Electric underfloor heating - any advice?

Hi all

It's been a while, and I hope everyone is well and in fine spirits.

I am seeking some advice / recommendations on electric underfloor heating.

We're about to have a kitchen extension built, the kitchen will be about 7m x 5m in the end, and this involves a new section house being 2m x 2m, our current kitchen is an 'L' shape and we are squaring it off. Cupboards will be on most walls, so actual walking space is around 6m x 3m.

We do have 1 large existing radiator that we shall replace and retain, and we have the ability to add one more radiator, that we shall probably do, but we are also thinking of electric underfloor heating to just take the cold edge off a tiled floor in the winter. But trying to research on the web, is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We know it won't heat the room perfectly, but we aren't looking for the room to be fully heated, just a 'glow' on the floor.

We have concrete floors, so do not want to go to the expense of water filled heating, the cost would far out weigh anŷ benefit.

What I can't find, and am looking for, is a recommendation on makes, products, anyone tried and tested, any horror stories, etc.

So anyone got anything, thanks y'all...

I seem to remember Bockers going through this scenario for his bathroom a couple of years ago Jim.

I used Ebeco electric underfloor heating beneath the tiles in my bathroom- was easy to fit the mat and cut it to the correct size and shape. you just have to use a flexible tile adhesive, and mitigate any heat sink through the concrete below. I used a qualified spark to inspect my work before I tiled and then connect to the mains to comply with building regs. It's been down 10 years and still works perfectly well.

I used Devimat under our bathroom tiled floor when it was done about 12 years ago. The long rod thermostat is contained in a tube set into the screed but withdrawable in case of replacement (kept under the bath in our case).

Easy to control with flexible timer.

Although it tends to come as a mat on a mesh roll with the red heated cable woven loosely through it you can "turn corners" by cutting the mesh (not the cable!) and repositioning the mat in whichever direction you want.

I got mine from here http://www.theunderfloorheatingstore.com/installation-videos-and-manuals
Mine is the pro warm mat and warmup stat i think
fairly straight forward to install
Be careful ringing them its a premium rate number!!!!! although they will give a direct number if you ask

Its all about what you want and what you expect
I did not have time to dig up floor to install decent insulation although the other half is on suspended wood flooring which is insulated quite well?

Best results would always be to dig up floor really thick insulation then concrete also thin insulation on the sides so no bridging on walls, i didnt do this as above

What i did was put down 12mm backing insulated boards taped the heated mat to it then cant remember exact height but approx 25mm of floor leveling compound then Karndean floor laid on top
Floor heats up fairly quickly and really heats the room up surprisingly well Just checked energy use not been on for last 24 hours but checking my smart meter use...
It peaked in dec average £3.29 a day and July average is £1.76 but everything is electric in my kitchen so some of that will be my induction hob and electric fan oven plus all the house electric usage lights tv computer etc so cannot say exactly what the heating would cost probably about £1.50-£2.50 a day when on???? obviously depends on mat size

Apologies for perhaps stating the obvious but remember to allow extra depth of floor when building the extension to allow for screed, tiles etc.

I have electric underfloor heating in both the shower room(12 years) and bathroom(8 years). I couldn't give you actual figures but we consider it cheap to run. Max power output is only 300 watt in ours. Installation cost was pretty cheap as the rooms were being totally redone anyway. I think it under £300 for the shower room and not much more for the bathroom. Granted that was some time ago but electrical items have generally got cheaper since then. Both rooms floor areas are small so that helped. The heating is totally programmable so each day can be programmed differently and temperatures can be set to suit.
In my experience the heating can heat the whole room but to do that the floor can get too hot(winter) to be comfortable on bare feet. This has to be gauged on an individual room basis. So we do still have towel radiators in each room. It's absolute bliss in the middle of winter when you have to visit the toilet during the night. Though we really only remember we have it, when we feel the cold floor tiles of places we visit that don't have it. cry I have slept on them on the odd occasion over the years. smile Especially when symptoms or illness necessitated being close to the bathroom. wink
If your budget can afford it then I would recommend it as I doubt you would regret it.

Our systems are: Warmup clicky

I laid my mat from the underfloorheatingstore directly on the concrete slab and then tiled over the top and had an electrictian install and test.

It works a treat, does not heat the room but takes the sting off the cold tiles and means they do not stay wet after bath or showering. Cost is about 20p a day and it's on most of the day. Perfect for what I needed it for.

Yes I could have dug the floor up and laid an insulated base but that would outweigh a lifetime of savings for what is not the main heating source for the room.

I would highly recommend it. Also for kitchens consider a plinth heater linky.

And glad to hear from you again Jim

We've got Devimat in two bathrooms (wood floor). Works ok.
But if itwas me, if there is any way to get warm water there....that is the way forward. In the great scheme of things, a bit of breakout and screeding isn't that expensive.
This from the perspective of doing a 2500sq ft extension, all the new bit downstairs is on warm water, which we didn't extend into the kitchen.
Massive massive mistake...

I have ‘Warmup’ electric underfloor heating in my kitchen which I installed about 4 years ago as part of an extension. 50% of the kitchen is now extension.

It is our only source of heating in the kitchen and it is sufficient, but all external walls were newly constructed 4 years ago so have good insulation, especially when compared to the rest of the 1930’s house.

The control unit we have provides a lot of flexibility, almost indefinite on/off times but I mostly use the pre-set programme. It has the ability to set for air temperature cut out as well as floor temperature cut out. This would be a useful feature if you have two separate heating systems running in a single room, especially if you keep the main thermostat in a different part of the house.

I put down insulation boards on top of the concrete floor, laid the heating mat, then a thin layer of self-levelling screed before tiling. You can tile straight onto some types of heating but I wanted to have protection in case a tile needed to be replaced in future. I also am not an experienced tiler so wanted to make it easier for myself.

Please consider floor depths early! I spent a long time working out how deep the floor construction would be for the kitchen (and the hall which we were also working on and had wood flooring planned) to make sure there was as little step as possible between rooms. If you wish to keep the same finished floor level, you will almost certainly have to dig down in your existing kitchen sub base.

Warmup has a running cost calculator on their website.

One mistake I made was to lay the elements to the width of the cupboard plus a little extra for any cupboard stand-off (in case walls weren’t straight) and to give some contingency on any measuring/estimating errors. I forgot that the kick boards are set back from the front of the cupboard so ended up with a ‘cold gap’ around the edge of the kitchen. It’s only really noticeable when washing up but it annoys me.

Yep we have warmup in our kitchen/diner. We used the insulating mat then the foil heating system. All I can say it's lovely coming down stairs in my bare feet being warmed as I go about my morning routine in the chilly times. Thermostat can be programed to tailor your needs, switching off at holidays if you are away for instance.

Happy days.

A footmat?

Slippers? Lol

I've only stopped laughing at this, even showed Mrs Jimboy this, she just looked at me in delusion while I lost the plot with laughter....

Longer arms

Dishwasher