Wireless and Underfloorheating!

ChickenBalls

Weird question but I thought I'd ask it.

I'm going to be getting underfloor heating soon on the ground floor and it will include diffusion plates which are metal strips that contain the heat. Example of what it looks like here
These plates will cover the whole floor prior to the wooden floor going down.
Now the question I want to ask is will this effect my wireless router that'll be on the same floor?

I'm trying to think logically about it and I think it could actually improve the signal as wireless signals travel through wood or maybe I'm way off but any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Thx.

hostyle

keith123 wrote:

I'm trying to think logically about it and I think it could actually improve the signal as wireless signals travel through wood

But the heaters are metal? Metal can reflect / degrade wireless signals. But if the wireless signal doesnt need to go through the floor then it doesnt make any difference.

SouperComputer

should be fine, you might get degradation if you put a laptop on the floor though!

causal

Underfloor heating certainly won't improve your signal. A light explanation follows:

When your signal is incident on a media boundary it is typically 'split' in three, so you have 3 new signals:
Transmitted - Reflected - Absorbed.
The total energy of the original signal is 'split' between these 3 signals, the amount for each depends on numerous factors.

General examples of how this 'splitting' is applied are:
A window is designed to maximise transmission and minimise abosorbtion and reflection
A mirror is designed to maximise reflection and minimise absorbtion and transmission
A solar panel is designed to maximise absorbtion and minimise reflection and transmission.

Your flooring and heaters will present numerous additional media boundaries to your signal - there will be loss to your transmitted signal due to absorbtion and reflection. But this won't matter if you don't need the signal on the other side of the floor.
Any reflected signal can interfere with your 'main' signal - but not noticeably. A large proportion of reflected signals tend to get trapped between the multiple media boundaries - and are ultimately absorbed.
Absorbtion is only a problem if you want good transmission.

hth,
causal

MorningStar

THe bottom line Is if they are ripping up the floor I would suggest putting in some network points. You can use the point directly or add another transmitter upstairs. If the transmission does get better later it will still be no problem having an extra port on the wall. THe benifits of wireless networks is the fact you don't have to rip up floors. If you are doing it anway might as well put in a partial network at least. Not hard, expensive if the floor is coming up anyway

ChickenBalls

Thanks for the tip - might do that...