Under floor Heating, tile or manufactured wood?

KevinK

Designing our new house and plan is for underfloor heating with a heat pump.

We had decided on manufactured wood flooring for living room and bedrooms. However it has been pointed out to us that underfloor heating works best with tiles.

We have found a nice tile we are happy with, however I have some concerns with tile being colder than wood if the heating is not on.

I know in theory that underfloor heating remains on, but how realistic is this in summer in a well insulated house. Can anybody with underfloor heating tell me for what proportion of the year they use their underfloor heating?

bee06

Our under floor heating is always “on”. Whether or not it’s actually actively heating the house depends on the weather. A few sunny days in the middle of winter and there is no need for it because of all the south facing windows we have but a week of cloudy coldish weather in the summer and it might be.

Courtn2

With regard to tile or wood, we have both and it’s fine. Tile for most of the downstairs floor, but wood floor in the sitting room. They should be able to advise as to how good the wood is at transferring heat.

It is less efficient through the wood, but your room will heat - the difference comes down to whether you feel the heat through your socks or not!!

Very happy with our mix of floors. With regards to it being on - it will only come on if the temperature drops below what you’re looking for so essentially it’s in a “ready” state rather than an “on” state

twignme

My underfloor heating is switched on in October and will be switched off at the end of April. It's well controlled by thermostats where required and programmed throughout the week for how the house is used e.g. to a lower temp overnight and during work days. Mine is under tile and it's great, my place of work has it under engineered wood and whilst it's good, it doesn't transmit the heat the same IMHO.

dubbrin

UFH on my ground floor of approx 160m2. 55% engineered wood with perforated underlay, 40% carpet with underlay and the rest tiles. Tiles are always warmer, they conduct heat the best of any floor finish bar bare concrete. The wood is always pleasant underfoot and the carpet is also pleasant.

You notice walking from one to the other but there's never a 'cold' floor, even in summer with heating off as your perception will change with warmer air/outside temperatures and you'll be glad of a 'cooler' floor sometimes. Some heat pumps allow active underfloor cooling and this is nice during heatwaves however 'cool' is only to 14/15degrees flow to the floor, but when it was 35degrees a while back this is nice.

Thermostatic control doesn't work well with UFH as the reaction time is too slow so expecting a significant change in room temperature in a few hours is unrealistic unless your floor make up has low thermal mass. I have no stat control, rather, flows are balanced to each room based on floor finishes, position in the house and desired temperature (approx). Downstairs bedrooms have nice carpets and don't need to be warm anyway = low flow, South facing living room with wood floors gets a lot of sun so doesn't need much help most of the time = low flow, hallway has wood but has high heat loss = high flow, etc. I would consider one stat for GF and one for FF as per building regs but you're fooling yourself putting one in each room and controlling your system based on these

Calahonda52

Regardless of response times, Thermostatic controls, with a decent dead band, always have a place in an energy strategy.
They will reduce energy, be it less heat loss through a reduced delta T, less energy being generated by the heat source or reduced power being consumed in the circulation pumps.
.
The hardwired flow based management described above is not practical for most people, especially if the house is sold.

copacetic

Stat control works perfectly with underfloor hearing if house is properly insulated and smart controls in place. my downstairs is ufh, 80% engineered wood, wood I find generally more comfortable, heating on all the time, set to hit the temps at certain time, seldom notice a ‘warm floor’ unless outside temp is under 0 but do notice the cold tiles in utility and downstairs bathroom some mornings.

Rows Grower

KevinK wrote: »

Designing our new house and plan is for underfloor heating with a heat pump.

We had decided on manufactured wood flooring for living room and bedrooms. However it has been pointed out to us that underfloor heating works best with tiles.

We have found a nice tile we are happy with, however I have some concerns with tile being colder than wood if the heating is not on.

I know in theory that underfloor heating remains on, but how realistic is this in summer in a well insulated house. Can anybody with underfloor heating tell me for what proportion of the year they use their underfloor heating?

I went with the same mix of tiles and timber that you are planning to use and am very happy. If all the rooms are set at the same temperature you will notice the tiles are a lot warmer than the engineered wood and they also stay warmer longer.

But you will have individual control settings for each room so you'll be able to tweak it in a short time and have each zone set for what you are happy with.

Don't scrimp on the insulation as it is an investment, use at least 100mm under the heating and then 50mm up around the edges of the floor perimeter.

Even in the coldest of winters you won't need the heating on for more than 3-4 hours a day to keep the house really warm.