Is it OK to have underfloor heating as your primary heat source for a
room (I'm looking at installing it into my kitchen)?

If so, what type and output would I need to get? I'm only looking at
covering about 9 square metres.

TIA.

Is it OK to have underfloor heating as your primary heat source for a
room (I'm looking at installing it into my kitchen)?

Yes, it is fine as the primary heating, provided that the room is well
insulated. The output is limited, and can't heat a room on its own that is
poorly insulated.

If so, what type and output would I need to get? I'm only looking at
covering about 9 square metres.

Assuming you have wet central heating, the best method is to use PEX pipe
buried in the floor (concrete floor) or between the joists (wooden floor).
This is easier to retrofit to wooden floors, as the concrete will normally
need digging out to add insulation and pipework.

Christian.

Christian McArdle wrote:

Yes, it is fine as the primary heating, provided that the room is well
insulated. The output is limited, and can't heat a room on its own that is
poorly insulated.
Christian.

Thanks yet again Christian, is there anything you can't help with?

Can you suggest any cheap, but good systems?

Christian McArdle wrote:
Is it OK to have underfloor heating as your primary heat source for a
room (I'm looking at installing it into my kitchen)?

Yes, it is fine as the primary heating, provided that the room is well
insulated. The output is limited, and can't heat a room on its own that is
poorly insulated.

It can, but a floor in direct contact with a cold bit of earth is only
about 25% efficient..it costs a fortyne and leasds to very heavy pipe
density.

If so, what type and output would I need to get? I'm only looking at
covering about 9 square metres.

Assuming you have wet central heating, the best method is to use PEX pipe
buried in the floor (concrete floor) or between the joists (wooden floor).
This is easier to retrofit to wooden floors, as the concrete will normally
need digging out to add insulation and pipework.


Yup.

www.polyplumb.co.uk has some data that I used.

I went for 200mm pipe spacing IIRC.

I think that was around 50W/square meter. Its enough - just - in the
very coldest weather. Frankly 100mm spacing might be better in all but
modern insulated rooms, and then simply use a thermostat to limit the
temp rise.


Christian.

"mkkbb" wrote in message
ups.com...
Is it OK to have underfloor heating as your primary heat source for a
room (I'm looking at installing it into my kitchen)?

If so, what type and output would I need to get? I'm only looking at
covering about 9 square metres.

A waste of time. Use a Myson Kickspace fan convector. It goes in the
kickspace under the units. All you see is a neat grill, chrome or many
other colours. Blows heat across your feet. You can even have a wall
thermostat on it to ensure the kitchen doesn't overheat. No long lag in
warm up, as it warms up very fast and heat is instantly gone when the fan is
off. With UFH in a kitchen the heat hangs around for hours, meaning you may
have to open windows wasting heat which you have paid for, when the oven is
put on adding heat to the kitchen.

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 01:15:12 -0700, mkkbb wrote:

Is it OK to have underfloor heating as your primary heat source for a
room (I'm looking at installing it into my kitchen)?

If so, what type and output would I need to get? I'm only looking at
covering about 9 square metres.

I've done a cheap'n'cheerful one in my kitchen. I had to take up the
(suspended) floor anyway so I insulated between the joists with rockwool
laid on garden netting slung over them, then ran 15mm polybutylene pipe
(Hep2O or equivalent) up and down between the joists suspended just below
the floor level by tiewrapping it to lengths of screwfix builders band
fixed across the top of the joists. Then I laid the new plywood floor and
tiled on top of the wood. The pipe is connected directly into the CH
circuit via a TRV under the floor set to open when the air temperature in
the unheated void below the floor drops to a coldish temperature (I forget
what). In practice the heating is a bit patchy with some areas
feeling quite warm and some cool (to bare feet or hands) but generally the
room is a comfortable temperature in all but the coldest weather.

If I were doing one professionally I'd calculate the heatloss of the room
using the standard method (U values of surfaces + ventilation losses) and
compare the heat output available from any of the construction methods for
UFH for which figures are available to see if it's possible to match
the heatloss. If the room has a large heatloss e.g poorly insulated
external walls and windows and a small floor area (allowing for the area
taken up by units etc) it may not be possible to entirely heat the room
with UFH. In this case extra heating from a radiator or kickspace heater
may be required in the coldest weater. (Depending on how much of a
shortfall there is it may be acceptable to supplement the UFH with an
electric fan heater in cold weater, rather than going to the expense of a
kickspace heater on the central heating.)

Doing it 'properly' one should also fit a separate pumped
thermostatically mixed supply to the UFH so that it runs at a lower
temperature than the main CH circuit.

mkkbb wrote:
Is it OK to have underfloor heating as your primary heat source for a
room (I'm looking at installing it into my kitchen)?

Definitely if the insulation is up to snuff and teh density of pipe is
great enough to match the heatloss.


If so, what type and output would I need to get? I'm only looking at
covering about 9 square metres.


between 50W/sq meter and 200W/sq meter depending on room insulatuon and
heatloss.

So between 450W and 2KW...

You MUST insulate the floor though, or it will be bearer 400W/sq meter,
with you providing a nice little soil heater for the worms..


TIA.

The message
from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

You MUST insulate the floor though, or it will be bearer 400W/sq meter,
with you providing a nice little soil heater for the worms..

Not to mention being illegal. Though some of the recent rules are rather
daft, the one insisting on proper insulation under solid floors makes
sense. I've got 4" under the conservatory floor.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.