What is better underfloor heating or heating radiator

Combined system

You can combine two types of heating as follows:

underfloor heating in addition to radiators;
underfloor heating as the main source of heating, and radiators as an auxiliary one.

Air heating with a radiator and underfloor heating system

Often, to ensure comfort in two-story private houses, underfloor heating on the ground floor is used as the main source of heating, and the upper floor or attic is heated with radiators. This combination allows you to take full advantage of the two systems. In the bedrooms, you can adjust the temperature during the night and day. And on the ground floor it warms up the room well.

If the heat loss of the room is large, then arrange a combined system.

The fundamental difference between heating with underfloor heating and a boiler with radiator batteries

The main difference between underfloor heating and batteries is the principle of operation. Underfloor heating contains heating elements that act on the ceiling, which warms the room. It warms up evenly, which means that people can walk barefoot and not be afraid of catching a cold. Warm air masses move up, replacing cold, heavy masses moving down.

The heating of the room occurs according to the inertial scheme - the concrete slab is heated, which further warms everything else. For those who do not like to wait for a long time, it is better to stay on heating with a boiler, pipes and radiators

But this is not such a serious feature to focus on it, because during the cold seasons, houses are heated around the clock.

“But the cold comes from the side of the windows, radiators are installed in order to avoid these heat losses, and now everything is being removed from under the windows!” the meticulous owner will say. Of course, this is so, therefore, small radiator batteries or the so-called thermal paths are used together, which warm the window area and prevent the windows from fogging up.

Is there any real savings when using underfloor heating?

But where can such savings come from, if, theoretically, the same amount of heat should be spent to heat any room, regardless of the heating system?

When using a warm floor, heat savings become possible due to the specifics of its distribution. When using radiator heating, the heat is constantly in motion - it rises up from the radiator, then cools near the ceiling and falls down to the floor, and when using a warm floor, there is practically no circulation, and the highest temperature is located near the floor itself. In the underfloor heating system, the temperature of the coolant most often does not exceed 55 degrees, and in the radiator heating system, the temperature often reaches 90 degrees.

But there is no need to jump to conclusions. The temperature difference between the heat carriers of the two systems under consideration is not in itself an indicator of savings. In order to maintain the same temperature in the room, the boiler in both cases consumes approximately the same amount of energy, in accordance with the elementary laws of physics. In this case, it becomes unclear where the savings can come from?

Battery types

Radiators are made from different materials. They are:

cast iron;
steel;
aluminum.

Each metal has its pros and cons, which must be considered when replacing.

Cast iron

They have a working pressure of 9 bar. As for other characteristics, they are:

height - 350-1500 mm;
depth - 50-140 mm.

Such batteries, although they began to be used a very long time ago, are still very popular. Their main advantages:

relatively low price;
the ability to add sections;
durability;
the ability to use with any coolant;
high efficiency.

If we talk about the shortcomings, which must be taken into account when comparing what is better than a warm floor or cast iron batteries, then they are also very significant:

The room heats up for a long time after the batteries are turned on.
The heat transfer of cast iron batteries is 110 W per section, which is quite small.
You need a lot of coolant.
These batteries are heavy.
As a rule, the design does not differ in variety.

Aluminum and bimetallic

They appeared later than cast iron, but quickly gained popularity. Users appreciate:

high heat transfer;
ease of installation
profitability;
little weight.

In bimetallic batteries, most of these shortcomings are eliminated.

Steel

These batteries are of two types:

panel;
tubular.

The working pressure can be from 5 to 16 bar. Steel radiators give temperatures up to 120°C. They may have the following dimensions:

height - 200-900 mm;
depth - up to 225 mm.

Steel batteries are much more durable than others. They also have other advantages:

high heat transfer;
reliability;
strength;
low cost;
simple installation;
different connection options.

What is better water floor heating or radiators

Man is arranged in such a way that he strives to find the best possible solution at the best possible price. The heating system is no exception here. Let's try to figure out what is all the same better: a system of water floors or radiator heating.

