Heating Systems & Products

Under Floor Heating

How Underfloor Heating Works

In under floor heating, rooms are heated by (lukewarm) water circulating in continuous pipe loops embedded in the concrete floors or aluminium plates. To ensure total reliability, there are no joints in the pipes in the floors. The floor surface reaches a pleasant temperature of around 27°C, and produces an even heat at all points in the room.

Virtually any floor covering can be used from the obvious such as stone, tiles etc., but many people are surprised to see that the seemingly unlikely combination of wooden floors and underfloor heating are growing hugely in popularity. Most solid woods can be used (avoid Beech –it cracks!) once dried slowly over the heated floor before fixing (they will shrink a little width-ways before fixing), alternatively some manufacturers of wooden floors with engineered carry a warranty for use with this type of heating. Whilst this type of flooring is more expensive per square metre initially, there are cost and time savings in construction.

In parts of the house needing greater levels of heat such as near large windows or in the conservatories pipes are laid at closer spacing, so giving greater heat where required.

Unipipe Dry-Fit

So why does underfloor heating cost less to run? 

There is a combination of reasons: -

1. As the heat literally radiates from the ground, the room is warmer at lower levels and cooler at the ceiling. This is the opposite from radiator heating with which the hotter air rises directly up to the higher levels in the room. In terms of comfort, this is also an ideal temperature profile, having a warm body and a cool head! Many churches and older period buildings are now using floor heating, and as a result, take advantage of even bigger energy savings because of their lofty ceiling heights.

    

2. ·As mentioned above, the heat from the floor is radiant or ‘reflected’ onto the occupants. This phenomenon allows one to feel more comfortable with a slightly lower actual air temperature. With convected heat such as that from radiators, all the air in the room must be heated, as it heats the occupants by the warm air in contact with them. A side benefit from this is that a building using floor heating has a much less stuffy atmosphere and is healthier.

    

3. The water in the floor loops is at a much lower temperature than conventional heating. (Usually no more than 45°C as opposed to 70°C) When you couple the low running temperature of the system water with any type of heatpump or condensing gas boiler, there are big savings. Our Nibe heatpumps will generate the required temperature directly to the floor heating in relation to the outside temperature, so on a day where the outside temperature is 5° the flow to the floors would only have to be about 32°.  

Reasons For Using Unipipe Floor Heating

• 100% Oxygen Tight - Multilayer technology with metal core pipe
• Easy to fit, maintenance free and very long life span
• Invisible Comfort adds value to your property
• Lower Temperature - the water in the tubes is needs to be no more than just 40°C or less
• Advanced range of control options including weather compensation and a comprehensive range of thermostats to suit any needs
• One stop-shop design and supply for Underfloor / Heat-pumps / Solar.
• Experience - Our staff have been involved in floor heating in Ireland since 1983 and heatpumps since 1985!

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