What makes underfloor heating systems different from the conventional radiant heating systems? Could it be the high-tech underfloor heating thermostats? Or the actual obvious that one is fixed under the floor boards rather than affixed against the wall? Actually it is both of the above and more! Most homeowners will not have had floor heating installed, because they simple do not know enough about this kind of system.



Small differences such as the underfloor heating thermostats are programmable from a separate area, in separate rooms and can be timed for each individual rooms. The same however, cannot be done with radiant heating because they very often run as a hydronic system, which will only for each of the heaters to be controlled in each room. They can be set to a timer, but altogether rather than separately - meaning that if you want your bedroom heater on but have the rest of the heaters off, you will have to do this individually. This will not reduce the cost of your heating bills.

Whilst radiant heating thermostats can come digital and can be controlled from a separate area, underfloor heating thermostats do not need the individual to manually turn off the heating systems in each room, nor do they need to raise the temperature on the thermostat to heat the rooms up quickly. This does not use a lot of energy to warm each room up as they work by the concept of heat rising and distributing heat evenly.

The installation process is quick and if you are skilled craftsmen then this can be done by yourself. This will mean that any carpets you have will need to be removed as the heating system will not be affective with carpeting. The process requires accurate measurement of the flooring, plenty of digging underneath the floor boards and some wiring (if you are installing electric underfloor heating). These are relatively cheap to keep running and need low maintenance. Furthermore they do not run a very high heating bill and are energy efficient.

Radiant heating requires more time to connect them to the plumbing system and also need the added space to be fixed onto the wall. Radiant heating also tend to heat the rooms relatively quickly, around the top half of the room, which means people will generally feel warmer in the top half of the body and are will therefore be more prone to headaches and fatigue. However, they are more common and people prefer this type of heating system as they do not take so long to warm up the rooms. These calculate to be more expensive in the long run, as they usually need to use a higher temperature setting than underfloor heating.