Underfloor Heating FAQs
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Floor Heating Misconceptions
No! One of the greatest benefits of under floor heating is not only does it heat the floor, but it can be the primary source of heating for the whole room. Floor heating produces radiant heat rising up from the floor – meaning it warms the occupied areas of the room, rather than wastefully heating the upper areas. This means that your home can most efficiently be heated from bottom to top using Coldbuster floor heating.
Some of our clients want floor heating to heat the floor only because although they have alternative heating already, they just want that amazing feeling of walking barefoot on a warm floor in the middle of winter! If you only want to heat the floor and not the entire room, let us know and we will tailor the quote to your needs.
Floor heating is really simple, and we are happy provide you with all the information you could possibly need. You can use the Help me Choose, which gives you many options for your floor heating kit. Use this tool to find your ideal heater and receive a FREE quote with heating plan, instructions, and quote for your project. Planning your floor heating is made easy when using our free quote tool, as we design and plan the heating for your project.
Send us your floor plan through our FREE quote option or send it to [email protected] and we will send you a quote and a free customised plan for your project.
Generally hydronic is used for new builds as it is installed into the slab while electric can be installed to any room at the time you are adding new flooring.
Capital costs and labour costs are far lower for electric floor heating. Electric floor heating can be controlled room-by-room and is faster at reaching the desired temperature. This is a big topic, so we have devoted a whole page to the discussion.
Our advice is always to heat under all furniture except where you are confident that the furniture will not move in the long-term. We would not want the situation where in 5- or 10-years’ time the furniture is moved and there is a large cold space with no floor heating. If you’re certain the furniture will be permanently placed, then to save money you can certainly choose not to heat underneath. By not going under, in most cases, the heater size will not change drastically. If the heater size does change, the price differential is as small as a couple of tens of dollars.
Floor Heaters and Thermostats
Coldbuster has compiled extensive information and resources from carpet, timber, bamboo, vinyl and laminate flooring manufacturers, manufacturers of underlays as well as manufacturers of flooring adhesives and levelling products. Please feel free to contact Coldbuster for assistance in discussing or choosing these products.
Coldbuster floor heaters are designed so in most cases the floor height is not affected.
The thickness of the various heater types is:
- Under Tile: up to 2.4mm x 3.5mm
- Under Timber: up to 2.8mm x 4.3mm
- Under Carpet: up to 4.6mm x 3.0mm
- In-Screed: 4.9mm – 6.4mm
- In-Slab: 6.5mm
The first and most obvious difference between the two is that under tile heating is a finer cable attached to a 50cm wide mesh roll and installed on top of the screed or floor base (directly below the floor type), whereas screed heating is a thicker, single cable that is affixed to the base or substrate. Screed is then poured over top and levelled out.
There are two main differences between providing heating directly under the floor surface and in the screed:
- Heating directly under the floor surface is a little bit more expensive to supply than heating in the screed or slab.
- Heating directly under the floor surface is quicker to heat up, but the screed will retain heat longer once the heating is turned off. If you plan on installing yourself, both options are relatively simple to install. Where there would be minimal cutting of the 50cm wide mesh required, then perhaps the under tile would be even easier. If you have an odd-shaped area, perhaps in screed would be a bit easier.
In slab heating is usually used for polished concrete floor finishes. In slab heating is where the heating cable is affixed to the reinforcement rods BEFORE cement is poured. Your flooring is then laid on top.
In screed heating can be used where a screed layer is put in below the flooring. For dry areas, in screed heating is attached to fixing rails, which are affixed to the top of the concrete slab/floor base.
For wet areas (bathrooms and laundry typically), in screed heating can be installed using hot glue or cloth tape. In either case, the screed is then laid on top of the heater, followed by your floor type.
Programmable thermostats are our top line products. Our models are very smart and within a few days will calculate each room’s lead time requirements to maximise efficiency and save heating costs. They work backwards to figure out the latest time to turn on to get to your desired temperature at your requested time.
Heated areas with different thermostats (zones) can be controlled separately from each other. We recommend separate zoning for areas that will be used at different times.
For example, if a living and dining room are next to each other and will generally be used at the same time then it’s better to heat them together. If a bedroom is also next to the living and dining room but won’t be used at the same time, it is best to heat it as a separate zone, so you don’t have to pay to run the bedroom while you use the living and dining room.
With our programmable thermostats, custom schedules can be made specifically for each zone. Therefore, you can program the living and dining room to be on during the day when people are home and off when people are sleeping. While the bedroom can be programmed to be off during the day when people aren’t in their bedrooms but on at night when you usually go to bed.
