Is UFH for bathrooms worth it?

[MortarThePoint]

I think I'm sold on UHF for the bathrooms, but inclined to go electric so that it is more immediate heat. I can have it heating up something like 15mm of material with a higher power than a water system would achieve. It does mean better planning is required in terms of when it comes on however.

[joe90]

4 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said:

think I'm sold on UHF for the bathrooms,

just had a thought, my heating has not been on at all for at least a month, the UFH and towel rads are still on. It will still be a month or two before they go off (along with the MVHR).

[PeterW]

7 minutes ago, joe90 said:

along with the MVHR

Seriously ..? You would switch off in the summer as it is providing your extract ventilation for wet rooms ..? 

[markc]

14 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said:

I think I'm sold on UHF for the bathrooms, but inclined to go electric so that it is more immediate heat. I can have it heating up something like 15mm of material with a higher power than a water system would achieve. It does mean better planning is required in terms of when it comes on however.

I have a cheap heating mat from Ebay, think its the one mentioned earlier. Connected to a therostat and sensor buried in the tile cement. I never turn it off, stays on 24/7 at 22 degrees.

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Seriously ..? You would switch off in the summer as it is providing your extract ventilation for wet rooms ..? 

Yep, in good weather windows are flung open with gay abandon (despite my protestations ?‍♂️) some people just don’t get what MVHR does then complain when the house is too hot (cus the open windows let the heat in !!,!,!!).

Edited April 6, 2021 by joe90

[PeterW]

Just done one with Warmstar mat, cheap thermostat but the control is by a contactor driven by a decent programmable time clock that is part of a pair - one doing ASHP UFH and DHW, the other does E7 boosting of DHW tank and UFH mats and electric towel rails in the bathrooms. Not difficult to do and puts all in the same place for control purposes. 

[MortarThePoint]

47 minutes ago, markc said:

I never turn it off, stays on 24/7 at 22 degrees.

 

Any idea what the energy consumption is? I expect the thermostat means it's only on a small proportion of the time, but what proportion I wonder?

[epsilonGreedy]

1 hour ago, markc said:

Got to agree with the above, if you want to experience pure bliss, watch a cat sprawl out on heated tiles, also feels really nice under foot

 

 

I discovered this years ago when sailing in the winter. The marina rebuilt the shower block with underfloor heating and after that it became a mandatory feature of my future dream house.

[MortarThePoint]

17 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

I discovered this years ago when sailing in the winter. The marina rebuilt the shower block with underfloor heating and after that it became a mandatory feature of my future dream house.

 

My sailing club had a dustbin full of bleach to wash your wetsuit in and cold showers to be dodged on the way home.

[epsilonGreedy]

1 hour ago, MortarThePoint said:

My sailing club had a dustbin full of bleach to wash your wetsuit in and cold showers to be dodged on the way home.

 

 

You must be a real dinghy sailor.  For "dustbin full of bleach to wash your wetsuit in and cold showers" I go to Cornwall and try to surf.

[ProDave]

And why would you need bleach to wash out your wet suit.  You didn't did you? 

[ToughButterCup]

2 hours ago, markc said:

... I never turn it off, stays on 24/7 at 22 degrees.

Both of ours run at 20 , 24 / 7. We'll switch them off in May I guess... 

[ToughButterCup]

6 minutes ago, ProDave said:

And why would you need bleach to wash out your wet suit.  You didn't did you? 

 

At 40 feet down, it's the quickest way I know of warming up cold legs....

[Happy Valley]

16 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

At 40 feet down, it's the quickest way I know of warming up cold legs....

 

Must have been one hell of a nose dive if you're sailing 40 feet under... ?

Edited April 6, 2021 by Happy Valley

[ToughButterCup]

Just now, Happy Valley said:

 

Must have been one hell of a nose dive if your sailing 40 feet under... ?

 

I've never been on a yacht that did that. I really wish I had. I've sailed next to one that did: fabulous braking distance 15 knots to a dead stop in a meter or so....

[Happy Valley]

I am finding this thread fascinating and is turning thoughts towards changing to electric UFH to the en-suite and bathroom of our new build from the piped UFH.

[Happy Valley]

6 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

I've never been on a yacht that did that. I really wish I had. I've sailed next to one that did: fabulous braking distance 15 knots to a dead stop in a meter or so....

 

I raced a lot in the Solent and offshore from 1986 to 1994 and luckily never nose dived but been close many times. I'm sure I have done it once or twice racing dinghies but that is almost 40 years ago now!! Reminds me of the famous Beken picture of Silk II with the pink kite up.

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Happy Valley

[MortarThePoint]

1 minute ago, Happy Valley said:

 

I raced a lot in the Solent and offshore from 1986 to 1994 and luckily never nose dived but been close many times. Reminds me of the famous Beken picture of Silk II with the pink kite up.

 

 

Wowser!

[SteamyTea]

Part of the reason for having a warm floor in a bathroom is to speed up drying.  It takes 2257 J/g to vaporise water.

[Bitpipe]

13 hours ago, Happy Valley said:

I am finding this thread fascinating and is turning thoughts towards changing to electric UFH to the en-suite and bathroom of our new build from the piped UFH.

 

We made a last minute decision to put electric UFH in the bathrooms, previously had only allowed for wet towel rads.

 

When I say last minute, we'd already completed first fix and started boarding out so a few had to come off to get the conduits and spur boxes etc in.

 

Was a good decision and was not at all expensive. The budget Warmstar mats work well and I can't see why you'd pay multiples for the more expensive brands - they all do the same thing, resistance heat a wire in a mat in the floor.

 

One thing to watch is build-up - you will add about 10 -12mm of additional thickness to the floor with insulation (6mm), the mats and a laytex compound to give you a smooth layer to tile off. One advantage of this was that the 25mm low profile shower tray in a room ended up flush with the tiles, which was nice. One disadvantage was the bathroom tiles were 10mm above the hall flooring (engineered wood) so the fitter had to build a little ramp from laytex to even the threshold. Worked well and you'd never know to look.

[epsilonGreedy]

13 hours ago, ProDave said:

And why would you need bleach to wash out your wet suit.  You didn't did you? 

 

 

It is what the wetsuit hire business does (thankfully).

[MortarThePoint]

24 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

It is what the wetsuit hire business does (thankfully).

 

That's right. Since then I bought my own wetsuit for open water swimming and have to confess that it's hard to do a 4 hour swim without taking a leak ?

[MortarThePoint]

28 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

The budget Warmstar mats work well and I can't see why you'd pay multiples for the more expensive brands - they all do the same thing, resistance heat a wire in a mat in the floor.

 

I've drooled over he Schuter Ditra Heat system as it has thermal decoupling as well as being able to accommodate substrate shift (e.g. concrete cracking) whilst being compressively strong. It's eye wateringly expensive though ~£16/m2 for the egg crate and ~£60/m2 for the wire which is frankly a joke by comparison.

 

 

[Pocster]

19 hours ago, markc said:

watch a cat sprawl out on heated tiles

And then leave a nice gift ? 

[Bitpipe]

1 minute ago, pocster said:

And then leave a nice gift ? 

 

Which dries out nice and quick. MVHR removes the odour also.