Underfloor heating was widely specified in the heyday of system build in the 60s and 70s. Like much else from that period of housebuilding, it proved to be unpopular and was largely abandoned in the UK. The systems installed then mostly worked using off-peak electricity and, crucially, went into largely uninsulated flats, resulting in unacceptably cold homes. However countries that have long used underfloor insulation like Sweden and Germany took to underfloor heating in a big way and in much of continental Europe it is the common form of heating homes.
In Britain, the current market for underfloor heating is tiny, accounting for sales of just over £10m per annum, barely 2% of the heating market overall. Much of this is accounted for by the self-build sector where warm water underfloor heating is extensively specified. Electric systems are still around but account for less than one in 20 installations.
Professional specifiers have been reluctant to follow suit because warm water underfloor heating has been seen as expensive and there has been little if any consumer demand. However there are now signs that it is breaking into mainstream housebuilding. Colin Topp designs systems for many of the major housebuilders: "I have seen the market change significantly in the last three years. There seems to be an acceptance from both consumers and housebuilders. This is partly because it is becoming cheaper and partly because of the success generally of plastic pipe - it's the same pipe used for underfloor as used for hot and cold plumbing. Few housebuilders have chosen to fit underfloor heating throughout - it's a lot more difficult to fit it under a suspended timber floor - but many are using it downstairs or in parts of the downstairs, especially in upmarket housing."
Plastic pipe maker Polyplumb entered the underfloor heating market two years ago with a brief to make it affordable to everyone. The company hired Topp to undertake a survey to establish the real costs of installing underfloor heating. He showed that on a 150m2 bungalow, the materials were typically £800 more expensive than using radiators but that there was a significant labour saving - 14 hours as against 17.5 hours - on installation time. This didn't account for subsequent visits on radiator-based systems to facilitate decoration.
Topp says: "The extra expense is down to the amount of plastic pipe needed and the backing plates needed to fix the pipe prior to screeding. When the new Part L of the Building Regulations comes into effect next year, underfloor insulation will be mandatory whereas, to date, it has been possible to build without it. This effectively removes another cost barrier to using underfloor heating.
Another significant entrant into the market is Wavin Plastics, maker of Osma plastic pipe. Osma has long been market leader in uPVC waste pipes and rainwater goods and has become a leading player in the growing plastic pipe market with its OsmaGold system launched in 1999. To attack the underfloor heating market, Wavin has gone into partnership with ThermoBoard, a small Devon-based firm.
ThermoBoard managing director, Rex Ingram, says: "To date, we've largely seen underfloor heating as a craft-based product. My concern is that this relies too much upon the skill and integrity of the installer. It is all very well mapping 150, 200 or 300 centres on a CAD drawing but there is little way of checking that this is what actually gets laid." Ingram has developed a series of designs which incorporate the pipe into the backing material, typically either polystyrene floor insulation or chipboard floor coverings.
Architect Sergison Bates has used Thermoboard's system on several projects and has been very impressed. Partner Stephen Bates says: "The polystyrene arrives on site already marked up and channelled out and all you have to do is work out where each sheet goes. Then an installer literally treads the plastic pipe into the channels and connects each end up to a manifold. It is very simple. The cost was marginally more than conventional radiators, about the same amount as a low temperature rad system."
Ingram thinks the market for underfloor heating is set to explode over the next few years. "I expect it will take 15 or 20% of the UK heating market within the next three to five years. Consumers really like it, especially old people and families with toddlers. On the other side of the coin, a lot of builders are getting fed up with radiators which are a frequent cause of snagging, are difficult to decorate around and are prone to pilfering."
Source
Building Homes