2. Heat distribution. Here, a clear advantage of water heated floors. The radiator often stands localized, under the windows, and the closer you get to the radiator, the warmer it gets. On top of that, according to the principle of its operation, the radiator first heats the ceiling, and then the hot air flows down to the floor. Underfloor heating works differently. It is distributed over the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe room and on each square meter of the floor the temperature will be the same. Plus, underfloor heating warms the room from the bottom up.

3. Temperature control. Both underfloor heating and heating radiators can be adjusted, but with the only difference that radiators do this much faster. The reaction time is from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on what kind of radiators you mount. Aluminum and steel react much faster than bimetal and cast iron. And warm floors, in turn, react to temperature changes in just two hours.

4. Comfort. This criterion is quite subjective. But, as mentioned earlier, a warm floor evenly distributes heat. Due to this, it is more comfortable to be in a room with water-heated floors. And moving on the warm floor, you do not feel the heating of the floors, because the surface of the warm floor is only 28 ° C.

5. System life. This is a rather controversial point. Both those and other manufacturers assure that their systems are designed for 50 years of efficient operation. But given that the system will be mounted correctly, there will be no overheating and other situations. We can observe the work of cast-iron radiators installed during the construction of old houses. They have clearly served their time, and nothing happens to them. Unfortunately, a water-heated floor does not yet have the same delayed result. Warm floors entered our market about 20-30 years ago, so their service life has not yet come to an end. But for all the years of service with warm floors, nothing happened.

6. Maintainability. Of course, in most cases it is easier to repair a radiator heating system. The radiator is the main device from which heat comes. And if something suddenly happened to him: a section leaked, a crack appeared from the impact, you just buy a new radiator and replace it. With water heated floors, this is not possible. If it happens that you overheat the pipe in the screed, it will be much more difficult to repair everything.First you will need to find the place of breakdown (rupture) of the pipe, and this often requires a thermal imager, which is not cheap. After that, you need to open the screed at the place of leakage, dismantle the floor heating, and this is not only additional costs, but also dirt in the house.

7. Profitability. Installers like to say that water heated floors are 20-30% more economical than radiators. But, as practice shows, the systems consume plus or minus the same. Of course, with additional costs for a conditioned gas boiler, you can save on heating when using the "warm floor" system. After all, such a system works when heated to 40-45 ° C, and radiator systems effectively begin to work only at 60-65 ° C. And if you take cast-iron batteries, they need to be heated up to 80 ° C so that they begin to give off heat. Therefore, at additional costs, a water-heated floor system will be more economical.

8. Aesthetics. Here, the clear winner is water heated floors, for the reason that the entire system is hidden in the screed and does not take up extra space from the outside, unlike radiators. If you want to make a special design and put furniture in a certain place, nothing will stop you. And radiators do not always fit into a modern interior. If you count, then the advantages of a water-heated floor are more. But this does not mean at all that the radiator heating system is worse. Both systems will cope with the heating of your home. But what it will be, it's up to you to choose.

Radiators are clear and simple

With radiators, everything looks much simpler. Having an autonomous heating boiler or a central heating system, we ourselves determine how the pipeline will be installed and the heating devices will be connected. Two types of heating systems are commonly used, open and closed. In the first case, you will need to lay one highway, into which all the batteries in the house will be connected in series.

With an open heating system, you will have to lay two pipes, a supply line and a return line. Batteries are connected in this case in parallel. This connection scheme is very convenient. You can always turn off one of the radiators, thereby reducing the load on the boiler and lowering the temperature in the room.

Of all the things you will need to equip this heating option, the most expensive component is the radiators. These appliances, cast iron or steel, are quite expensive. However, in terms of operation, efficiency and durability, it is difficult to compare other materials with them. Bimetallic or aluminum radiators are cheaper, but inferior to cast-iron batteries in terms of efficiency and reliability.

New models are installed in new buildings, where in most cases there are autonomous gas boilers.