With the MWD Wi Fi thermostat you can also control the heating from your phone while away from home.
Warm up times can vary widely as each room is different (insulation/ventilation, window area, aspect, size, floor substrate, depth of element below floor surface, ceiling height, etc).
Our very general rule of thumb of approximate lead time to run heat to get to desired temperature is conservatively:
- Under tile/timber/carpet: 1 hour
- In-screed: 2 hours
- In-slab: 3 hours
To reduce energy consumption, our thermostat models are very smart and within a few days will calculate each room’s lead time requirements to maximise efficiency and save heating costs. They work backwards to figure out the latest time to turn on to get to your desired temperature at your requested time.
Heat Plan and Quote
We have several rules of thumb over the years that we abide by to recommend the most optimal heater size for your space. These rules of thumb depend on several factors including (but not limited to):
- Type of heater – under tile (including under floating timber, under laminate, under vinyl), under carpet, in screed or in slab
- Size of area to heat – generally the larger the area, the less watts/m² required
- % of area to be heated – e.g., for bathrooms and kitchens much of the rooms go unheated as we do not typically heat under permanent fixtures such as vanities and counters.
- For bathrooms, we generally use 150-200watts/m² of heated area.
- For tiled living area we generally use 100-150watts/m² of heated area.
- For carpeted areas we generally use 100watts/m² of room area.
We suggest you take advantage of our valuable free service by sending us your floor-plans and we will promptly put together an obligation free quotation itemising every area separately that you may wish to consider, along with a professionally computerised drawing of where we suggest placing the heater. All we need are dimensions of the area (or a scale) and the type of heater and we do the rest!
If you don’t have a scaled floor plan, no problem! Just draw us a rough diagram (including dimensions) and we can work off that.
You can certainly extend the heating into the shower. About 20% of our clients request bathrooms are done this way, so we don’t assume unless given specific instructions to quote into the shower. The advantage is obviously more heat in the bathroom and heated tiles in the shower. Also, we’ve had many comments that floor heating helps reduce/eliminate build-up of mould and/or mildew.
Two other things to consider:
- You’ll also want to confirm that your builder is happy to extend the floor heating into the shower, as we have come across a minority who do not wish to drill a hole into the angle (to fit the heater through) and then waterproof around it.
- Of course, any tiler must take a little extra care when laying tiles upon floor heating (common sense). But even more so in the shower, as obviously we do not want the floor heating getting wet!
Installation
All heating kits are in fact DIY kits, to enable you to choose to undertake installation yourselves or have your electrician, builder or other tradie on site do so. Instructions for installation are included in the kit and we also have online videos available. Of course, we are only a phone call or email away should any further assistance be required.
Between 1 – 3 hours per kit for our installer. Once we have a quote drawn up, we will be able to give you a more accurate estimate.
If the vanity or cabinets are floating/standing/on legs, then a floor heating system can be installed under it.
In most situations, an electrician is required to be on site before the heater installation to install the conduits & power supply. After the heater is installed and the flooring has been laid, the electrician must connect the heater to the thermostat and hard-wire the thermostat directly to the power. Electrician costs can also be reduced by coordinating electrician visits with other electrician tasks often required during new builds and renovations.
Yes, they are. We do suggest taking that little bit of extra care when installing any floor surface over floor heating. Of course, the heating should only be connected once the flooring is finished. During the floor heating and flooring installations, the monitor should be connected to the floor heating as this will sound off if anything goes wrong. If the monitor does go off, stop what you’re doing and contact Coldbuster immediately.
Yes, each heater kit comes with a monitor and battery. Instructions on how to use it is included in the installation manuals.
Safety & Warranty
Absolutely. All heaters are double insulated. They also have a full earth screen and of course must be connected to an ELCB (safety switch) by a properly licensed electrician.
- Floor heaters come with 25-year warranty
- Thermostats come with 3-year warranty
- Mirror demisters come with 5-year warranty
- Other heating products come with 1-year warranty
Other
Depending on your location and how many heaters you have purchased; delivery usually takes between 2 – 5 business days. Overnight and express shipping is available on request but may incur extra cost. We can also provide a tracking number, so you can track your parcel.
Of course, we do offer a free pick-up service from our warehouse in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Yes. Our website uses an SSL certificate that encrypts all your information that is send on the internet. We also use secure payment gateways from PayPal and ANZ that secures your credit card payments. You will see in the address bar notification that our site is secure.
Yes, the drying effects of electric radiant floor heating will reduce the humidity, especially in bathrooms. Always helps to keep your rooms warm and dry.
