"The Natural Philosopher" wrote
| I agree that with older style poorly insultaed houses its a bad
| thing - these lose heat VERY rapidly at sunset - bu iof you have
| teh internal mass and decent insulation, you already HAVE an
| 'unresponsive' house. ...
| If you want a more 'responsive' system fit pipes in an airgap
| below a timber floor directly over insulation.

Alternatively have some additional fast response heating such as blown air
(which will make a noise but might only need 20 minutes running to give a
quick 'boost').

A fairly typical compromise is to have ground floor UFH for gentle heat
throughout the day, and rads in the bedrooms for faster response to take the
chill off late evenings/early mornings whilst dressing/undressing.

| 3) Expense - it is cheaper to install a heating system using rads.
| It isn't. I did the sums, and teh lengths of plastic pipe were very
| similar in proce to radiators. IThe only extra expense was auxilioary
| pump, manifold and heat reducing valve -= about 200 squids. But think of
| the savings in decopration and hiding ugly rads, and fettling all that
| pipework in.

Especially with a top-of-the-range property where standard radiators are
likely to be aesthetically undesirable, and designer radiators can be *very*
expensive.

Owain