Warm floor

The warm water floor is a concrete floor with a built-in piping system. This cake is laid on a pillow made of insulation. The heat from the floor is distributed evenly over the area of the room. Consider the advantages of this type of heating:

The disadvantages include complex and expensive repairs in the event of a leak, which is associated with the technology of laying the pipeline. Long heating and cooling of the floor. Young children get tired quickly, as their metabolism is faster, the child will be constantly hot.

Advice. Installing an electronic thermostat will allow you to smoothly adjust the temperature in accordance with weather conditions.

After weighing all the advantages and evaluating the disadvantages, it is worth making the only right decision in choosing a heating system for a private house. In any case, success is guaranteed by correct calculation and installation, then the disadvantages will become advantages.

Electric floor heating

Compared to a hydraulic floor, an electric floor has a number of advantages:

can be laid in any room;
major repairs are not required;
you can use the existing coating and do not need to lay an additional heat insulator;
floor height does not change;
the room warms up quickly.

Heating elements are different. Depending on this, underfloor heating systems are divided into three types:

wired;
film;
with carbon rods.

Wired

The wired version is more familiar and understandable, but it has very significant drawbacks compared to the film one:

consumes a lot of energy;
costly;
afraid of overheating, that is, one must be extremely careful about the arrangement of furniture;
creates electromagnetic fields around conductors;
requires mounting in a screed.

Film floor

It is more practical and more convenient than wired. Its main advantages include:

low power consumption;
absence of magnetic fields;
can be mounted without a tie.

System with carbon rods

So far, this is the most modern version. It is quite rare, but it is necessary to know about the advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are:

the ability to independently regulate the distribution of heat;
does not overheat, that is, furniture can be placed as you like;
consumes not too much electricity;
fit under any cover.

What is better for a person underfloor heating or radiators

But then we will talk about the most important thing - about thermal comfort. A person feels best indoors when their feet are warm, the middle part of the body feels moderately warm, and the head is relatively cool. Just according to this scheme, warm floors distribute heat, but with a radiator heating system it will be the other way around, that is, it will be cold below and warm above.

According to the results of research, if you lower the average temperature in a room heated by underfloor heating by about 1-2 degrees, then a person will have approximately the same feeling of warmth as in the room that is heated by radiators and in which the average temperature did not change .

To be frank, this statement is absolutely true and is not a trick of marketers, so the benefits of warm floors are obvious. No calculations are needed to understand that it is much more important for a person that it is warmer not in the upper, but in the lower half of the room. And here the question may arise, what will be the benefit in monetary terms?

Best Answers

Rost:

Everything is very simple! To understand which is better, you need to do the following: 1. You need to calculate the heat loss of the house, knowing its shape, materials, etc. this is relatively easy to do, there are textbooks after all. 2. Knowing the heat loss, you can choose the power of the boiler and the brand of radiators and their number, well, or a warm floor. When choosing, you will have to calculate how much heat the boiler will give, how much heat the house will receive through radiators or the floor. Here you will find out what is best for your particular case. Without doing this, to argue that it is better is wrong.

But, you can just make warm floors and everything, like everyone else, you will be warm and comfortable, I have not heard that someone was cold. Maximum hemorrhoids, this is possibly a higher fuel consumption than with radiators, and depending on what kind of heating system. The bourgeoisie, for example, mainly has low-temperature boilers, so warm floors are popular with them, they give a high efficiency at the same time, and in our country, as parvilo, high-temperature systems are used, in such systems the floors are not efficient in terms of fuel consumption efficiency, the efficiency of the floors is lower, because because the heat transfer of the floors does not correspond to the amount of heat that the boiler gives out (roughly speaking), the coolant does not have time to cool down significantly, because the warm floor consists of concrete, its thermal conductivity is much worse than that of metal. But if you score on it, it will be quite comfortable. But in any case, it is most correct to make a calculation, and to determine what is best and for what.

Pyih:

radiators - it is more convenient to change - warm floors - if they are correctly made - more economical.

