and used wire tie downs to keep the pipe in place.
The system consists of 2x circuits of pipe:
Circuit 1 approx 85 meters
Circuit 2 approx 100 meters

Correct spacing of the pipe  is critical to avoid cold spots and even heat distribution. This is critical for a quality heating system. As you can see in this install, the pipe covers the whole floor very evenly and will ensure there is consistent heating all throughout the house. In general areas such as bedrooms for the lounge the pipe is laid at 200mm centers. Smaller areas such as bathrooms and kitchen are laid at 100-150mm centers. This enables maximum heat output in smaller areas whilst larger areas can be comfortably maintained.

Once the pipes were laid and the manifold and valves installed, the system was pressure tested with water to ensure there are no leaks and that it will operate correctly. It rated at 1000kpa.

Are you interested in an underfloor heating system? Underfloor heating is an excellent solution to efficient home central heating. Advantages include the fact that it is completely hidden (no radiators or vents to see), extremely efficient, provides even heating and can be designed specifically for your needs. If you are building a new home or renovating, speak to us about an underfloor heating system now!