Use Underfloor Heating to Make Your Home Feel Luxurious and Cozy this Winter!

Decorating your home for fall and winter is super exciting, but even better when your home is warm and cozy. Here’s why professional designers are opting for underfloor heating even before they start redecorating or remodelling a home.

Photo: Crisp Architects

There are so many exciting ways to decorate your home that will welcome the new fall and winter seasons to come. Set your ideas and even home renovation projects aside until you consider this – underfloor heating. It may seem like a huge project digging up your hardwood or laminate floor, but it’s totally worth it. Here’s how to get the most out of underfloor heating to keep your home super cozy and warm this season!

Before Buying Check for a Modern Thermostat

A cold bathroom is the perfect place to install underfloor heating.
Who doesn’t like a warm and cozy bath in the winter!
(Photo: Braveheart Design Build)

You’ve spent hours researching different types of underfloor heating, but it’s possible you overlooked the thermostat that will control it all once the screed is dry and the new wooden floor all laid. By using an up-to-date thermostat and programming it cleverly you can get the most out of your heating with the minimum of cost.

Most underfloor heating from polypipe.com, for example, comes with a hard-wired programmable room thermostat (PRT); there are also nifty upgrades like touchscreen and wireless PRTs.

What’s a PRT?

With underfloor heating, your cold kitchen can turn into a toasty place to enjoy family time, bake cookies, and help the kids with homework.
(Photo: Linda McDougland Design)

You already know how a thermostat works – it monitors the air temperature in a room and once it falls below a certain level, the thermostat switches on the heating, before turning it off again once the pre-set temperature is reached.

A PRT adds another dimension to this control by only operating during the times you select. It allows you to set the on and off periods that suit your routine and lifestyle.

Setting it Up

The best way to go about setting up your PRT is to find your minimum comfortable temperature at different times of the day, inputting this information into the thermostat and then going about your business. Many PRTs have an in-built default programme, but you may find this too hot or too cold, or the timings might not suit your schedule.

Things to Note

Sometimes a crackling fire just isn’t enough to heat up a space. That’s why underfloor heating works great in large spaces that are in need of extra heat in the colder months.
(Photo: Astria Fireplaces)

This type of thermostat needs free-flowing air around it to measure the temperature accurately, so it’s important that the thermostat isn’t covered by curtains, near the TV or another heater, or even in direct sunlight. Avoiding draughts is also vital and the best place to put most thermostats is around 1.5 metres above the floor, near to a light switch.

Most homes aim for a daytime temperature of around 20°C and a night time temperature of around 16°C. There’s no need to be so inflexible, however, as you can set most PRTs to lots of different temperatures at lot of different times throughout the day. You want the bathroom nice and warm for bath and bedtime? No problem! Find it a bit too hot on Sunday afternoon when you’re cooking the roast? Again, no problem.

When You Should be Running the Heating

Believe it or not, but you can also use underfloor heating in your greenhouse! Extend the life of your plants well throughout the winter and shield your crops from the snow and frost.
(Photo: Garden Tech Horticultural LLC)

During the winter months it’s better for you to run the heating 24 hours a day, especially if you have a system boiler. These systems have two-port valves that can run wall-mounted radiators and underfloor heating separately, so even if you turn off the radiators at night, the underfloor heating is still toasty.

Your Ideal Settings

You should aim for a water temperature of 40-45°C if you have a screeded floor or 50-55°C for a wooden or suspended floor. You can even use different settings for different pipe loops to suit everyone in the family!