Underfloor heating systems are one of the most efficient and reliable ways to provide heating throughout your property. They are more affordable, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly than the alternatives. And through individual heating zones and a modern underfloor heating control pack, they can be tuned to provide maximum comfort to your property.
Naturally, many property owners wonder how underfloor heating works with an existing central heating system? How is underfloor heating installed? How does electric underfloor heating work? How does water underfloor heating work? How do they compare? This article answers all these questions and more. If you've been looking for a guide on how to install underfloor heating, this is the right place!
What Qualities Should You Look for When Purchasing a Boiler for Heating Systems?
Finding the right boiler for underfloor heating is paramount and will decide your upfront costs, the quality of the heating, maintenance needs, energy bills, and far more. Instead of looking for specific brands or models, however, the right boiler for underfloor heating features certain qualities:
Energy Efficient
It is paramount when shopping around for a boiler or a heat pump to check the efficiency of the system first. Providing heating and hot water to an entire property consumes a lot of energy, and this will reflect on your energy bills. You need a highly efficient boiler system that doesn't consume a lot of energy while producing the amount of hot water required to run underfloor heating on the property properly.
People often ask whether combi boilers, electric boilers, or gas boilers are right for the job, but this isn't the right question. The type of system boilers you need largely depend on the efficiency of the model and local energy prices. At Culm Store, for example, we offer electric boilers that are highly efficient at generating heat and have an easy installation process, which makes them a perfect heat source for underfloor heating.
Capacity
Underfloor water heating systems completely rely on water to transfer heat throughout the property. A certain level of water pressure and flow speed is required to properly provide both heating and hot water to the property. Smaller boilers or heat pumps will likely not be able to perform the task adequately.
This is why at Culm Store, we provide tried and tested combi boilers that are not only designed to cope with large underfloor heating for massive complexes, but they can also provide adequate hot water for use as well. We offer models that are compatible with both domestic and commercial use.
Reliability
Chances are, when you purchase a central heating system, you are not only using it for underfloor heating but also for hot water access. Ensuring the reliability and continued operation of the system is paramount.
From purchasing a reliable brand to verifying the system's proper warranties, you need to take steps to ensure you purchase a reliable combi boiler that can provide sufficient levels of hot water to your underfloor heating system. Here at Culm Store, for example, all of our boilers have been thoroughly tested and come with generous warranties. When you purchase a Culm Store boiler, you not only get a quality product but also our support and assurances for years to come.
How to Design an Underfloor Heating System That's Compatible with Your Boiler?
Installing the Manifold
Manifolds act as the central control panels for underfloor heating zones in a property. They control the flow of water, the pressure levels, and the secondary circuits throughout the system. Typically, each floor has its own manifold, though in specific circumstances, a single manifold can serve an entire property.
The process starts by finding the right location for the manifold/heating controls. Ideally, it's an easy-to-access central location with equal distance from all the UH zones it controls.
Calculating Energy Requirements, Flow Rate Requirements, and Heat Loss
After deciding on the location of the manifold, it is time to calculate the energy and flow rate requirements of each underfloor heating zone. This is important to figure out the types of radiators and boiler systems you need. It is also directly influenced by heat loss, which is the amount of energy lost from the transfer of heat from the boiler to the UH pipes and then to the floor surface.
Deciding on Proper Pipe Sizes
For proper heat transfer to occur between the pipes and the floor surface, a certain amount and flow of water is required, as we mentioned above. Larger pipe sizes offer more surface, which speeds up heating, but naturally, they require more hot water to operate.
Part of designing an underfloor heating system is figuring out the proper pipe sizes you need to transfer heated water to the various UH zones.
Calculating Installation Costs
After the properties of the system are decided on, it is time to calculate the costs. Beyond pipework, manifolds, and electric systems, the installation costs will also involve setting up temperature sensors, radiators, and a hot water cylinder. It is important not to miss the smaller details as to not go over budget.
Tips to Maintain Your Underfloor Heating Systems
Perform Regular Maintenance
Performing regular maintenance is a crucial requirement for ensuring the efficiency and reliability of underfloor heating systems. Heating systems include many moving parts that require constant attention, and only through regular maintenance can you ensure your boiler system isn't only working, but it is working as efficiently as possible.
Ideally, you should hire a qualified heating engineer to closely inspect the system on a yearly or biyearly basis. While property owners can easily detect issues if they impact the quality of the heating or hot water directly, some inefficiencies and issues are much harder to detect by a layman.
Don't Overwork Your Underfloor Heating System
Each property has unique heating and hot water needs that are based on its location, its number of residents, their lifestyles, and more. It can be easy to look at the internet or some magazine for guides on how to tune your boiler, when to turn it off, and how much energy you should consume, but these measures are all imperfect.
Do the residents of the property travel often? Do they have a preference for cold or hot temperatures? How many dishwashers, baths, or pools does the property have? These questions will help you answer, much more accurately than any magazine or online article, the heating and energy needs of your property.
After you've properly estimated the heating and hot water needs of your property, you should properly adjust your boiler to meet your needs without overworking itself. To practically put this tip into action, there are a few steps you can take:
- Turn off the boiler if you go on long trips.
- During temperate weather, if you don't need access to constant hot water or heating, consider giving your boiler periodic breaks.
- Turn down or turn off the underfloor heating thermostat if the property doesn't require central heating during certain seasons.
Boilers for Underfloor Heating FAQ
Does the Location of the Boiler Matter for Underfloor Heating?
The short answer is that no, the location of the boiler is largely inconsequential to the performance and reliability of your underfloor heating system if the pipe network and circulation have been properly cut off.
The long answer is that both the environment you host the boiler in and the boiler's distance from the underfloor heating systems and radiators on your property have a marginal impact on the performance, reliability, and efficiency of your system. Installing the boiler system in a cool, spacious area with low humidity, for example, will not only increase the efficiency of the overall system, but it will also help maintain the system and increase its longevity.
Should I Choose a Boiler or a Heat Pump When Designing an Underfloor Heating System?
There are several steps to consider when selecting a boiler or heat pump for your heating system. First and foremost, you need to ensure the boiler has sufficient heating capacity to power the UH zones throughout your property while providing access to hot water.
Next, you need to check the piping. Underfloor pipes require a certain water pressure and water flow to heat the property properly. Checking if the boiler can provide the required water flow is very important.
Lastly, the energy efficiency of the system needs to be taken into consideration. Providing proper heating to an entire property consumes substantial energy, which naturally raises your energy bills. Besides the upfront cost of installing the system, energy costs also need to be taken into consideration.
Should I Go With a Water Underfloor Heating System or an Electric Underfloor Heating System?
Property owners often ask about the types of underfloor heating systems and which one they should use for their property. This is only natural since deciding the right system has substantial ramifications on costs and quality of life.
Electric underfloor heating works through electric radiators that directly provide heating by converting energy into heat. They are largely embedded into the UH zones and don't require auxiliary heating pumps or boilers. This makes the upfront costs of electric underfloor heating systems cheaper since it is easier to install and doesn't require investing in a boiler. The catch, however, is that transferring heat without a medium like water is much less efficient, and electric underfloor heating consumes far more energy than its water equivalent to provide similar levels of heating.
A wet underfloor heating system relies on water as a medium to transfer heat between a central heat pump/boiler and underfloor heating pipes that are laid beneath various zones on the property. Because the source of the heating is combi boilers or pumps, water underfloor heating systems are far more efficient. However, the system needs underfloor pipes and radiators to function, which can be quite expensive.