Electric underfloor heating
When looking at how you heat your home you want to make sure that it’s as energy efficient as possible, which means not only seeing how efficient you’re heating system is. Many of the heating systems that people have in their homes are simply very inefficient, if you have an old boiler and heating system you will often find yourself with high heating bills because for the energy you are using to heat your home is not been used efficiently.
A good efficient heating solution is underfloor heating which uses radiant heat to heat your home, there are two types of this heating method, water underfloor heating also known as hydronic heat and electric underfloor heating. If you want a heating system that is versatile and easy to install then electric underfloor heating is the best, and you also have two methods to choose from.
Installing heating cables
This method consists or twin core resistance wire conductors that have an outer sheath of (usually) PTFE followed by screening foil, an earth braid and finally a waterproof protective outer jacket of either PVC or Teflon. The electric current that passes through the resistance wires and heats up the cable to a given temperature, which is dependent on the design of the conductor wires. The temperature is controlled by a thermostat set at the desired temperature, this is achieved by a floor probe sensor inserted into the floor during the installation phase and laid out in a position to sense a representative sample temperature of the heated floor. Electric heating cables can be installed in any configuration on your floor however whilst they are great for smaller areas they can be very difficult to work with when scaling up the installation to larger areas.
Installing heating mats
Electric underfloor heating mats have the heating cable pre-spaced by the manufacturer to produce a known output per m2, this is secured onto a fibreglass mat backing making them easier to install especially as a DIY job. You can have different outputs of: 100, 150, 160 or 200 watts per metre squared (W/m2) designed by using different conductor wire outputs per linear metre. These mats can be laid out very quickly as well as having added flexibility of allowing the mat backing to be cut and manoeuvred around obstacles (like kitchen islands and fixed units). This is because the heating cable is easily detached from the roll of mat backing and laid as a loose cable, fitting easily into those awkward areas.
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