Heating your home has been a challenge for most people ever
since homes became a thing. While many strategies and technologies have been
developed to try and solve the challenge, they have varying amounts of success
and efficiency. It seems short of setting fire to the whole thing, there’s no
real way to heat everything up quickly and with little energy cost.
While no
system is perfect, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least endeavour to try,
and there are systems that do better than others. Under floor heating in particular has been making new inroads into modern day central
heating, and while it’s no means new it’s certainly proving popular.
The first underfloor heating systems were actually Roman,
and these were systems called hypocausts.
They were basically large fires lit under the stone floors of large buildings,
typically villas, temples or bath houses, and the warm air would circulate
between slate pillars and heat through the floor. They were used both to
entertain and show off wealth: hypocausts were notoriously expensive to keep
fuelled. Often “barbarian” nobles would be shown hypocausts to impress the
capabilities of Roman civilisation.
Nowadays under floor heating is a little less expensive and
expansive, usually resulting in specialised tiles spread out beneath the floor
of a given room. The principal however remains the same, and it is surprisingly
effective.
Pros
Traditionally a radiator is the principal means of heating a
given room, however they very frequently only heat up the immediate area
they’re in. It’s difficult to get this heat to diffuse across the room equally.
Underfloor heating is much more widespread. Every patch of the room can be
heated, and as a result there are no cold patches that radiators frequently
leave. They’re also a lot less intrusive than radiators -- it’s impossible to
bang your hip on the floor (short of falling over)!
Likewise they’re much more energy efficient. The heat
diffuses evenly into the room, and works at once with the room’s insulation to
keep the room well heated for longer. It can be turned on in the morning for an
hour or two, and remain warm for quite a long while afterwards. Perfect for
warming up a room during cold winter days.
It helps that they’re very easy to install too. Most
off-shelf units are easily installed even by amateur DIYers, and they can
easily fitted into a newly-built room or installed retrospectively.
Cons
Of course, no system is perfect, and underfloor heating is
not any different. While they’re very efficient, underfloor heating systems
initially are highly expensive to purchase, install and keep running. They’re
not for homeowners redesigning their houses on a budget, and are most certainly
a mark of high-end luxury.
Further not every home may be able to support an underfloor
heating system, depending on how old the home in question is. Some may be too
small to accommodate the necessary workings, while others may not be able to
have one installed without disturbing essential utilities, such as water or
electricity. It may not even be possible to remove the traditional radiator
heating system either. Even if those are not concerns, the very act of
installing the system can be very disruptive and will result in possibly an
entire day, even two, of the room being out of action.
Another frequent complaint is that they take longer to warm
a room up as well. As the heat is coming from under the floor, it first has to
work through all the insulation found within it. Radiators, while presenting
large cold spots, are immediately touching the air, and so their effects are
more quickly felt. You may be waiting for half an hour or more before the underfloor
heating kicks in.
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