Underfloor heating question

[Homerdoh]

I'm thinking of having underfloor heating in the utility room, will it be ok to spur off the utility ring final circuit which has 2 unswitched single sockets for washing machine and tumble dryer and another 2 double sockets?
Or can it be included in the ring? If so then what would I need to get apart from the actual heating mat?

regards

Homer

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If so then what would I need to get apart from the actual heating mat?

An electrician.

 

[JohnW2]

I'm thinking of having underfloor heating in the utility room, ...

None of my business, but I would have thought that a utility room was a very odd place to want UFH (or, necessarily, any heating at all).

Kind Regards, John

 

[ekmdgrf]

Perhaps the OP wants to decant washing straight from the washing machine to the floor for drying?

 

[Taylortwocities]

A lot more information required:

I'm guessing you are thinking about ELECTRIC underfloor heating - there are other types!

What sort of subfloor is this sitting on, any insulation?

Is this to be the sole form of heating for the room, or just to keep your feet warm?

If electric, what size and curent draw is the mat?

 

[Homerdoh]

I'm thinking of having underfloor heating in the utility room, ...

None of my business, but I would have thought that a utility room was a very odd place to want UFH (or, necessarily, any heating at all).

Kind Regards, John

My utility room has a glass roof and has windows all around so it's more like a conservatory really so will probably get quite cold in the winter mornings.

regards

Homer

 

[Homerdoh]

A lot more information required:

I'm guessing you are thinking about ELECTRIC underfloor heating - there are other types!

What sort of subfloor is this sitting on, any insulation?

Is this to be the sole form of heating for the room, or just to keep your feet warm?

If electric, what size and curent draw is the mat?

Yes it'll be electric ufh.

Concrete slab down over 100mm extratherm insulation.

There is a radiator on the long external wall

ProWarm Electric underfloor heating 200w mat kit 8.0m2

regards

Homer

 

[Taylortwocities]

OK, so your load is going to be 1.6KW

I hope that you aren't expecting it to heat the space up too much. Underfloor heating isn't great for that, its nice on your bare feet, but I dont have bare feet in my utility room.

A bigger radiator might be more the thing.

But, and per the above from BAS, you'll need an electrician, and an RCD, and a fused spur. And a read of BS7671 about the requirements for floor heating systems.

 

[JohnW2]

My utility room has a glass roof and has windows all around so it's more like a conservatory really so will probably get quite cold in the winter mornings.

Fair enough - if you regard a 'quite cold' utility room as being a problem. However, as others have said, if it 'gets quite cold' for the reasons you mention, I fear that UFH is not going to have major impact.

The utility room is presumably only occupied occasionally, and for relatively short periods. Wouldn't some sort of 'instant heat' (e.g. fan heater or a 'radiant heat' thingy), just when the room was being used, be a more cost-effective solution, as compared with something like UFH which has to be on for a long time to achieve anything much at all?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

My son has installed under floor heating. Main idea is to get rid of the excess heat produced by the wood burning stove. Water has one huge advantage the floor can only get as hot as the water so there is a limit how hot it can get.

With electric using a chemical compound which increases resistance as it warms up you can get some where near the same result. This was first developed for trace heating. But many systems still use a simple resistance wire these are also split into two types some have around 2 meters between connections and the cable can be cut to nearest two meter link point others are all or nothing.

Major problem where water may be involved be it a wet room or utility room is either whole lot needs covering with an earthed mat or a special type with earth is required.

However the biggest problem is to get that heat into the room. The maximum temperature of the floor is 29°C and your aiming at getting room to 20°C so just 9 degrees. With a radiator 65 ~ 80°C so although a greater area still had to get heat into the room. With a carpet or timber floor temperature down to 27°C maximum and since the heating is unlikely even some bits will be a lot cooler.

I fitted electric underfloor heating to a wet room for my mother any hotter you could not walk on the floor but with a standard extractor fan running could not get the room warm. Fitted a towel rail not even a proper radiator and room far warmer underfloor heating is now never used.

Read here it's only really any good when it's a well insulated room needing very little heat. 100W per square meter is not much heat a 6 x 6 foot room will have 334 Watt to reach 1kW needs a room 12 x 9 foot.

In Chester there is a good example of the Roman hypocaust and when we had the technology 2000 years ago why do you think it was not used. Simple Britain is too cold.

There is another problem that wet room took 2 hours for the floor to get to temperature the room never did get warm but your looking at switching the heat on at least 3 hours before it is required. So if you use the room for 3 hours it will cost twice as much as using a fan heater.