Renovation - underfloor or rads????

tyres

In the middle of renovating 1930's detached house and not too sure what to do with regards the heating. We have already decided that we are going to put in a Wood Gasification Boiler in the attached garage as we have a good bit of low moisture content wood and will do for foreseeable future. Along with boiler, we have solar panels in place also.

Up until last week, we were looking at rads throughout house and upstairs (upstairs consists of just two b'rooms and small bathroom). Major part of the renovation has been a single story extension, the subfloor has been poured throughout downstairs and internal walls are all up and sorted.

Our builder has just suggested that house is setup pretty good to install underfloor heating and rads upstairs. He has advised us to forward plans onto uni-therm and that they will provide us with price from plans.

What are people's ideas with regards how well system will work with solid fuel burner?
Budget wise, will the underfloor be a lot more expensive to install or will the pretty high amount of rads that will be needed offset this???

Regards,
Tyres

Outkast_IRE

Are you getting a buffer tank for use with the wood gasification ? i am assuming a yes ?

Ok i give this speech fairly often.

Underfloor is a totally different way to heat your home than rads, some people cant adjust to it and dont like it(personally i love it when done right).
The entire aim of underfloor is to create a comfortable ambient temperature in each room, for this to happen and be cost efficient the following points are important.

1. You need a really well insulated house, with relatively good airtightness. A poorly insulated house with draughts etc is terrible for underfloor.

2. You need to accept the fact that the aim of the game is to keep a comfortable ambient temperature at all times, this is best done with lots of controls personally i like good quality thermostats in each room, each room being its own zone, with its own motorised valve. This is important as its an investment the more control you have over temps in each room the less it will cost you in fuel and the more comfort you will feel.

3. Theres no blast of heat effect with underfloor, alot of people like rads cause you flick the switch and boom theres a roasting rad there making the room feel cosy and will aid clothes drying etc. Also with underfloor i if someone opens a window for a while the comfortable ambient temp you worked so hard to establish can take a while to buildup in the room again.

4. People like to argue with this point but its true. Floor finishes will affect the warm up and cool down times, for example floor finishes like tiles are great as they dont act as a barrier to heat and warm up with the floor quickly , a wooden floor will take longer to warm up, carpet the same.

Long story short underfloor done correctly with the correct controls will cost a good amount more than rads..... is that a problem for you ?

shane0007

+1

I have UFH upstairs & downstairs in 3,000sqft house. When we built the house in 2003, it took a lot convincing for my wife to agree to install it. She was used to her parent's freezing house & switching on the rads and everybody stood with their arse to a rad.
I am always tinkering with it, & I told herself I was disconnecting the UFH & installing rads to see her reaction. She hit the roof & said no way. She loves her UFH.

It is a much different what I call comfortable heat & I love stepping out of the shower to a warm tiled floor.

As Outkast says, it needs to installed correctly. It needs good insulation. A bad one is very very expensive to correct but a good one does what it says on the tin.
Modulation is a must with UFH so either through a buffer or through a modulating boiler.

tyres

Thanks for reply, within reason cost would not be an issue and will not determine end decision. Much truth in the opinion that underfloor is very hard to regulate and can take a while to heat a house. Does the introduction of mobile control systems like Climote/Nest eliminate this problem..

shane0007

tyres wrote: »

Thanks for reply, within reason cost would not be an issue and will not determine end decision. Much truth in the opinion that underfloor is very hard to regulate and can take a while to heat a house. Does the introduction of mobile control systems like Climote/Nest eliminate this problem..

Those would be a waste of time & money with UFH. They are for remote turning on & off. UFH is best with consistent timed control with thermostatic control over every room.

oikster

tyres wrote: »

Thanks for reply, within reason cost would not be an issue and will not determine end decision. Much truth in the opinion that underfloor is very hard to regulate and can take a while to heat a house. Does the introduction of mobile control systems like Climote/Nest eliminate this problem..

The reduction of floor screed thickness to 50mm using liquid screed is the biggest improvement to underfloor in recent times.Much faster reaction times coupled with high levels of insulation make it the way to go nowadays.

Outkast_IRE

tyres wrote: »

Thanks for reply, within reason cost would not be an issue and will not determine end decision. Much truth in the opinion that underfloor is very hard to regulate and can take a while to heat a house. Does the introduction of mobile control systems like Climote/Nest eliminate this problem..

Underfloor is only hard to regulate if you install it with too few controls and too few zones. As my previous post pointed out and as Shane0007 said its all about getting the installation right initally, with underfloor if it isnt done right first day its big money usually to fix it up later on.

Look in reality if it was my home i would first be concentrating on getting the insulation and windows done to the very best specs i could afford (especially in a renovation) and then see whats left in the budget for heating. Its better to not lose the heat in the first place than to be worrying about how your going to heat the place.

As for mobile control systems, in my own opinion they would probably suit rads better than underfloor my reasoning being as i previously said

" you are aiming to maintain a current ambient temperature at all times" if your aiming to maintain a temperature at all times then generally you would invest in good controls and the beginning and leave them do their work. You would find with good controls its almost self regulating and you could monitor the system and tinker as needs be.

shane0007

oikster wrote: »

The reduction of floor screed thickness to 50mm using liquid screed is the biggest improvement to underfloor in recent times.Much faster reaction times coupled with high levels of insulation make it the way to go nowadays.

True, EasyScreed is a very good & useful product. I don't think it was about when I was building. We used 75mm concrete downstairs & 50mm upstairs. The downstairs takes longer to heat but it also holds on to the heat for longer. The thinner upstairs cools faster but heats quicker, which I find better suited for bedrooms.