Christian McArdle wrote:
If you really want to be warm, forget about underfloor heating.
Whenever I look at a these systems they invariably are used in
conjunction with other heaters and the owners just wont admit that they
are useless because they spent so much money putting them in.

Certainly, the numbers suggest that unless the room is well insulated, the
total heat output will be insufficient. However, they have significant
advantages over other methods. In particular, they are very useful in rooms
with tiled floors, such as bathrooms and kitchens, as they enable you to use
the room without having to find shoes or slippers. They are also useful in
wetter rooms, as puddles of water will evaporate more readily. Finally, the
heating will be much quieter than the alternative, which in most kitchens
would be a fan convector, as wall space is too valuable to use for passively
convected radiators.

That said, the fan convector has a considerable advantage in terms of
rapidity of heating. I think the best solution for a kitchen is to actually
have both underfloor and fan convector. This gives the best of both worlds,
with warm feet, rapid response and high total heat output.

In my own kitchen, I have a fan convector (plus an absolutely tiny radiator
that was there already that couldn't heat a cupboard, let alone a kitchen).
This does provide very effective and rapid heating. However, I do miss
having a warm floor and it is a pain in winter having to find footwear for
every foray into the room, unless the heating has been on for hours.

Christian.


Actually the best kitchen heater is an Aga.

You can cook on it too.