Advice re underfloor heating systems appreciated.

[Frankyg]

Hello everyone,

I'm about to start a self build of a 3 bedroom dormer bungalow on Anglesey. The house will be heated entirely by electricity and a couple of woodburners, using PV panels to generate some electricity as well. I am looking at underfloor heating and would appreciate any views on which is better, wet or dry systems?

The house will have 2 bathrooms with electric showers and a suitable boiler for hot water. Any suggestions for the boiler? the house will not have any baths, just showers.

As a new build it will be very well insulated. Will it need underfloor heating upstairs or will some electric radiators do the trick?

Thank you for reading this. I am not a builder, I don't even own a hammer, and would appreciate any advice.

Regards
Frank

 

[Leesparkykent]

Hello everyone,

I'm about to start a self build of a 3 bedroom dormer bungalow on Anglesey. The house will be heated entirely by electricity and a couple of woodburners, using PV panels to generate some electricity as well. I am looking at underfloor heating and would appreciate any views on which is better, wet or dry systems?

The house will have 2 bathrooms with electric showers and a suitable boiler for hot water. Any suggestions for the boiler? the house will not have any baths, just showers.

As a new build it will be very well insulated. Will it need underfloor heating upstairs or will some electric radiators do the trick?

Thank you for reading this. I am not a builder, I don't even own a hammer, and would appreciate any advice.

Regards
Frank

If you went for a wet system you could incorporate the wood burners to heat the UF heating. Personally I would look at also installing an air source heat pump and put the rads upstairs on their own zone, possibly add a solar thermal panel on the roof as well. http://www.gledhill.net/pdf/torrent range issue 2.pdf something like this but instead of the boiler it would be an ASHP. This way you could also add the showers instead of having electric ones as you would have mains pressure hot water.

 

[davesparks]

In my opinion wet systems are better.
With an electric system you have the heating element buried in the floor which can and will go wrong at some point in time and need the floor dug up to fix.
With a wet system all of the active elements of the system are available to be worked on with just the pipes buried in the floor, which if installed properly will be far less likely to ever be a problem

 

[Frankyg]

Thank you Lee, the torrent looks interesting.

 

[Frankyg]

Thank you Dave, my bricklayer and floor man agree with you!

 

[Leesparkykent]

Thank you Lee, the torrent looks interesting.

There are other makes available but gledhill is one of the more well known brands. It may cost a little more initial outlay to buy/install the system but it will be efficient and give you user friendly control over the whole lot.

 

[ruston]

I would go for a wet system too .
Electric is fine for small areas , where repair if necessary will not cause too much disruption. Also the cost of electricity on a standard rate for a large area will be crippling.