Underfloor Heating. Help!!

chicorytip

I have just moved in to a rented apartment - constructed circa 2000 - that has this system installed. I don't have the first notion how to get it operating properly, if it is still in working order, that is. Worryingly, the landlord has free standing electric heaters in each room. The estate agent I dealt with assured me it is functional just slow to warm up. Anyway, despite fiddling with the controls no heat, stone cold. Do these operate in the same way as conventional storage heating systems?

CelticRambler

It depends on exactly what kind of system you have. Some "underfloor heating" does no more than take the chill off the floor (especially tiles) but is well short of being able to heat the room. These tend to have an on/off switch and nothing else; you can tell whether they're working by checking your electricity meter before and after flicking the switch from off to on - you should see a big increase in the electricity being consumed (might need to leave the system off for a few hours if the floor is already up to temperature).

The other type is a genuine room-heating floor, which will have a thermostat and quite possibly a variety of additional functions. Mine, for example, is programmed to heat the floor (and room) more at breakfast time and in the evening, and has a different rhythm at the weekends; and then there are two override settings - always on at the temperature I pick on the fly, or always off unless the temp drops below a temperature I choose. So the LED control panel displays all the info I need to know what's going on, but someone unfamiliar with the system wouldn't necessarily know whether or not it was working unless they knew what I'd told it to do.