Just Olga:

The radiator heats only the air, and the warm floor does not heat the air. If your apartment is cold, you need normal heating. To do this, buy good batteries or heaters. The warm floor is pleasant for the feet, it does not need a carpet and you can walk barefoot. Often it is made under a laminate or tile, which always remains cold.

Nadezhda Zhumatiy (Maslova):

When the floor is heated, warm air, rising up (the law of physics), warms up all the air in the room from the floor itself; while the walls must be very well insulated to prevent mold on them. With radiator heating, the area along the walls and windows warms up. You can reduce heat loss by gluing special on the walls behind the radiators. reflectors; in this case, part of the heat will pass to the center of the room. If there are no financial problems, it is better to do floor heating.

Arthur Zarembo:

If the heating system is low-temperature, with a coolant of 40-45 degrees. , then underfloor heating can give a good result in terms of comfort and energy saving. If the heating system is high-temperature up to 90 degrees. , then the use of warm floors entails increased energy costs, it will be comfortable, but energy costs will be greater than when using radiators. At high temperatures, the efficiency of the system on radiators is better or higher. Gas costs money for the bourgeois, so they use low-temperature systems and underfloor heating, which is very economical and efficient. But, the sellers do not delve into these nuances, and sell floors to everyone, stupidly translating bourgeois booklets, which show chic performance. This is Boman.

Natalya Terekhova:

Where are the floors? In the bathroom? Kitchen? In general, radiators are used for heating. Underfloor heating is used in large kitchens and bathrooms where there are exterior walls and tiles. In all other cases, this is an unnecessary cost. Floors are no substitute for heating. And by the way, this is a rather complicated redevelopment in legalization. It cannot be legalized after the alteration. Until only after the project, approved by all the rules.

Andrey:

Try to make a warm floor, it is better than radiators in all respects, except for the initial investment.

Avanez Kirpikin:

What is better depends on the design of the house and the heating system. Comparing a radiator and a warm floor is silly in principle. A warm floor is, roughly speaking, a radiator wrapped in a fur coat. It works completely differently. It can be done well on radiators and with underfloor heating. Although often underfloor heating is not enough, it depends on the region and the heating system. Before you do anything, figure out what and how. As for the best indicators that the previous speaker is talking about, it is worth clarifying under what conditions they are obtained, and what kind of indicators are they, what are they called, what parameters or numbers do they have?

Installation of electric floor heating

Installation of cable and infrared systems, of course, is somewhat different. At the same time, cable systems are divided into two types:

actually cable;
cable in a reinforcing mesh.

In addition to the system itself, which is to be mounted, you need:

mounting wire;
ground cable;
fasteners;
regulator;
temperature sensor;
RCD system.

As with a hydraulic floor, the first step is to prepare the room - level the surface and lay a layer of thermal insulation and vapor barrier. The infrared floor just needs to be spread over the surface and attached with adhesive tape.

Lay a layer of heat reflector.
Measure the resistance of the heating cables - this must be done before laying.
Compare the discrepancy with the data in the passport - it should not be more than 10%.
Lay the cable and secure.
If you need to pour concrete - lay a reinforcing mesh.
Connect the power cable and heater.
Lay the cable in the corrugation.
Attach the corrugation to the floor.
Check the resistance again.
Pour screed or lay tiles.

Warm water floor. Installation and main features

You still doubt the choice.Which is better, stop at the radiators or start preparing the installation of underfloor heating. Just estimate the amount of required materials, equipment and the level of work in each individual case. This will give you immediate answers to many questions, leave heating radiators or bet on underfloor heating.

First you need to understand what are the main stages of installing underfloor heating. Why start with this heating option? The thing is that this method is considered newer and little studied for most consumers.

installation of warm water floors is best done in a new building, when finishing work has not yet begun, and instead of the floor there are simple concrete floors. We take into account the fact that with water circuits laid in the floor, the ceiling height in heated rooms will decrease by 100-150 mm. For a private house, this is not a problem, while for a city apartment it sometimes becomes critical.

