Underfloor heating advice

Super_Eddie_Youds

Hi all

Having my bathroom redone and need a good heat source as it's a cold room. My questions to the CL experts are:

- Is it any good? Should i just go old school radiator?
- Is the electric between tile filament stuff dangerous?
- What is a reasonable cost?

The room is just shy of 3m x 3m with an outside wall and 2 windows (fancy eh?)

Thanks in advance.

iamdan

Whatever you do make sure the underfloor heating works before you lay the tiles down.... huge error from me ha.

SoundAsa£

Electric underfloor heating is great, particularly in a bathroom.
Only down side is you don't get instant heat......it takes several hours to heat up,
so of course you need to set it up on thermostat control and leave it on permanently during winter months. Supposed to be very efficient to run and pretty easy to install.
Years since I've had one installed, so I have no idea of current pricing.

JohnBoyUK

The electric underfloor in our bathroom works well for warming the tiles but wouldn't honestly say that its sufficient for warming the entire bathroom without an additional rad.
We've got a full length heated towel rail which does the job nicely...and keeps the towels warm too!

Super_Eddie_Youds

We have a towel rail and it just won't cut it. Can see your breath in there in winter.

palarsehater

would always go electric, water/wet systems are a pain in the ass and also a higher chance of leakage, we probably do 10/15 callouts a year to people piercing holes in them also a lot of the pipework isnt a standard size so fittings have to be ordered direct from manufacturer

palarsehater

if going electric deviheat are the best they do a mesh system or a loose lay cable system for an average sized bathroom for heating cable and a programmer would allow £120/150 plus installation.

guinnessaddick

JohnBoyUK said:

The electric underfloor in our bathroom works well for warming the tiles but wouldn't honestly say that its sufficient for warming the entire bathroom without an additional rad.
We've got a full length heated towel rail which does the job nicely...and keeps the towels warm too!

Depends, how many towels you try to put on it, ours seem to have every slot filled with a towel.

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

We have a towel rail and it just won't cut it. Can see your breath in there in winter.

Get a bigger one.

Super_Eddie_Youds

guinnessaddick said:

JohnBoyUK said:

The electric underfloor in our bathroom works well for warming the tiles but wouldn't honestly say that its sufficient for warming the entire bathroom without an additional rad.
We've got a full length heated towel rail which does the job nicely...and keeps the towels warm too!

Depends, how many towels you try to put on it, ours seem to have every slot filled with a towel.

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

We have a towel rail and it just won't cut it. Can see your breath in there in winter.

Get a bigger one.

got the biggest output i could find, they're just inefficient for anything other than a warm towel as far as i can make out.

Super_Eddie_Youds

palarsehater said:

if going electric deviheat are the best they do a mesh system or a loose lay cable system for an average sized bathroom for heating cable and a programmer would allow £120/150 plus installation.

thanks - cheaper than i imagined

can they heat a room that size do you think?

Rob7Lee

If your rooms that cold get both. You can get the towel rail linked to the hot water so whenever that's on so is the towel rail.

palarsehater

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

palarsehater said:

if going electric deviheat are the best they do a mesh system or a loose lay cable system for an average sized bathroom for heating cable and a programmer would allow £120/150 plus installation.

thanks - cheaper than i imagined

can they heat a room that size do you think?

9m sq is quite a large area and you would normally only heat the bits that your feet will touch as its wasted underneath units, baths, showers etc. its installed on top of either concrete/timber flooring then your tiles go directly on top

SoundAsa£

Surely you simply buy a big enough heating pad to suit the size of the room......I never had a problem and it kept my bathroom warm as toast at just a medium setting.

SoundAsa£

Oh one other thing......it's great for drying clothes......just put your clothes rack out over night and job done!

guinnessaddick

SoundAsa£ said:

Oh one other thing......it's great for drying clothes......just put your clothes rack out over night and job done!

What about leaving wet towels on the floor?

happyvalley

Don't make the mistake Charlton made by not connecting the pipes to the boiler.

SoundAsa£

guinnessaddick said:

SoundAsa£ said:

Oh one other thing......it's great for drying clothes......just put your clothes rack out over night and job done!

What about leaving wet towels on the floor?

Never did that, but no doubt it would dry them equally as well......I hung mine on wall towel rails.

Valiantphil

Go for it !
Don't get cold feet.

bobmunro

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

guinnessaddick said:

JohnBoyUK said:

The electric underfloor in our bathroom works well for warming the tiles but wouldn't honestly say that its sufficient for warming the entire bathroom without an additional rad.
We've got a full length heated towel rail which does the job nicely...and keeps the towels warm too!

