Copper tube underfloor heating in Bathroom.

[motorhomes4sale]

I have just been working on my bathroom and decided to replace all the floor and install some underfloor heating. It works great. The finished floor is covered with Karndean.

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• motorhomes4sale
• 5 May 2010
• 3

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• motorhomes4sale
• 5 May 2010
• 2

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• motorhomes4sale
• 5 May 2010
• 1

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• motorhomes4sale
• 5 May 2010
• 1

 

[ItsOverFlo]

Would you say that this type of installation would be classed as efficient???

 

[westeleven]

did you denso it? ignore me - it looked like a concrete floor but then I looked again

 

[hammerswinger]

Looks good to me...nice warm floor under foot when you get out of the bath.

 

[motorhomes4sale]

Only cost me the price of 3 x 3 metre lengths of 15mm tube plus some 15mm elbows and some insulation, about £30 total.

I am really happy I did it, it makes a big difference.

 

[neds]

Nice idea for a small area. Is that compression fittings I spot under the tails/chrome pipe? Any reason why you used that? I tend to shy away from any compression fittings under floors. You could easily have rubbed down the chrome and used a soldered elbow?

 

[motorhomes4sale]

Nice idea for a small area. Is that compression fittings I spot under the tails/chrome pipe? Any reason why you used that? I tend to shy away from any compression fittings under floors. You could easily have rubbed down the chrome and used a soldered elbow?

Yes they are compression fittings onto the chromed copper tube. It was a couple of weeks before I screwed the floor down so I kept checking them. I am only a DIY'r not a proffesional plumber. If I do another job in the future I will use all solder joints wher possible, I know its better.

 

[JPC]

the floor will be roasty toasty at 80c !!!

 

[htgeng]

the floor will be roasty toasty at 80c !!!

Maybe not if hes running the system at lower temp, such as 70c and has cavity wall, double glazing, loft insulation etc. Also did he plumb it on return. Then you are down to more like 55c-60 which is very close to regular underfloor.

Its a good idea. Most plumbers would not do it though as it would carry too much risk of comebacks. But if you are doing it DIY, sure. If i was doing it, i would have used a single loop of PEX and brought the tails back underneath the bath with separate valves.

 

[motorhomes4sale]

the floor will be roasty toasty at 80c !!!

Maybe not if hes running the system at lower temp, such as 70c and has cavity wall, double glazing, loft insulation etc. Also did he plumb it on return. Then you are down to more like 55c-60 which is very close to regular underfloor.

Its a good idea. Most plumbers would not do it though as it would carry too much risk of comebacks. But if you are doing it DIY, sure. If i was doing it, i would have used a single loop of PEX and brought the tails back underneath the bath with separate valves.

I was going to use 15mm plastic pipe, then the more I thought about it I realised it would not work. Plastic 15mm pipe is designed to keep the water hot inside the pipe and not to let the heat out which is what I want. The plastic pipe used in underfloor heating is 16mm and has a thinner wall to allow the heat out, this is normally joined to the systen via a manifold. All I have spent is £30 and I can assure you I now have a lovely warm bathroom floor. I insulated below the pipes with 200mm insulation and aluminium thermal foil so most of the heat has to go upwards. I also block off the gaps between the joist to next room.

 

[Agile]

I appreciate that would be the expectation but in reality the thermal conductivity of the plastic tube becomes of litle consequence when the other floor covering is taken into account.

Thats why all professional UFH installations use plastic tubing.

For everyone's amusement, I once say a DIY UFH installation where they had 90m length of 10mm copper tube.

Not surprisingly after the first 10m of tube the water had lost most of its heat as the flow rate was so low because of the high resistance of such a long length of tubing.

To make matters worse he had covered all that tube with expensive wood block flooring.

Tony

 

[motorhomes4sale]

BUT, the UFH plastic pipe is different to the normall 15mm pipe.

it is single wall and is 16mm so I wouldn't be able to join it in to my flow and return for my bathroom radiator.

 

[htgeng]

For everyone's amusement, I once say a DIY UFH installation where they had 90m length of 10mm copper tube.

Not surprisingly after the first 10m of tube the water had lost most of its heat as the flow rate was so low because of the high resistance of such a long length of tubing.

Tony

I imagine mains pressure water would have barely piddled out one end of that either. Underfloor in bathrooms is a good idea however you do it as any water drips on the floor will quickly evaporate.

 

[Agile]

UFH may be fine in a huge Cambridge bathroom but in London most are about six feet long and the same wide so the heat output is no more than about 400w maximum.

It does not help either that people expect a chrome towel rad to do heating either when the heat loss is 400w bare and 100w when covered with towels.

I suppose UFH and a towel rail might start to do some heating but I like the bathroom to be the hotest room as I take off my clothes there. Mine is a little larger but with two external solid walls so even the 1 kW double rad only gets it mildly warm.

Tony

 

[RigidRaider]

Fantastic! When I felt a warm patch from pipes under our bathroom floor I realised I could easily have done the same thing but by then it was too late, it was all screwed down and covered.

Don't tell my wife.