The basic installation is as follows. The surface is being prepared, on which a layer of thermal and waterproofing is laid. Next comes the mesh or special mats on which the water pipes of the heating circuit are laid. As a result, your floor takes on the appearance of a layer cake. This design is called a layer cake, in which each layer plays its own specific role.

Before concrete wet work, a damper tape is glued around the perimeter of the room, which plays the role of a compensator for the thermal expansion of the concrete surface. The water pipe is laid according to two schemes, a snake or a spiral. Depending on the intensity of heating, you yourself choose the laying scheme.

only after connecting the water circuits to the distribution equipment (pumping and mixing unit) is a test run carried out. If no flaws are found in the technical part of the system, there are no leaks and the heating is in accordance with the specified parameters, you can start laying the concrete screed.

Heating by the type of underfloor heating without radiators is usually chosen when there is a powerful independent heating boiler of high power. In a house where constant heating is required, there is a constant consumption of hot water, heated floors should work without interruption. It is due to the powerful boiler that the required intensity of heating of the coolant and the flow rate satisfying the technological parameters are achieved.

Radiators

The advantage of the classical method is the low cost of installation compared to underfloor heating. And the main disadvantage is the uneven distribution of heat. Much depends on the type of radiator and how it is connected. The coolant of an effective battery is about 70 degrees. It is the high temperature that allows the radiator to have compact dimensions. The lower the coolant temperature, the more radiators are required to heat one room. What other advantages and disadvantages does the classic have:

the radiator and heating pipes are always in sight, which affects the interior design;

the performance of the radiator is easily regulated by a thermostatic head, the temperature change will occur within an hour, while the warm floor system will have to wait several hours;
due to the fact that the entire system is in plain sight, it is easy to repair, replace some elements with more efficient ones. The warm floor is mounted in a concrete coupler once and for all;
ribbed radiators give off heat by convection by 80%, the rest by radiation;

Ribbed radiators in the interior

convectors transfer heat by convection, which leads to an increased circulation of dust in the room;
aluminum radiators emit only 8% of heat, the rest is convection;
panel radiators radiate 35%, the rest is convection.

Installing a water floor

In a private house, no one will forbid you to put a hydraulic underfloor heating.But you need to mount it with high quality, because comfort, safety, and the durability of the system itself, and savings depend on it.

Room preparation

Any important business must begin with preparation, in this case - the premises:

Mark the level of the top layer of your floor.
Drill holes for pipes.
Make technological niches.
Prepare the subfloor - it must be leveled so that the skew does not exceed 5 °.

thermal insulation

After the room is ready, it is necessary to lay the thermal insulation.

Styrofoam, polyurethane and other similar materials are suitable for this. The best vapor barrier - for example, from polystyrene.

The vapor barrier must be fixed and glued, for which a damper tape made of polyethylene foam is used. It is attached around the perimeter and at the joints slightly above the screed. Then the heat insulator is laid - the mounting plate.

Pipe laying

For underfloor heating, a variety of pipes are used:

copper;
steel;
PVC;
from metal-plastic;
high strength polyethylene.

When laying pipes, you must follow some rules:

15 cm must be retreated from the outer wall.
Do not lay pipes at the joints of floor panels.
In the middle of the room, laying with a large step is possible.

As for the types of styling, there are several of them:

snake;
double snake;
snail.

In addition to preparation and installation, installation includes the following steps:

connection to the distribution manifold;
crimping;
pouring concrete;
expansion joint installation.

The first option is for copper or polyethylene pipes, the second is for steel and metal-plastic. Pressure testing is carried out before pouring concrete, since at this stage the quality of the entire system is checked.

No fill

Not so long ago, the so-called non-filling hydraulic floor appeared. It is not yet very popular, and its efficiency is lower, but it can be used in apartment buildings. Mounting it is much easier and faster:

Thermal insulation is laid on the ceiling.
A layer of chipboard or polystyrene boards is laid on top.
The main layer is laid with heat-distributing plates.
The plates are covered with a vibration-insulating layer.
All this is covered with an outer layer, usually a laminate.