Depends, how many towels you try to put on it, ours seem to have every slot filled with a towel.

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

We have a towel rail and it just won't cut it. Can see your breath in there in winter.

Get a bigger one.

got the biggest output i could find, they're just inefficient for anything other than a warm towel as far as i can make out.

The only heating in our bathrooms is from towel rails (albeit big ones) and they work a treat.

eaststandmike

I have just moved into a new house and have underfloor heating throughout the ground floor. I thought I would hate it however I would not be without now. All the areas are zoned and I have 4 x control units to regulate the temp in each zone.

In my old house the temp would be up and down like a yoyo and us forever playing around with the thermostat, in this place you set the temp you want and forget all about it.

Ours is a water pipe system run by gas. Seems to be very economical as well.

A-R-T-H-U-R

Just fitted these babies in my new bathroom.
Lovely.

JohnBoyUK

eaststandmike said:

I have just moved into a new house and have underfloor heating throughout the ground floor. I thought I would hate it however I would not be without now. All the areas are zoned and I have 4 x control units to regulate the temp in each zone.

In my old house the temp would be up and down like a yoyo and us forever playing around with the thermostat, in this place you set the temp you want and forget all about it.

Ours is a water pipe system run by gas. Seems to be very economical as well.

We've got our hallway and new kitchen/diner/lounge being laid next week. Our builder recommended the Nu-Heat system.
Can set the temperature on a panel or via an app on your phone from anywhere. He told us we won't need to use the radiators and its supposed to be more economical. Will believe the economical bit when I see our gas bill come down!

Elthamaddick

have underfloor heating throughout the downstairs and upstairs in the bathroom, love it - also have a heated towel rail in the bathroom and even in winter we have the window open slightly

Solidgone

Just put a three bar electric fire in the bath room. I'm sure that will keep you warm as toast!

Dazzler21

When this is the most popular thread, you know it's bad.

T_C_E

A-R-T-H-U-R said:

Just fitted these babies in my new bathroom.
Lovely.

Finally, there's something in my wardrobe the CL fashion police have told me I can keep.

seth plum

I have had underfloor heating in my bathroom for four years. However I can't for the life of me understand how to work the touchscreen control panel so I have never turned it on.

Alwaysneil

Elthamaddick said:

have underfloor heating throughout the downstairs and upstairs in the bathroom, love it - also have a heated towel rail in the bathroom and even in winter we have the window open slightly

Penguins gonna hate you.

My advice - do not fix in mesh heating and then mess with the tiles as it will break and your underfloor heating won't work, you will miss it so much you will relay the floor.

Do get heating where you can easily set the level or even better the temperature and if multiple rooms definitely get zonal heating, definitely worth it. Also avoids having to have the window open in the winter....

Super_Eddie_Youds

Alwaysneil said:

Elthamaddick said:

have underfloor heating throughout the downstairs and upstairs in the bathroom, love it - also have a heated towel rail in the bathroom and even in winter we have the window open slightly

Penguins gonna hate you.

My advice - do not fix in mesh heating and then mess with the tiles as it will break and your underfloor heating won't work, you will miss it so much you will relay the floor.

Do get heating where you can easily set the level or even better the temperature and if multiple rooms definitely get zonal heating, definitely worth it. Also avoids having to have the window open in the winter....

Doing the whole room so this shouldn't be an issue.

Not much negative press for the underfloor here to be fair, will look into the suggestions of bran. Cheers all.

Super_Eddie_Youds

bobmunro said:

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

guinnessaddick said:

JohnBoyUK said:

The electric underfloor in our bathroom works well for warming the tiles but wouldn't honestly say that its sufficient for warming the entire bathroom without an additional rad.
We've got a full length heated towel rail which does the job nicely...and keeps the towels warm too!

Depends, how many towels you try to put on it, ours seem to have every slot filled with a towel.

Super_Eddie_Youds said:

We have a towel rail and it just won't cut it. Can see your breath in there in winter.

Get a bigger one.

got the biggest output i could find, they're just inefficient for anything other than a warm towel as far as i can make out.

The only heating in our bathrooms is from towel rails (albeit big ones) and they work a treat.

@bobmunro what make are these towel warmers of yours? The heat calculation thing i did seem to preclude all but oil fired ones that were over a grand a pop. Are your towels Kevlar?

Super_Eddie_Youds

seth plum said:

I have had underfloor heating in my bathroom for four years. However I can't for the life of me understand how to work the touchscreen control panel so I have never turned it on.

Why not just have a go, if you break it, you don't lose anything if you're not using it anyway...