Skirting Heating - Yay or Nay?

[Packman]

Hi Buildhubbers

 

Recently come across skirting heating, and it blew my mind! Previously thought that UFH and Rads were the only mainstream options. To me, skirting heating looks like a great middle ground, and I'm surprised I've not heard plumbers or friends talk about it before. The claims from the likes of Discrete Heat's Thermaskirt seems to me like it's a bit of a no-brainer for areas where I don't want to fit UFH and I don't want to fit rads.

 

I'm renovating a 1950s house with uninsulated solid concrete floors. Planning to either excavate and insulate the ground floor slab and lay UFH in the screed, or keep the slab and retrofit UFH.  But there is one room on the ground floor that I don't want to touch, as we have uncovered a beautiful parquet floor under the carpets. Appreciate that it is going to be on an uninsulated base, but would love to keep it, and I really don't want to put a rad in the room, so thought skirting heating could work well here? 

 

And on the first floor, I also really want to avoid putting rads on the walls. Was originally thinking of laying UFH upstairs in the joists, but I would like to put thick soft carpet in the bedrooms, so don't think UFH is going to be a great option, so thought skirting heating could work well here too?

 

From what I can see:

 

pros:  

- it uses the same low temp as UFH compared to rads

- it heats the room from all around the room like UFH as opposed to from just one location like rads

- no dust traps and circulating stale air, unlike rads

- no excavation of solid floors (or loosing heat height if retrofitting), unlike UFH

- cheaper than UFH

 

cons:

- not as good as UFH

- more expensive than rads

- limited to style of skirting boards

 

Questions:

Is that a fair summary?

Have I missed anything?

Does anyone have any experience of using Skirting Heating?  

Are Discrete Heat's claims a load of BS or is it a heating solution worth considering?

Are there any other companies I should look at?

Are there any other suggestions or things I should be considering?

 

Many thanks

Richard.

 

 

[TonyT]

They don’t put a lot of heat out, approx 200 W per metre 

 

what about an electrical heater?

[SteamyTea]

53 minutes ago, TonyT said:

They don’t put a lot of heat out, approx 200 W per metre 

That is power, heat is another word for energy.

 

We had skirting radiators when I was a kid (days of town gas).  Never remember the house being cold.

The ones we had were quite boxy and in a dark grey.

Behind the box was a copper pipe with fins on them.

I would consider some of the more modern designs ones as I cannot realistically fit UFH and I hate exposed pipework.

[Gone West]

1 hour ago, Packman said:

Does anyone have any experience of using Skirting Heating?  

Unfortunately I don't have any experience of skirting heating but have looked at it in the past. It would be my first choice for a wet heating system.

[Packman]

7 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

 

I would consider some of the more modern designs ones as I cannot realistically fit UFH and I hate exposed pipework.

Any recommendations, other than Thermaskirt by Discrete Heat? I’m only seeming to find a couple of limited options when googling...

 

[Packman]

6 hours ago, PeterStarck said:

Unfortunately I don't have any experience of skirting heating but have looked at it in the past. It would be my first choice for a wet heating system.

Interesting, thank you. Out of interest, why would it be your first choice for a wet heating system? And why do more people not seem to use it?! Everyone I speak to has never heard of it and only ever consider rads or UFH!

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Packman said:

Any recommendations,

No, as I am a long way off fitting a new heating system.

[TonyT]

So what size will work for the room?

[Packman]

10 hours ago, TonyT said:

what about an electrical heater?

I’m happy with wet, I just want it hidden! Don’t want to have rads or heaters on walls 

 

45 minutes ago, TonyT said:

what size will work for the room?

My ground floor room that I don’t want to dig up or retrofit UFH is 18sqm. 
The bedrooms on the 1st floor are between 11-14sqm. 

[Gone West]

12 hours ago, Packman said:

Out of interest, why would it be your first choice for a wet heating system?

I don't particularly like the feel of UFH and the positioning of radiators affects the layout of rooms so to me skirting heating systems are the answer.

[Packman]

14 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

the positioning of radiators affects the layout of rooms so to me skirting heating systems are the answer.

Completely agree. 
 

