Under Floor Heating

[DonAndersen]

Folks,

 

Wife and I got talking about replacing the flooring in the kitchen & dining room with tile and she springs "underfloor heating" on me. I have no idea what this is and Thank God for the internet, I'm now more informed.

 

She then tell me that folks all over the west coast have this stuff.

 

Is it any good?

 

What is the failure rate?

 

DYI project?

 

Does it make any difference in home comfort as we have forced air heating presently and this would be an addition.

 

HELP!!!!

 

 

Don

 

[Toirtis]

Is it any good?

 

Very good.

 

What is the failure rate?

 

Very low.

 

DYI project?

 

Depends on how handy you are...it is not that difficult if you are reasonably handy, but do your research first, as it is very difficult (as you might imagine) to tweak/fix once you have installed your floor.

 

Does it make any difference in home comfort as we have forced air heating presently and this would be an addition.

 

Big difference. Warm feets = warm you, and since the heat radiates upwards from a broad base, it warms the air nicely, too, so your furnace will not be on as much. It is very efficient, and due to its nature, does not dry the air or create/move around dust the way a forced-air furnace does.

 

I know a number of people with this sort of heating in one or more rooms of their home, and not a single one regrets installing it.....it is particularly nice under the bathroom tiles, and in the kitchen.

[jimbow]

on a larger scale on our major reno we busted out the basement floor and repoured it with in floor heating. we sometimes barely need the furnace running to heat the upstairs. it is fabulous and if i were building new i would do the whole house that way.

[Roast]

Our master bathroom has it, and its awesome. We have the electric pad type by nuheat. I know that you can order custom pads for odd shapes if needed. Ours is also on a thermostat/timer that comes on before we get up in the morning, shuts off while at work then starts again before we go to bed. Its pretty slick. You can tell a huge difference in temp from the places with the pad to the few small places that don't have it. I know the pad is very slim, so it won't change your floor level a lot if you have some transitions:)

[126barnes]

Are your looking for a heated floor or a warm floor, they can be two different animals all together.

 

As you already have a heating system in place, you only need a warm floor.

 

I recently installed a 110V system under a stone tile sloor in my ensuite that I am very happy with.

 

This was my first job with tile or a tracing heating system, so for a feller who can build a bamboo rod from scratch should have no problem with this.

 

I choose a non return single wire system instead of a mat (wierd shape room and did not want to wait for a custom mat) you just loop the wire in glued/screwed down clips around the room and screed it in. Lay your tile on top of that as you would if it was a non heated floor.

 

I got my stuff from home depot, trace heating cost me $300 (this depends on sq. footage.........and it get expensive fast) Theromstat with infloor sensor runs about a hundy. So for about 5 hundy I put in a warming system in a 63 sq.ft bathroom.

 

Note that the system i put in working on floor temp and not room temp. That being said I live in a house built in 1905 with no exterior wall insulation and the original windows. I am very surprised on the room heating capability of the this system, It was been installed for a full year and I only turned the electric heat on twice all last winter...............With my floor heated to 82F the room stays at comfortable temp for the misses and three kids to shower in the dead of winter. The system draws ~500W (depends on length of wire or size of mat and is recommented to have its own 15A circuit for the 110v system and 20A for the 220v system. That being said a 15A circuit is good from ~1500W and a 20A circuit is good for 3500W.

 

It came with a video that was very helpful, hope this helps.

 

Make sure you check your system for continuaty and resisance before you start.

[DonAndersen]

Folks,

 

Thanx to all for their advice.

 

SWMBO just poked her head in and the orders were clear " we are getting a tile guy in for the tile and and electrician for the heating wire/pad."

 

Now that was clear. Still, at least I have some idea what is involved.

 

regards,

 

 

Don

[Taco]

OhOh big bucks! you're gonna hafta sell some of them grass rods

[DonAndersen]

Taco,

 

No sweat - send check!!

 

 

Don