Underfloor heating? Go or no

Is it a bathroom?

We have wet UFH downstairs in the kitchen and main living room.

It's very good. However it needs to be running 24/7 to be effective, I leave it on 20C in the winter.

The upstairs bathroom has EUFH. In the winter, it is used to take the chill off the tiled floor in the winter but the heating is down by a large towel rail, as we only switch both on, an hour or so before getting a shower or bath.

Can't see how electric underfloor will be cheaper to run.

Had it on a concrete floor in the conservatory and it was expensive and not really any good even on proper recommend underlay 

Been looking into this as part of a renovation. Not sure how you are. Calculating that electric is cheaper to run usually wet is cheaper.

Although many companies claim good performance with a this reflective mat underneath it only seems worth while (in terms of efficiency if you already have good insulation under the floor or are prepared to dig down and install a good amount of insulation. Yes it will work with a thin layer of insulation under for a low build up but it's operating via conduction to the surrounding mass and with minimal insulation the mass below it the earth. Yes it is a point that this is the earth below your house and helps create a stable environment but heating an entire concrete slab+ subbase etc takes a lot more than just the screed.

Just to add my concrete floor was sat on 100mm Kingspan and some sand on top of that.

Wet is the better option if it's possible.

UFH is slow to respond if you want heat quickly or if the ambient temperature rises rapidly (as it has here) and you want to turn it off.

Imo the room itself needs to be really well insulated as well as under the floor heating.

Oil fired boiler? That would up the running cost of wet UFH wouldn't it?

My kitchen has Electric UFH & I can promise you it isn’t cheaper to run than a radiator! Mine is only used between 2&5 AM at the night rate on my Intelligent Octopus to preheat the downstairs before we get up. If I ran it as intended it would cost £250/mo in the winter jus5 for the kitchen floor.

Ufh is great when installed correctly.
Electric is cheaper to install than wet, but electric is more expensive to run, alot more.

In a bathroom, kitchen or ensuite with tiles floors it is nice to have to take the chill of the floor off, but in a bathroom I wouldn't rely on just the electric ufh to be the main heat source in the room, the  floor normally won't give you enough overall area to provide enough heat and as said above it'll be too expensive to run consistently enough for the requires room temp.

No matter what  anyone says, you need insulation below the floor you want to heat, the  more the merrier!

And the room/building should be as well insulated as possible as the ufh is a slow reacting heat source, it can take several hours for a system to start make a temperature difference due to the lower run  temperatures used

Builder of 25 years, installing many different versions of ufh in fancy home renovations

The only thing cheaper about electric is the install cost .

Running costs are daft for anything more than occasional use

I run electric UFH in my downstairs bathroom, it's good.  You need to leave it on 24hours, at a low setting, turning it on/off is a waste of time   15m2 bathroom , house is well insulated, and bathroom is in the cellar with UFH the only heat needed

Oil fired boiler

Oil has traditionally been a cheap energy source if you tune your buys. More expensive now but still much cheaper than electric

I have wet UFH for the entire ground floor of my house, which is a fully insulated concrete slab, heating is ASHP. My electricity bill is the same for my previous house with gas-fired central heating. However, I wouldn’t entertain any form of UFH without a properly insulated floor, otherwise you may as well burn twenties for warmth.

We've got electric underfloor in a fairly large open plan lounge/Dining Room/Kitchen area in France.... it works fine if left on but the speed the electric meter turns is a bit frightening. Also it needs a good few hours to heat up enough to make any difference... the better option for us, most times, is the big Godin woodburner.

Thanks for all the responses.

The info I missed out was 1st floor bathroom in a 1930's solid brick build, about to be renovated.

Efficiency is not a label I would put on this house, so on the comments here and elsewhere, it'll be a radiator.

Cheers for the input.

"Running costs are daft for anything more than occasional use"

Aren't they capped these days?

Capped? The energy price cap refers to the rate per kWh not the amount used.

Aren’t they capped these days?

Leave your heating and cooker on full for a month and get back to us 😉

Running costs are daft for anything more than occasional use”

Aren’t they capped these days?

No no they are not.

Electric is about 4x the price of gas per kWh.

Handy rule of thumb to dismiss marketing nonsense and uninformed hearsay about any type of electric powered heating.

We have wet UFH at the back of our house, running of our two zone bow three zone heating and its bloody brilliant 18.5 feels really warm.  Wish we did it everywhere downstairs 

Know someone near us has electric underfloor powered mostly by their solar panels to maintain a low level of heat and top up with wood stove for extra heat in winter.
Fairly well insulated old house so is a good sized thermal mass once warm.

The info I missed out was 1st floor bathroom in a 1930’s solid brick build, about to be renovated.

If you will
insulate the outside walls
ensure loft insulation at least meets modern minimum
have well-fitting modern double, or triple, glazing

Then wet UFH in a bathroom will be fine. Though even with a single mixer it seems a big thing to do for one room unless you’re thinking of adding others later? Plus you’ll need to accommodate the floor height difference in the meantime.

I’d recommend all the insulation even if you weren’t fitting UFH mind.

Electric UFH is easier to fit, but like folks say it is expensive to run. Even for a small 1930s bathroom.

Remember the ventilation too!