The Benefits of Underfloor Heating in Your Home.
While most benefits of underfloor heating are easy to spot, others aren’t so apparent until after you have a system installed; it’s at that point you have one of those, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” moments.
Pure Comfort
The most obvious advantage of using underfloor heating as opposed to traditional heating methods (radiators, forced-air) is that of comfort.
Traditional systems heat from the top down and have a tendency to over-heat your head, leading to stuffiness. The heat is concentrated into relatively small areas (e.g. near a radiator) and the heaters heat the air next to them. The air then rises up the wall, along the ceiling into the centre of the room. When it reaches the centre of the room, it cools slightly, and then descends towards the floor. The result is a warm head and cool feet.
To get warmer feet, you may need to overheat the head; as the feet naturally act our ‘thermostat’ warm feet generally means we feel comfortable.
Underfloor heating (AKA in-floor heating) heats the whole floor area resulting in the opposite vertical heat stratification – warm feet and a cool head.
Interior Design Flexibility
Using an underfloor heating system in place of radiators presents you with more useable space. You no longer have to arrange your furniture so as not to block radiators.
Individual Control
Most systems are installed on a room by room basis, each running off of its own programmable thermostat. For example, while you may wish to have a warm floor in the bathroom and kitchen in the morning, you probably don?t care if the lounge is on until the evening. With a direct-acting (on when you want it on) underfloor heating, you can individually adjust temperature settings in each room to suit your needs. This benefit leads to the next;
System Efficiency
Underfloor heating can result in a 15% energy saving over traditional electric heating methods, assuming it has been properly installed and is run using a programmable thermostat.
Cleanliness
Underfloor Heating reduces the number of airborne allergens by lowering air moisture levels in areas such as bathrooms by drying wet floors and walls. It also helps reduce drafts, aiding people with asthma or other breathing complications.
Low Maintenance
With underfloor heating there are no rads to bleed, no pipes to burst and nothing to flush. An occasional dusting of the thermostat is all that is required.