MARTYN O'CONNOR & Co

Heating Engineers & Plumbers

UNDERFLOOR HEATING SYSTEMS

Underfloor heating's unrivalled feelings of comfort and economy of use are illustrated by the charts below. The curved line shows the temperature variation from floor to celing in a typical room heated by various methods, alongside the ideal for human comfort.

As you can see, the Underfloor heating curve closely matches the ideal whereas Radiators and Hot Air systems result in a pool of hot air at the celing and the lowest temperature at your feet.

Ideal    Underfloor  Rads     Warm Air

To maintain comfort the air temperature at eye level is about 20deg C for Underfloor, 22deg C for Radiators and 26deg C for Warm Air systems. It is accepted that heating costs rise by about 10% for every 1deg C above 20 that you set your thermostat, so running cost savings of around 20% against radiators is quite possible. Similarly, emissions of greenhouse gasses from your boiler will also be less.

You may think that 20degC seems a bit cold, but experience suggests that this is not so. This is partly due to the fact that unlike Radiators, the gentle radiant heat from the floor does not dry the air and relative humidity levels are maintained so it feels a couple of degrees warmer. The air remains still, as it is not circulated by convection from hot radiators so you feel less draft and less dust is stirred up.

Less drying of the air is kinder to your lungs and to your furniture and the 'hard' floor finishes more common with Underfloor heating remove breeding places for the dust mites that are implicated in various medical conditions.

Any floor finish can be incorporated, Tiles, Wood or Carpet, and systems can be installed upstairs or down. The photos show the pipe work prior to concrete pouring or floor screeding for a solid floor. As you can see, the heating pipe work can go in at a very early stage.

Alternatively, pipes are laid prior to finish floor screed, and a typical method is shown below

Various other methods are used for suspended floors, floating floors etc

NEW CONSERVATORY?

Underfloor heating is ideal and can easily be hooked up to your existing radiator system

Interested? why not 'phone for a chat?

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