Underfloor heating contractors have become an increasingly popular option for home-owners and businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. Space heating accounts for more than 50 percent of our home energy budget (when combined with water heating, this typically rises to around 80 percent), meaning that central heating is a key area in which to reduce energy use. This naturally has benefits both to the environment and to your budget.

A good system installed by qualified underfloor heating contractors can bring remarkable savings that can last for the lifetime of the system. Studies have shown that this form of heating can save £2 per square metre of floor per year – which can clearly amount to a substantial sum when multiplied over the entire floor area of your premises. Not only that, but the screed (the layer of sand, cement and other materials in which the underfloor heating pipes are encased) itself can be partially made from recycled glass bottles – potentially reducing landfill and avoiding quarrying sand in the process.

There are different ways to go about underfloor heating, though essentially they have the same benefits. Your underfloor heating contractors will be able to advise you on the best system for your building, or will have selected a particular method in which they specialise. The carbon and cost savings (which usually go together) come for a number of different reasons, and underfloor heating has other benefits besides these.

Most traditional central heating systems use radiators, which are mounted on walls above ground level, and these have intrinsic disadvantages. For starters, they are not actually ‘radiators’ at all. They are convectors. They work by using hot water to heat the air immediately next to them, which is then carried around the room by convection. This is inefficient and causes hot and cold spots in certain areas. Because hot air rises, the top of the room tends to be hotter than the floor. This is exactly the reverse of what you want; it is far more comfortable to have warm feet and a cooler head than vice versa. In addition, radiators use hot water from a central boiler which is pumped to them. Heat that escapes from the pipes along the way is lost (hence the need to lag pipes as well as boilers). Underfloor heating contractors will be able to circumvent all of these problems with a more intelligent system.

Underfloor heating often uses hot water too, but in a smarter way (there are also systems powered by electrical heating elements). One way that underfloor heating contractors will be able to make your office or living space more comfortable is by placing the heat source where it is most needed – beneath your feet rather than at knee-level. More than that, they are far more efficient in their use of water heating. Radiators require water heated to perhaps 70 or 80 degrees centigrade. That makes for a high temperature gradient and a large degree of heat loss. Underfloor heating, by contrast, is 20 or 30 degrees cooler than this, meaning that far less heat is lost and therefore less energy is wasted. Plus, you actually want gradual heat loss across the entire surface to be heated – that, after all, is the point!

All said, a good system installed by skilled underfloor heating contractors can lead to significant environmental and financial savings due to the increased efficiency of the method and the inherent sense of its positioning – under your feet, not on the wall. A well-installed screed system will last for 70 years, meaning that any outlay will be recouped by gradual but ongoing savings on your heating bills.

This article about underfloor heating contractors was written by Anthony Hoe, director of Forde Yorkshire Ltd. who are members of the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers.

For more info, visit http://www.forde-group.co.uk or http://www.napit.org.uk

Author Bio: This article about underfloor heating contractors was written by Anthony Hoe, director of Forde Yorkshire Ltd. who are members of the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: underfloor heating, yorkshire, under floor heating, floor heating