Under Floor Heating good or not

[Bee]

Boats are pretty warm things really, decent stove, simple gravity system of rads and pipes, works well.  Never really noticed a floor being cold, the water under a boat is always a bit warmer than the ice all around it and an eberspacher type thing as a backup and instant heat at floor level whilst the stove gets going will be much simpler and cheaper than underfloor heating. Anyway, one day you will want to lift some floorboards to get at something - ballast, rust, etc. and you will wish that you had never thought of underfloor heating. Every item going into a boat should have a traffic light code on it, Simple = green. Buy it. Complicated = red. Don't buy it, you will end up hating it.

[big d]

As requested I’ll give my informed findings as I have underfloor heating rather. I have a diesel stove with back boiler, it heats my water, 2 rads and underfloor loop. I have a 12v pulp with variable speed. I can isolate any of the system so when I get on boat I often have rads and then once boat heated will use to heat water then lastly underfloor. The pipes have plenty of space as they run just under the boards in metal trays that help spread warmth, I have insulation board underneath to stop the heat going to the cut, I only have it running under where I walk, a loop that goes the 26 ft of internal cabin space, I have heating blocks as ballast underneath. It is possible. It’s great in winter as I leave the bubble on 24/7 and once the hot water tank heated the underfloor means no cold feet. 

[Ronaldo47]

We spent a year living in a flat with underfloor electric heating, and yes, it did tend to make your feet swell. It also tended to raise dust from the carpets when in operation. A friend's mother who had it, found that, after a few years, her expensive carpet had deteriorated all over except in one corner, where it turned out the underfloor heating had failed. The carpet used a traditional hessian fibre support which had lost strength and become brittle under the dry heat of the underfloor heating. Synthetic carpet should be ok.

[MtB]

7 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

I'm not saying you're wrong, but does the pump really need to be 4a?  The pump that circulates the water round my radiators is part of my Alde boiler and draws 0.2a.  Why is an underfloor system so much more?

 

Because a 100m length of say 10mm bore underfloor pipe probably has about 25 times the hydraulic resistance of your radiator system.

[BPot]

17 hours ago, big d said:

As requested I’ll give my informed findings as I have underfloor heating rather. I have a diesel stove with back boiler, it heats my water, 2 rads and underfloor loop. I have a 12v pulp with variable speed. I can isolate any of the system so when I get on boat I often have rads and then once boat heated will use to heat water then lastly underfloor. The pipes have plenty of space as they run just under the boards in metal trays that help spread warmth, I have insulation board underneath to stop the heat going to the cut, I only have it running under where I walk, a loop that goes the 26 ft of internal cabin space, I have heating blocks as ballast underneath. It is possible. It’s great in winter as I leave the bubble on 24/7 and once the hot water tank heated the underfloor means no cold feet. 

Thank you so much for this information it is good to get feedback from someone who has underfloor heating.  did you fit it yourself or get someone to do it? 

[MtB]

17 hours ago, big d said:

As requested I’ll give my informed findings as I have underfloor heating rather. I have a diesel stove with back boiler, it heats my water, 2 rads and underfloor loop. I have a 12v pulp with variable speed. I can isolate any of the system so when I get on boat I often have rads and then once boat heated will use to heat water then lastly underfloor. The pipes have plenty of space as they run just under the boards in metal trays that help spread warmth, I have insulation board underneath to stop the heat going to the cut, I only have it running under where I walk, a loop that goes the 26 ft of internal cabin space, I have heating blocks as ballast underneath. It is possible. It’s great in winter as I leave the bubble on 24/7 and once the hot water tank heated the underfloor means no cold feet. 

 

Thanks for your comments. 

 

Is this in a narrowboat or a widebeam please? What make and model of 12v pump do you have and how are you varying the speed, please?

 

The thing that strikes me though is the underfloor heating is not carrying out the main grunt of actually heating the boat as there is a stove which has to be running along with two radiators. It's main benefit seems to be getting rid of the cold zone at floor level that stove-heated boats usually suffer from.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by MtB
To add a point.

[BPot]

17 hours ago, big d said:

As requested I’ll give my informed findings as I have underfloor heating rather. I have a diesel stove with back boiler, it heats my water, 2 rads and underfloor loop. I have a 12v pulp with variable speed. I can isolate any of the system so when I get on boat I often have rads and then once boat heated will use to heat water then lastly underfloor. The pipes have plenty of space as they run just under the boards in metal trays that help spread warmth, I have insulation board underneath to stop the heat going to the cut, I only have it running under where I walk, a loop that goes the 26 ft of internal cabin space, I have heating blocks as ballast underneath. It is possible. It’s great in winter as I leave the bubble on 24/7 and once the hot water tank heated the underfloor means no cold feet. 

Sorry another question. Did you find that your feet swelled with the heat did the under floor heating ever get too hot for comfort? How easily controllable was it were you able to keep it at a contast heat?

 

[big d]

1 hour ago, BPot said:

Thank you so much for this information it is good to get feedback from someone who has underfloor heating.  did you fit it yourself or get someone to do it? 

Hi, I fitted it myself, when I bought the  boat it had no rads or underfloor just bubble and hot away. I fitted the rads and underfloor with help of a landlubber plumber who is a mate. 

 

1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

Thanks for your comments. 

 

Is this in a narrowboat or a widebeam please? What make and model of 12v pump do you have and how are you varying the speed, please?

 

The thing that strikes me though is the underfloor heating is not carrying out the main grunt of actually heating the boat as there is a stove which has to be running along with two radiators. It's main benefit seems to be getting rid of the cold zone at floor level that stove-heated boats usually suffer from.

 

 

 

It’s a narrowboat 40ft semi trad. It’s a cheap 12v pump and 12v variable speed switch off the eBay. So the way it’s installed is I can regulate with valves where the energy goes. Back boiler needs a release so I often once waters hot have underfloor only so warm from floor to ceiling but off super cold then bang on the rads. The fire is in front cabin. Bedroom in middle with a rad and bathroom in rear cabin with rad. Underfloor throughout. 

1 hour ago, BPot said:

Sorry another question. Did you find that your feet swelled with the heat did the under floor heating ever get too hot for comfort? How easily controllable was it were you able to keep it at a contast heat?

 

Never had swelled feet, only place it’s super hot is bathroom as lino on floor rather than carpet. The control is a balance thing. Not a quick system but if too hot I just run hot tap in sink and the energy goes into heating more. But on a boat I don’t know what is too hot. I just open the doors