Heat Distribution

There are two key ways of transferring the heat through your home with central heating; radiators and underfloor heating. The best option for your home depends upon your lifestyle, budget and the heat source that you are using.

Differences between underfloor heating and radiators

Personal taste and lifestyle are the key considerations when choosing between underfloor pipes and wall-mounted radiators. There are a number of key differences between the two:

■ Underfloor pipes take longer to warm up than radiators (typically around two hours to bring the floor up to temperature, and three to four hours to warm the room). Radiators respond considerably faster, because they have less mass than the floor slab.

■ Underfloor pipes are, of course, completely hidden and so have no aesthetic impact on the home.

■ The heat delivered by underfloor pipes is exceptionally luxurious and evenly spread. Health experts recommend ground-up heating as the most comfortable and therapeutic for the human body.

■ Underfloor pipes can only be laid in new homes, before the floor pad is laid. Radiator-based heating systems can be installed in new and existing homes.

■ Underfloor pipes deliver heat to the feet, so the perceived comfort is greater. As a result, the actual room temperature can possibly be one or two degrees below that required with other systems to achieve a similar level of comfort – providing energy cost savings. However, if a system is used for only short periods of time and at infrequent intervals, radiators may return a lower running cost.

■ In a radiator-heated home, you can actually “sit” on the heat! When you come in from the cold, there is nothing nicer than to lean against a radiator, which warms to a much higher – but safe – surface temperature than an underfloor slab.

We recommend a radiator-based system in areas where the weather conditions are changeable. Underfloor heating is more suited to homes that have tiled or hard floor areas, or in homes constructed of block without wall battening (ie: the pipes are hard to get around).

Underfloor Heating

Radiators

Radiator & Underfloor Combinations

Fan Coil Units