Hello, I'm new here and wondered if anyone would be happy to share their know how / experiences please? I'm looking to buy a specific house which has (water) underfloor heating put in 20years ago when the house was built. I've never had a home with ufh and wondered if there is a calculation to determine what temperature the ufh could achieve? The house has a huge open plan central area (living room, kitchen, dining and large hallway) all double height plus it has 2 full walls of double-glazed windows. The original owner has laid solid wood floors and from what I understand this isn't the ideal option compared to stone, tile or composite. My big dilemma is that the house is exactly what we're looking for but I 'feel the cold' and don't want to live in a home where I'm constantly chilly (our winters are quite wet and probably drop to between 15 and 20 degrees F). Is it possible to determine what room temperature it could get to if I knew the floor area and room height or are there just too many other variables that would impact this (e.g. depth of screed)? And, if that's the case, what type of specialist would be able to help us measure this? I realise we could ask the current owners but they're keen to make a sale so not sure we could fully rely on their reply. Any help or pointers would be really helpful - thanks!
That’s a tricky one. Ufh works really well as long as the rooms/house are well insulated. There must be a calculation similar to the one you get for radiators in rooms. The ufh will always need to be low or the solid wood will shrink or crack
Thanks for the super helpful reply @merit - not great news re. this particular house but exactly the sort of stuff I was looking for I've just heard back from the window supplier and the current windows rate high on shatterproof but not for solar control and if the builder cut corners on the windows (especially when they wrap round half the house) it's fair to assume he probably cut corners on the insulation too. Some of that's fixable of course but useful to know we'd need to find a (healthy) budget for it. Also helpful to know that we'd need to keep the ufh low. I was focused on the conductivity issue and understand that tiles / ceramic would be much better than solid wood but it hadn't crossed my mind that we'd need to keep it low to protect the wood! Seems so obvious now you've mentioned it ...every day's a school day Thanks again!
Underfloor heating can indeed be a bit tricky to figure out, especially with an older system and the added factor of having solid wood floors. A heating engineer or UFH specialist can provide a detailed assessment. Additionally, ensure the house is well-insulated, as this can significantly impact heating efficiency. You can also ask the Current Owner. Even if they are keen to sell, asking them for heating bills and their experience with the system can give you some insights.