 

I’ve just re-read my original post and I should have mentioned that it is skirting board heating that I’m considering, where the pipes are actually hidden in a special skirting board, as opposed to fitting long low-level skirting heaters.  Does that make a difference to anyone’s thoughts?

 

[TonyT]

Well the size of room/ fabric build up/ heatloss requirements/ heat source  may have an affect

[ian192744]

I have discrete heat thermaskirt skirting board in one room. I went for one of the taller profiles to get the higher output . Main reason for doing so was there is literally nowhere in the room that rads can go without utterly ruining the room usage / layout, and we have no UFH anywhere so adding UFH to the system for just one room would have been overkill. Its a ground floor "garden room" which was a refit of an existing extension. Its uninsulated concrete floor, solid wood flooring on top of that, with two large windows, a patio door, and two large openings into adjacent rooms, one open plan. what relatively little wall there is, needs to have furniture against it.   It runs on a gas condensing modulating boiler at CH temps as separate zone in the CH.  It works ok, but due to the absence of convection it warms the room much more slowly than a rad would, and In the coldest part of winter it doesn't have quite enough heat output to keep the room cosy - because the room has a lot of glass its heat loss is pretty high. the  room-based zoning (evohome) is therefore key to not wasting heat on an lossy room when its unused .

 If I had to chose again for this room I would probably end up the same due to all the constraints, but if any other room where the option to use conventional radiators was not impossible, I'd stick with conventional radiators. If the rooms in your house are better insulated than the particular one in my house, then you might well be ok with the output level. I fitted it DIY with labour assistance from the builder who was doing the extension refit work (some long sections, 2 man job).

 

I also had the copper fin type skirting heating in my sitting room - original from the house build (1970's). it was only along a relatively short section of wall, not including the coldest one, and it wouldn't keep the room warm. I ripped it out and put two conventional K2 rads in instead - as there is plenty of space for rads in that room. now its warm!

 

ta

Ian

[SteamyTea]

@ian192744

What is the floor, food and external wall/window areas and how many metres of this skirting rad do you have.

 

I have a similar problem in that I cannot realistically fit UFH downstairs, but the layout of my small house may lend itself nicely to skirting radiators.

Edited May 7, 2021 by SteamyTea

[George]

I looked into it but couldn't justify the extra over cost compared to a radiator. Standard place for a rad is below the window because you don't often use the space under a window for anything else. And you look at a rad once then your brain never notices them again...

 

I think in you case it's definitely a good shout. Maybe ask a supplier/installer if you can go see an installation and quiz the owners. 

 

Else, a 'feature' radiator rather than a normal boring one.

 

Alternatively, electric radiant heaters which can be made flush with the ceiling, or something along those lines. 

[ian192744]

On 07/05/2021 at 21:51, SteamyTea said:

@ian192744

What is the floor, food and external wall/window areas and how many metres of this skirting rad do you have.

 

I have a similar problem in that I cannot realistically fit UFH downstairs, but the layout of my small house may lend itself nicely to skirting radiators.

 

room size 7.5M x 2.5M. ceiling height 2.3M (external side) vaulted to 4.3M (house side). 2 short and 1 long walls external .

external area =  22m2 walls , roof 24m2 = total external area 46m2

of which glazed area (2x1.8) + (1.5x2.25) +(1.7x1.3) in walls + 2x(0.9x1.0) in roof = 11m2

I have 10 linear metres of regency OG thermaskirt  on 1 short and 1 long side.

Ian

[SteamyTea]

Very rough calculation, with 3 ACH and an overall U-Value of 0.2 W/m².K, works out at about 0.1 kW/K.

Assuming you can get 100W/m out of the skirting radiator, you should be able to keep the place stable until it is 10⁰C below the temp you normally turn the heating on. I usually turn my heating on when it is 10⁰C mean outside temperature.

I have used 20 W/K for all the non air change loss, and 37 W/K @1 ACH for air loss.

IF you have less losses, or the radiators emit more, then you can go lower.

(But I have had a tough day and worked this out in my head as I sat in traffic, (expletive deleted)ing G7)

[coldcottage]

@PackmanI am looking at getting skirting board heating installed at a cottage I've just moved into - but a bit hesitant because of the higher costs and also very old cottage with not great insulation.  Did you end up getting it put in, in the end? Would love to hear your experiences and how it is working out if you did!