under floor heating

[pinkcowprint]

have priced this up for conservatory and doesn't seem as bad priced as we thought,are the mats all similar,as i have no experience in buying something like this..some companys have flat plasticy looking mats and some have silver foily types?both similar priced..

[The Builder]

I guess this is electric heating rather than a "wet" system, Pinky?

[pinkcowprint]

Yes electric under a laminate floor.

[The Builder]

A couple of things always worry me with this. Being a conservatory, I guess the floor is solid, uninsulated concrete. There will be a substantial heat loss through this. Also, so much glass will result in a similar heat loss. On top of that, electricity is not the cheapest fuel.

Some floor insulation would be beneficial, together with thermal blinds.
Even so, of course you'll get a reasonable level of comfort for a lot of the year, but it won't be cheap to run.

[marden40]

the plastic mesh mats are normally used under tiled floors and incorporated into the adhesive, the foil type is used under laminate flooring etc and as its a conservatory I would imagine the floor is concrete so insulation will be required.....however, an electric system is not ideal for this situation to be honest it won't be cheap to run

[marden40]

oooopps, sorry Builder for the repeat of your comment, I'm a one finger typist so it takes a while :0(

[pinkcowprint]

hi,it will be a laminate floor and it will have an insulation/underlay underneath the heating,then the floor on top,the conservatory itself is partly a tiled insulated roof which joins the kitchen then carries into a glass sloping roof,there are 2 brick walls used either side so is really just a glass roof and a glass front if that makes sense,we were considering radiator but not much space and plug in electric heaters are bulky,so we would be using some kind of electric anyway to heat it,was just thinking if we were going to spend a bit on a decent underlay to go under laminate we may aswell buy this?

[The Builder]

Marden, you're welcome. I think we're both on the same lines here.
Pinkers ........... the roof sounds good, and nowhere near the amount of glazing that I was worried about. I guess the underlay will help, but is there any way that you can get a "thickness" of board insulation under the heating units?
Providing that a higher floor level isn't a problem, it would make a great deal of difference to "comfort levels" in the colder months.
Quite a simple procedure. Minimum 50mm insulation board between 50 x 50 battens; polythene vapour check over that; cheap 12mm shuttering ply; then heating element and laminate.

[pinkcowprint]

hi,yes that wouldn't be a problem we can take it slightly higher,will this help keep the heat in instead of soaking into the conrete as such? how much we talking to do this,£50??trying to keep costs to a minimum but it never goes to plan does it....

[The Builder]

What's the size of the room Pinkers?

[ummmm]

I thought underfloor heating was really cheap to run.