Water Under Floor Heating Installation
Our Under Floor Heating Experts
Are happy to quote any size of project
How water underfloor heating works
Underfloor heating uses radiant heat. This ensures that you feel comfortable even at a lower air temperature than that produced by a more conventional, convection heating system (wall mounted radiators). With underfloor heating, the whole floor is heated. This means that no matter where you are in the room it’s all at an even temperature.
Water underfloor heating comes in the form of a series of piping loops that are laid underneath a surface (tiles, laminate flooring etc….). This then effectively turns your floor into a giant radiator!
The pipework to run the system is connected to your existing heating system via a manifold. The manifold is normally located in an easy to access position in case maintenance or repair is required.
Instead of high temperature water being required (as in wall mounted radiators) lower temperature water can be used (normally around 50°C) due to the fact that the heating surface is much bigger and unlike a conventional heat source (wall mounted radiators) it does not need to give off as much heat per sqm in order to heat a given space to a required temperature. This has quite a few benefits in that the boiler then becomes much more efficient as it does not need to heat the water as much and in turn becomes cheaper to run and is kinder to the environment.
Another benefit of underfloor heating is that there is nothing to show around the home except the room thermostat. There are no radiators to decorate and no difficult decisions on where to put your furniture so that it doesn’t get ruined in front of a radiator, this gives you complete design freedom.
It is also an ideal solution for areas with high ceilings.
There are quite a few different options and situations to look at if you are considering underfloor heating, with some being more suited to certain situations/needs than others.
The Different Types of Water Underfloor Heating Setup’s
Single Zone Underfloor Heating System
Warm water is circulated from the boiler to a zone valve which is operated electrically and treated as one zone (typically in this setup this will include any room that features underfloor heating that isall connected to the same system e.g., you could have UFH in your living room, kitchen and dining room all on the same loop and this will be treated as one zone)
If you currently have a combination boiler running your heating system you will also need to zone your radiators in order to achieve the best possible operating scenario
If, however, you have a boiler that also runs and heats a hot water cylinder these should already be zoned (1 zone for hot water and 1 zone for radiators). If this is the case you will only need to add the UFH (underfloor heating) manifold separately with a zone valve which will make your system a 3-zone system.
In this scenario, when you activate the heating (or your programmable room thermostat turns the heating on) water will pass through the system and heat the given floor area.
Multi Zoned Underfloor Heating System
How water underfloor heating works
A multi-zoned system works in a very similar manner to a single zone system only the difference comes in the fact that there is no need for a zone valve for your underfloor heating system. However, you will need to zone your hot water cylinder and radiators.
In place of the zone valve there would feature a wiring centre that would then independently provide control to underfloor system separately from your radiators and hot water system
In this situation, your programmable thermostat/time clock will activate all of the underfloor heating thermostats and then individual rooms can then be controlled via a programmable room thermostat – in essence you will then have the ability to control the temperature and starting time of heating in any room with the feature. When a thermostat is turned on, an electronic valve that is fitted to the top body of the manifold opens and in turn will also activate your pump and fire up your boiler.
Every loop on the manifold is then capable of independent control which as you may have guessed means typically 1 loop per room (but this can sometimes depend on the size of the room).
Mixing Manifold
Hot water supplied by your boiler is passed through an actuator head (valve) and then passed on into the underfloor heating manifold which then in turn draws water from the underfloor heating pipework. When this happens the cold water that is in the underfloor heating pipework is then mixed with the hot water from the boiler and is then passed through the pump and then over a temperature sensor.
If the water passing over the temperature sensor is detected as being warmer than the temperature that has been set by the sensor (usually somewhere between 20 and 65 degrees), the zone valve will close and also turn off the boiler.
