Underfloor or Radiators for kitchen extension

gok

Getting a kitchen extension and builder has suggested Underfloor(UF) heating - not sure whether we should go with this or have additional Radiators put in.

Here is what what we have:-
Kerosene boiler (which would power either UF or Rads)
New Kitchen extn will be approx 20 sqm, existing kitchen is also around 20 sqm
Existing kitchen heats well with a double Rad which has blades in the middle (size 140 x 50)
We tend to turn on the heat when we need it for a couple of hours morning & evening but don't have it running through the day.

UF heating sounds good cos it doesn't take up space and the heat rises from the floor upwards but how long does it take to get the room from cold (e.g. 12) up to nice and cosy (22) compared to say the Rads.
Whats the maintenance of UF like? - what can go wrong
Builder says the costs aren't that different although some electronics is required for the UF
Anyone feel that the UF is the way to go?

heinbloed

UFH takes a long time to heat up the room. It is suitable for spaces which are occupied permanently and which are well insulated. Due to the low flow temperature.
How is the rest of the house heated? Wet system? Flow and return temperature?

esox28

underfloor heating manifold suitable for extensions ie one to two circuits are pricing in around €350, a 1400 double rad will cost you round €120.

gok

heinbloed wrote: »

UFH takes a long time to heat up the room. It is suitable for spaces which are occupied permanently and which are well insulated. Due to the low flow temperature.
How is the rest of the house heated? Wet system? Flow and return temperature?

Rest of the house is the typical Rads with TRVs - not sure what a wet system is.
Sounds like underfloor wouldn't be great if we wanted to heat the room up fairly quickly - at the moment, we can switch on the Rads and the room is pretty comfortable after 10 mins or so

heinbloed

Rest of the house is the typical Rads with TRVs - not sure what a wet system is.

A "wet system" is a system containing and circulating water. It sounds as if you have one.
So technically it is no problem to join the UFH to the rest of the system (to the wet system).

If you are not willing to wait for long ( a few hours) to get the new extension warm just to use it for a few minutes - stay away from UFH.
My advise would be different if all the house was equipped with UFH/ wall heating and used more or less all day long.

But the UFH in the extension might still make sense if flow and return temperature ( boiler inlet and outlet) where low enough to feed it and the boiler stays turned on all day long.
Hence the question about the flow and return temperature......

So how high is the flow and return temperature?

Vego

go with the under counter heaters

bren288

Hi Gok, did you go ahead with your extension then and if so what type of heating system did you go with in the end? We're in a similar positon ourselves and trying to weigh up the pros and cons of UFH versus rads.

Outkast_IRE

bren288 wrote: »

Hi Gok, did you go ahead with your extension then and if so what type of heating system did you go with in the end? We're in a similar positon ourselves and trying to weigh up the pros and cons of UFH versus rads.

Honestly dont bother going for underfloor if the only place your going to have it is one room. I will outline my argument simply.

1. It operates and heats a room in a completely different way to rads. ie you turn on heating rads will start warming room within a few mins, the underfloor will take a couple of hours really to start warming the room.

2. It will cost more to put in underfloor as it operates at a different temp to rads you will need mixer valve , and manifold.

If your seriously caught for wall space there are alternatives like kick board/undercounter heaters.

tred

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Honestly dont bother going for underfloor if the only place your going to have it is one room. I will outline my argument simply.

1. It operates and heats a room in a completely different way to rads. ie you turn on heating rads will start warming room within a few mins, the underfloor will take a couple of hours really to start warming the room.

2. It will cost more to put in underfloor as it operates at a different temp to rads you will need mixer valve , and manifold.

If your seriously caught for wall space there are alternatives like kick board/undercounter heaters.

Another alternative is SOLO Radiators. They are another alterative. you need a power source to trigger the fan. I have 2 in my large open plan living/kitchen. works well.

Outkast_IRE

tred wrote: »

Another alternative is SOLO Radiators. They are another alterative. you need a power source to trigger the fan. I have 2 in my large open plan living/kitchen. works well.

Yes they do work well i have installed a good few , but once again you need a dedicated wall space, Suppose it all comes down to what space you have to work with .

bren288

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Yes they do work well i have installed a good few , but once again you need a dedicated wall space, Suppose it all comes down to what space you have to work with .

Pardon the ignorance but what are SOLO radiators? Our room will be large (~ 34 m2) with kitchen at one end (no wall space so thinking of the kickboard heating option there) and living/dining area at other end with high ceiling and glass doors. Out during the day Mon - Thu but could time the heat to come on so it would be warm by the time we got home so don't really see an issue with UFH taking a while to heat up. Obvously though we would need to controll it so the heat in the rest of the house (rads) didn't go on as early as the UFH. Presumably room stats and TRV's on all rads would accomplish this?

All feedback/ opinions welcome