Underfloor Heating
Unlike traditional heating, underfloor heating uses a more uniform heat throughout your home. Underfloor heating can be up to 40% more efficient than radiators, and pairs very effectively with heat pump technology. Underfloor heating generally requires much less maintenance, and is safer for homes with small children, as the risk of children being burned by hot radiators or heating pipes is removed. Underfloor heating can also be beneficial for people with dust allergy, as traditional radiators can be a source of airborne dust.
The downside of underfloor heating is that as the system maintains a constant stable temperature, it can take a long time to increase or decrease the overall temperature of your home. The system has to collect heat from an outside source, under the ground or in the air around your home, and transfer this heat into the underfloor pipe system, which is then conducted up through the floor into your home.
Because of this, we advise tenants with a ground source or air source heat pump to never switch your heat pump off, as it is cheaper to have it switched on at a low temperature over warm weather than completely heat the entire system up from cold if the weather suddenly gets cooler. As long as you have the room thermostats set, the system will not heat an already warm room.
Water Heating
The heating systems at The Hedges prioritise water heating, so we recommend you schedule your water heating for times of day when the temperature of your underfloor heating is less important, for example, when you are asleep, or when you are out of the house. An example of this would be to programme the hot water for midnight to 2.00am. The system would continue to heat the home to the desired temperature all day, but at midnight, the hot water would take priority. By 2.00am, once the hot water tank has reached temperature, the system would then transfer back over to the heating.
Two hours of water heating should normally be sufficient to bring a full tank of hot water to temperature, and it should remain hot until the following evening. But if you find you need more hot water, set additional times for water heating during the day to suit your needs. There is an immersion heater boost available, but this is a more expensive way of heating water. If you do need to use your immersion, try and switch it on when the solar panels will be producing electricity to reduce the cost.
Glazing
We have researched the options for the optimal glazing to be used in conjunction with underfloor heating. Standard double glazing is typically 28mm thick. The energy efficiency difference between 28mm double glazing and 28mm triple glazing is negligible and there is no evidence that underfloor heating cannot work effectively with double glazing.
