Heated Flooring - Cost to run?

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tdgeek

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#197931 18-Jun-2016 20:15

Hey all

We have a heated floor in the ensuite and other bathroom. Tile floors. Are these cheap as chips to run, so leave it on overnight, or not quite so cheap, so turn on first thing? Daughter tells me it takes a half hour to heat.

Cheers

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#1576343 18-Jun-2016 20:46

I presume they are the cheaper tours of coil type. If so they are no more efficient than other electric conventional heating. They aren't cheap to run that type.

scuwp

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#1576346 18-Jun-2016 20:50

In general terms underfloor heating is expensive. We have electric coils under our tiles in just about all wet areas. I guesstimate that to operate all areas for about 4 hours per day cost about $200 per month extra. We don't use them any more. Just brought slippers.

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#1576351 18-Jun-2016 20:55

We have underfloor heating in two tiled bathrooms.

They have a thermostat and timer, but we just turn them on and off manually on cold days.

The floor takes AT LEAST 30-60 minutes to heat up.

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timmmay

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#1576368 18-Jun-2016 21:54

Tiles without underfloor heating are just awful. For a while I had a controller that counted power usage, from memory it was around 50 - 80c/day for the bathroom on conservative settings in winter. Totally worth it, makes the early mornings more bearable.

antoniosk

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#1576371 18-Jun-2016 21:59

Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

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mattwnz

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#1576389 18-Jun-2016 23:15

antoniosk:
Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

Depends on how long it takes to heat up. If it is an in slab type, then it takes hours. While the cheaper coil type directly under the tiles is a lot faster.

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#1576486 19-Jun-2016 09:51

I guess you have to weigh up the power to keep tiles warm that aren't being used vs the warm up current. Most people are out of the house during the day, and that's a good time to ventilate - windows cracked open, ventilation system on. I've never tried to work it out, but we do have the under floor heating in the bathroom turned off from 7am to 5pm. In summer we have it on less, but still on, cold tiles are horrible.

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tdgeek

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#1576492 19-Jun-2016 09:58

Thanks for the input. Our tikes arent cold as these two bathrooms are upstairs, but warm is good.

mxpress

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#1576514 19-Jun-2016 10:57

antoniosk:

Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

I used to install underfloor heating. Normally the heat is retained in the concrete pad and released over a extended period of time. Once the pad is heated, power use is minimal. However if they are frequently turned on and off the power usage would be very high as the pad has to be reheated every time. They are intended to be left on in the winter months and the heating will only switch on when the pad loses heat.

mxpress

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#1576515 19-Jun-2016 11:01

mxpress:

antoniosk:

Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

I used to install underfloor heating. Normally the heat is retained in the concrete pad and released over a extended period of time. Once the pad is heated, power use is minimal. However if they are frequently turned on and off the power usage would be very high as the pad has to be reheated every time. They are intended to be left on in the winter months and the heating will only switch on when the pad loses heat.

Cheers

How does that work if the bathrooms are upstairs? Quicker to heat as no dissipation to the pad as there is no pad? Daughter says it takes half an hour. I might have play today, there is a pad on the wall with an ON button, haven't used it myself, we haven't been here long. I'd only want to use it when needed

RunningMan

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#1576518 19-Jun-2016 11:08

Tiles on an upstairs floor will have some heat soak from below so they won't get as cold.

mxpress

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#1576524 19-Jun-2016 11:34

tdgeek:

mxpress:

antoniosk:

Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

I used to install underfloor heating. Normally the heat is retained in the concrete pad and released over a extended period of time. Once the pad is heated, power use is minimal. However if they are frequently turned on and off the power usage would be very high as the pad has to be reheated every time. They are intended to be left on in the winter months and the heating will only switch on when the pad loses heat.

Cheers

How does that work if the bathrooms are upstairs? Quicker to heat as no dissipation to the pad as there is no pad? Daughter says it takes half an hour. I might have play today, there is a pad on the wall with an ON button, haven't used it myself, we haven't been here long. I'd only want to use it when needed

I don't know about upstairs but I assume that the tiles will retain the heat and release gradually throughout the day.

mxpress

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#1576594 19-Jun-2016 16:00

mxpress:
tdgeek:

mxpress:

antoniosk:

Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

I used to install underfloor heating. Normally the heat is retained in the concrete pad and released over a extended period of time. Once the pad is heated, power use is minimal. However if they are frequently turned on and off the power usage would be very high as the pad has to be reheated every time. They are intended to be left on in the winter months and the heating will only switch on when the pad loses heat.

Cheers

How does that work if the bathrooms are upstairs? Quicker to heat as no dissipation to the pad as there is no pad? Daughter says it takes half an hour. I might have play today, there is a pad on the wall with an ON button, haven't used it myself, we haven't been here long. I'd only want to use it when needed

I don't know about upstairs but I assume that the tiles will retain the heat and release gradually throughout the day.

They won't. The thermal mass you are heating is so small that it's pointless running the heating if you aren't there. Use the timer on the thermostat to come on an hour before you get up and switch off half November hour before you go to bed.

mattwnz

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#1576613 19-Jun-2016 16:47

mxpress:

antoniosk:

Probably better to leave it running and maintained at about 20C. My tiler told me that letting them go cold then heating consumes a lot of power - essentially large continuous draw while the tiles go from cold to warm.

I used to install underfloor heating. Normally the heat is retained in the concrete pad and released over a extended period of time. Once the pad is heated, power use is minimal. However if they are frequently turned on and off the power usage would be very high as the pad has to be reheated every time. They are intended to be left on in the winter months and the heating will only switch on when the pad loses heat.

Shouldn't there be foil backing or insulating panel, between the slab and the coils? Otherwise it is losing a lot of heat downwards, and also makes it have a very slow response time. These coil system should only be heating the tiles above them, and not the slab, otherwise it is heating the earth below it, which is a big waste of energy. But it wouldn't surprise me if they don't. I know that the hydronic systems require insulation, preferably XPS, under the actual slab, and slab edge insulation to prevent energy loss. They are far more efficient if used with something like a heat pump water heater, just the response times are very slow.

kiwirock

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#1576656 19-Jun-2016 18:06

I used to have underfloor coil type. The coils were only in most foot traffic area so it doesn't waste energy heating up tiles say over by the dinning table, just the living area and bathroom etc...

A big factor will be how the heating is controlled from the power company and what your unit price is. Our's was on a night only meter that was half the price of the 24 hour meter and less than a controlled/boost meter.

Edit:

Anything other than a night only meter is a bit of a power waster. You end up switching a heatpump or a heater on during the day to be really warm... then the thermostat clicks off for the underfloor and you end up cold tiles.

So we'd set the thermostat in the living room to the highest (32degrees) so we used it as a night storage heater to get the tiles as warm as possible on the cheaper rate and to start warming even if the living room was still warm from people using it a few hours earlier.

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