Underfloor heating during house construction

Certainly one of the most important, but also the most expensive, items when building a house is the choice of heating. In one of the previous posts, I mentioned a couple of heating systems. This post will focus mostly on the difference between underfloor heating and radiator heating. Additionally, it will discuss the space required to install the system.

Floor or radiator heating

When considering heating options for your home, one of the initial decisions to make is whether to install radiators or underfloor heating. In my opinion, radiators are not a viable option as they can be quite bulky and unsightly. While some may disagree, it’s important to note that they do take up a lot of space and can’t be hidden by furniture. Placing a couch or sectional in front of a radiator to save space may compromise the heat distribution.

This form of heating does not take up space and you cannot see it. On the other hand, with underfloor heating, the house takes much longer to warm up.

installation of floor heating

Radiators and underfloor heating

  • The temperature of the water in the radiators is around 50-60 degrees, while in the underfloor heating it is 30-45.
  • Due to the low temperature of the water, this form of heating is suitable for systems using renewable energy sources such as heat pumps.
  • Regardless of the higher water temperature, you can connect the radiators to a system with a heat pump, but the savings provided by that system will be much smaller.
  • This form of heating does not raise dust (tried in real life). Unfortunately, the dust will be where you left it.
  • Underfloor heating is not bad for your health/veins/whatever. I don’t know why I’m writing this, but when you read about underfloor heating, everyone fears for their health.
  • Nowadays, you can put tiles, parquet or laminate on the underfloor heating. What I found out in conversation with various masters is that, if you install parquet, the time required to heat up the room is 20-30% longer than with tiles. Makes sense, but take this with a grain of salt as they are all “experts”.
  • If you have radiators, there is a high probability that you will turn the heating on/off depending on whether you are in the house or not. With a system with underfloor heating, you will leave the heating on when you leave the house because it is not worth switching the system on and off. You will spend more energy reheating the house if you have underfloor heating than if it is always on, so it only regulates when it needs to be heated up.
  • Underfloor heating is not affected by wardrobes, beds or other furniture in the house. Unless you fill the entire room with furniture, you won’t have any problems.
  • Whatever they tell you, underfloor heating costs more than radiator heating. In many places you can read that it costs the same or “negligibly” more, but that is not exactly true. Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact price ratio, but you will definitely pay more for underfloor heating.

What does underfloor heating look like?

As I have experience with this form of heating, I will give a brief overview of what it entails. In a future post, I can provide more detailed information on how a floor heating system works in conjunction with a heat pump. However, that is beyond the scope of this current post.

This is the layout of the layers during construction

  1. Cardboard box
  2. Construction film
  3. Styrofoam (hard for facades) or Styrofoam
  4. Floor heating pipes
  5. Glaze
  6. Tiles/laminate/parquet
installation of underfloor heating

Underfloor heating pipes can be installed on something called raster styrofoam specifically designed for this form of heating. Or they can be laid on regular styrofoam and secured with plastic.

There is no definitive answer on which method is better as different experts have different opinions. The most crucial factor is that the pipes are placed as closely together as possible in order to generate sufficient heat. There may be industry standards, but not all professionals adhere to them.

Are there places where underfloor heating is not installed?

In my personal experience, the contractor did not install the pipes under the bathtub, sink and kitchen fixtures as they may have become too hot and caused damage to those elements, particularly in the kitchen. Initially, I was concerned about the possibility of moving those fixtures in the future. But it turned out to be not a problem because those areas are small and don’t affect the overall heating of the room. Additionally, the underfloor heating did not harm any wardrobes or beds, so there is no need to worry about that.

Stay tuned for our future posts as there will be plenty of interesting things about the heat pump system, from the space required for installation to the efficiency of the system.

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