Best way to operate underfloor heating

Comic Book Guy

Hi All,

We have underfloor heating on both floors of our house.

We have had the heating off all summer but looking at starting it shortly with the drop in temperature.
It's operated by an oil boiler.
I'm just wondering what are more experienced peoples views on the best way to operate it. Should we turn on the pump as we need the heating, operate it on a timer for a programme like an hour in mornings and evenings or leave the pump on constantly with the stats set in each room at the required temperature?

Thanks in advance

cikearney

Set your time clock for downstairs and upstairs as you see fit,

downstairs on for an hour before you get up and off when you go to work, on half hour before you get in and off as you go to bed,

upstair on half hour before you go to bed, off half hour as you think you'll be asleep and on half hour before you wake and off as you wake.

And every room controlled to your desire.

Central heating was designed for comfort so its to be set to your comfort not mine. for instance i would have it off upstairs at night and the window open because i like being cold in bed but my gf doesn't so im left sweating whilst shes comfy.

shane0007

cikearney wrote: »

Set your time clock for downstairs and upstairs as you see fit,

downstairs on for an hour before you get up and off when you go to work, on half hour before you get in and off as you go to bed,

upstair on half hour before you go to bed, off half hour as you think you'll be asleep and on half hour before you wake and off as you wake.

And every room controlled to your desire.

Central heating was designed for comfort so its to be set to your comfort not mine. for instance i would have it off upstairs at night and the window open because i like being cold in bed but my gf doesn't so im left sweating whilst shes comfy.

Have you read the OP's thread, the system is UFH? 1/2 hour would not do anything to a concrete floor slab!

freddyuk

I would have programmable thermostats in each zone and leave the heating ON. If you have not got the hang of UFH yet then you need to do some experimentation to suit your lifestyle.
Once the slab is warm it needs to be controlled to suit your day/night requirements but never turned off as you will need to reheat the whole slab from cold.
You do not want any drafts. You should have insulation in all the right places to keep the heat within the house. You need to keep doors closed or the zoning is a waste of time.
A decent thermostat can be set to control several times a day at different temperatures so drop a few degrees at night and reheat a few degrees in the morning.
If you have a lot of "air leakage" then your oil bill could be quite high as a cold draft will kill the benefits.Check doors and windows including keyholes.
I would have turned the heating on a while ago to check it works, well before it is needed.
Presumably you have a mixer valve to keep the water temperature lower than normal so check this is working correctly.