UFH in small kitchen (and not elsewhere)?

[Garald]

Yet another chapter of my house adventures!

 

The place I've got has a smallish galley kitchen (225cmx405cm, before insulation). It was set up in 2015, with medium-range furniture that my girlfriend rather likes though the architect does not. (It's Mobalpa - the sort of thing that is (I believe) quite a lot more expensive than IKEA without being twice as good; it's not solid wood. The counter is some sort of sturdy black laminate - thank goodness, as I am largely the one who cooks, and I can be messy, apparently, or so have I had it screamed at me. I most definitely do not want to prepare food near somebody else's granite countertop ever again.)

 

Our original intention was not to touch the kitchen, and to insulate the floor from below (it's right above a coop corridor). However, the walls were uninsulated, and the architect was particularly concerned about the overall soundproofing of the streetside wall being compromised if the part corresponding to the kitchen wasn't. So, in the end, the workmen carefully took the kitchen apart - and noticed the long wall was in rather poor condition; we will insulate it after all.

 

In the process, they also had to destroy the current floor - a good thing, since it was vinyl poorly laid on damaged old tile.

 

I will spare you all the things I have been told about how anything I could do to the kitchen decor can only make it worse - I will probably just (a) raise the cabinets and (b) install some extra shelving on the other side.

 

The question now is: given that I have the freedom whether to put the insulation under the floor rather than on the corridor ceiling, what should I do?For that matter: given that I'll get a reversible heat pump, does it make sense to get under-floor heating that can be used also for cooling? That would free up space currently used by a radiator. Or is getting UFH in only one room impossible/too expensive? Or unfeasible (in that it would necessarily create a height difference - though we would presumably insulate the corridor ceiling, as originally planned, as opposed to insulate above)? If we do put in UFH, what we should put above it - synthetic flooring, since it is thinner?

 

I include both the floorplan and an image of the kitchen before renovation. 

 

 

 

[ProDave]

Three issues spring to mind.

 

First, in a kitchen, you don't put the UFH under the units or under a fridge.  So that rather limits the floor space that can be heated and you might well find the low output of UFH when less than half the room area is heated, is not enough to warm the room properly.

 

Second, you will need a manifold somewhere.  Not a big one so it might be possible in the back of a cupboard unit, but it will make that cupboard unit warm, so not one you use to keep food. A pots and pans cupboard perhaps.

 

Third, getting rid of the radiator will mean one less thing on the wall, but what will you use that for instead, given the position of the window?

[Garald]

Perhaps having a small FCU (instead of a radiator) would be a better idea? Kitchens can get hot during the summer.