Underfloor heat?
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Anonymous
| Seems like a good day to post a question about underfloor heating! We are considering under-floor electric heat mats under cork floors on a ground level room. The other kind, involving pipes and water, aren't an option. Anyone have any experience? Worth it? Good brands, bad brands, expense, installers? |
Anonymous
| We have the wire underfloor heat in our basement level under porcelain tile. I have been surprised that it works so well. We have radiator heat in the rest of the house, but the basement has electric heating/cooling units. In the two winters since we put in the underfloor tile heat, we have never turned on the electric heat in the basement. We also don't have to wear socks in the basement. |
Anonymous
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We love it in our bathroom but were told it wasn't really practical for larger areas because of how much electricity it uses.
A relative up north put hydronic (?) radiant heat - the kind with water attached to a boiler - and they swear by both how efficient it is as well as how easy it is to adjust to comfortable levels. It apparently is very expensive to install, however, which is I guess why we don't see it down here. |
Anonymous
| We have a "warm floor" in our bathroom - not meant to heat the room, but to keep your feet comfy. I love it. It doesn't use that much electricity (at least our bill didn't go up noticeably) but when you compare walking on the floor vs. the corner by the window that doesn't have the heat - it makes me really glad we did it. |
Anonymous
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Why the cork + underfloor? Isn't cork an insulator? It seems as though they'd work against each other.
Don't get me wrong, I love radiant heat. We have hydronic under wood on our first floor and electric mat under the tile in the master bath. It's just the combination you suggest that I'm wondering about. Who suggested it? (There are lots of people who know more about HVAC than I do, and if one of them did, go for it!) |
Anonymous
| I grew up with it in our whole house (slab floor and hot water system). It was wonderful. Toasty toes alll the time. |
Anonymous
Do you leave it on 24/7? |
Anonymous
| OP here--- to 17:19, I was thinking the cork would absorb the heat and hold onto it. Envious of your heated floors this morning! Now I am hearing conflicting things about cork floors' durability. Does anyone have any long term experience with it? |
Anonymous
| You don't want it to hold heat. You want it to conduct heat. |
Anonymous
We have this in the DC area. It is awesome and extremely comfortable but questionable from a bang-for-the-buck perspective. Very good for bathrooms in winter, especially, so a targeted project in those areas might make more sense. |
Anonymous
| I wish I had this for my kitchen, the tiles are so cold.. Although I think that cork floors won't be as cold as ceramic tiles, so you may not need it. |
Anonymous
Yes, we do, when it's cold outside. I turn the temp down slightly during the day and in the middle of the night (74 ish instead of 82) but that's it. We turn it off completely in the summertime. |
Anonymous
We have cork in our basement and I'll admit that I'm paranoid of it's durability. We don't wear shoes in the house but I'm always wiping up from dog feet and kid dirt and so far so good. I do wish we had investigated the vinyl planks, as we had water leak under the basement door due to leaves and need to have a few planks replaced. Cork is warm, though. Definitely keeps the floors temperate. |