Ceiling Fans, Heating & Air-conditioning Installation & Repairs

Electric Under Floor Heating

Under floor heating is an economical and low impact form of heating for your home. It relies on radiant heat, rather than convection style heating, which warms the air. This allows the heat to permeate the home through the floor, which in turn will heat anything on the floor.

This is similar to standing in the sun on a cold and crisp day. The sun warms you directly using radiant heat, while it takes much longer to warm the air currents which may remain icy cold all day. You feel warm and cosy while bathing in the sun's rays.

Types of electric underfloor heating

In-screed

This flexible cable is a popular option for under floor heating and can be used in a multitude of places and environments, like stairs, wet areas, odd shaped rooms and more. This type of underfloor heating requires a cover of sand and cement (screed) around 20cm thick to be applied on top of it.

In-screed cable will generally heat up quickly and should reach the required temperature within a couple of hours.

In-slab

These heavy duty cables are flexible and are laid prior to pouring the slab. They cannot be laid accross expansion joints as this movement can damage the cables. This heating system is ideal for large rooms and living areas and is ideal for taking advantage of off-peak electricity.

In-slab cables are slow to heat and may take up to 24 hours to reach their required temperature.

Ultra thin

The ultra thin mat is useful in applications where no screed can be applied. It can be placed directly under the tiles and will only raise the floor height by a few millimetres. Depending on the manufacturer, it can come in many shapes and sizes.

Ultra thin mats generally heat up rapidly and should reach their required temperature within an hour.

Under carpet

Under carpet heating is a foil style heat blanket the has very little height and almost no impact on floor height. It is laid on top of the underlay directly beneath the carpet and can generally be easily retro-fitted to suit most older homes.

Under carpet heating is very quick to heat up and should reach the required temperature within half an hour.

Under timber

There are several options for under timber heating which vary by manufacturer. Generally it can be laid in between the battens or under the floorboards directly. Some may even use in-slab heating methods before laying floating timber boards.

Heating time will depend upon the type of heating used. However if using a mat or batten style method it should heat up rapidly as they are close to the surface and may only take an hour or so.

If you have chosen your preferred type of heating, please contact us prior to starting any work with other tradesmen. This is so we can organise the best time to work in with their timeframes and get your floor completed in the shortest time possible.

Running costs for under floor heating

Understanding how much your floor heating costs to run is important information to know and with most of us becoming more aware of our electric consumption it is wise to understand your usage. It is a simple calculation based on the cost of your supply and the wattage of the floor heating.

This can be worked out by multiplying the kW (kilowatt) of the appliance by the cost of your supply in kWh(kilowatt hours). A kW is simply the amount of watts your appliance uses in terms of 1000. For eg. 2400w is 2.4kW. you then simply take this number and multiply it by the cost of your electricity supply.

In the following example we will use a 1200w appliance and a supply rate of 27 cents per kWh.

1.2kW(1200w) x 27c per kWh = 32.4 cents per hour to run.

A convection or air heater will use around 2000w per hour, which will cost around 54c per hour to run..

A typical bathroom will range from 400 watts to around 1200 watts depending on size. A rough estimate is around 175 watts per m2.
If we use a figure of 4m2 for the average bathroom floor space you will be looking at aproximately 19c per hour to run your under floor heating.