Sandkshouse is right! Insulate, insulate, insulate!

Seriously, when we renovated our house we decided to go for underfloor heating. Being a total amateur, I tried to read all about the pro and cons to make sure we are not making a (costly) mistake and almost everybody said that without proper insulation the whole thing is just not efficient.
We double insulated the attic and every wall, ceilings and floor in the house has insulation in it. Best money ever spent (although at the time I wasn't that happy!) - the variation in temperature inside is ever so slight. Plus with every room has its own thermostat - it works great for us!

Good luck!

PS: Careful where they position the controls; I didn't pay attention and ended up with them in the study; luckily we rarely need access to them.

Think because of the size of our house going to be less than 2,500 sq foot we've been told geothermal heating would be too expensive - the cost of installing it wouldn't be worth it. We want to heat our house in the most efficient way possible, everyone saying insulating the house being key including our architect! My other half parents built a house 10 years ago but are constantly having to spend a fortune on oil heating it! Anybody out there tried the air source?? Or any other ideas/expereiences rather than having to spend a fortune on oil every month?

Luciana,
Do you have any details of the underfloor heating solution you have? Underfloor heating upstairs and downstairs or do you have some radiators? Did you replace a suspended floor with concrete? Upstairs how did they install between the joists? What flooring have you used? Stone, engineered wood, carpet? How many heating zones do you have?
I'm thinking this will be a perfect solution for a 1968 house I have just bought. Cavity wall insulation in place but I think another 50mm of Kingspan on the exterior walls would be sensible. Seriously thinking about air source heat pump rather than a gas boiler although I'm unsure how mature the technology is at the moment which must be a major factor in the high cost.
Thanks, John

Hi John!

I've just noticed your message, we are away on holiday atm (lucky you, it's cloudy today so I have time for Houzz :))).
I'll try and answer your questions to the best of my knowledge, but before I even start, have a look at this ideabook - I gave some details on our system in the comment section there. https://www.houzz.com/magazine/warm-up-your-bathroom-with-heated-floors-stsetivw-vs~18303936
Ok, so we have a hydronic system throughout the house, no radiators at all. We agreed with the builder to use the original floorboards as the base and add joists/ beading on top to support the aluminium sheet and pipes (see the photos in the ideabook), as the height of the rooms could take a loss of some 10cm. In the (extended) kitchen and basement, they first laid down thick insulation boards, then the pipes, then poured screed on top. They insulated all the ceilings (or floors!!) and used plasterboard with foil on it to ensure maximum heat radiance. At our request, they also 'hung' pipes on the (basement) ceiling underneath the original Victorian mosaic tiles, so the entrance hall gets heated that way too.

Except for one bathroom (where we used limestone) the other bathrooms, kitchen and basement have ceramic tiles. The limestone is cracked now, after 18 months since we moved in - fortunately it doesn't look too bad; no issues with the ceramic tiles. We went for engineered wood in the rest of the house - they used some special glue that allows movement.
I have no idea how many zones we have, there are 18 thermostats in the house (I remember that from the invoice :)), each in every room and halls/ landings. I know that because our kitchen is quite large, they used two circuits to cover the room efficiently (but one controller/ thermostat), same in the master bedroom.

At the time, we researched and discussed a lot about environmentally friendly alternatives to gas/ electric boiler - however, living in the middle of Cardiff with only 50sqm garden, we were very limited in our options. We also considered solar panels, but couldn't get planning consent, as we live in a conservation area.

One more point: our last house was roughly the same size as this one, but heated with radiators on a combi boiler - our gas-electric bill is now two thirds less than it was in the old house.

I'd say go for it! Research what works best for your house, discuss with the installers - some are very knowledgeable and helpful and do it! I honestly love our home and don't think I ever want to live somewhere with radiators again!

Hope this helps - good luck!

Hi Luciana,

thanks for the detailed answer, that really helps :-)

I've heard that 10cm is the minimum height that is required due to the amount of insulation recommended but I dont think we have enough headroom to lose 10cm upstairs or downstairs. However it sounds like Its worth investigating as that is likely be the quickest/cheapest way, otherwise I've seen some companies advertising products where they built up the insulation between the joists as well as install the plastic pipe. The floor is then laid on top the the joists so there is very little height lost in the room.

As you say, I think its time to get some installers in and see what they think are the options and likely costs.

Thanks again, John

Hi john

How did it go with your underfloor heating ?? did you use a air source heat pump in the end.

Hi,

no, we went with a traditional gas boiler due to cost and space limitations. Its been designed so that it would be relatively easy to replace the gas boiler with another heat source in the future should costs come down or something new be developed.