Underfloor heating design
Nu-Heat invest heavily in developing intelligent software. Our UFH systems are designed to be the perfect fit, from pipe spacing to heat loss calculations.
Benefits of a good underfloor heating design
Underfloor heating is an efficient, low temperature heating system that is set within the floor – so it’s important to get it right!
Taking the time to understand the property and its heating requirements, which underfloor heating system is the best option and then how it should be designed and installed offers some big benefits.
Peace of mind
Maximum efficiency
Easy installation
Better controllability
Minimise wastage
The risks of a bad underfloor heating design
Once underfloor heating is installed, it’s nearly impossible to make any changes to the system as it’s within the floor. That’s why getting it right first time is critical.
Choosing an undesigned, or poorly designed underfloor heating system, comes with the following risks:
- A cold home! The underfloor heating may struggle to heat the rooms
- Cold spots across the floor
- High running costs
- Damage to floor coverings by overheating areas
What a good underfloor heating design should cover
A lot of work goes into a good, detailed underfloor heating design. The process can be broken down into three key stages:
1. Room-by-room heat loss calculations
We begin by working out the heat loss of every room. Not all underfloor heating suppliers do this but it’s essential to assess each room separately because they can be completely different – different in size, in number of windows, ceiling heights etc. and this all affects heat loss. A lot of glass in a new build can still cause a high heat loss!
To work out the heat loss, our Designers look at the fabric of each room to see how much heat is lost through the building itself, through the walls, windows, the roof and floor. Ventilation loss, which is heat loss through air changes in a room, is also factored into every Nu-Heat design.
By calculating room-by-room heat loss in this way, we are able to see exactly how much heat any room will lose and then how much heat the underfloor heating will need to provide.
2. Setting the underfloor heating output
Now that we know the heat loss for each room, our Designers look at how much heat output the underfloor heating can provide and how to do this efficiently.
To ensure the underfloor heating will work comfortably, we consider several variables. First, what floor construction, or base, is the underfloor heating being installed on? What is the heat source? If this will be a heat pump, this is factored into the design to keep flow temperatures as low as possible.
We then look at setting the optimum pipe spacing, water flow temperature and flow rates to correctly balance the heat output and efficiency of the system in each room. Our designs even consider the preferred floor covering, ensuring no sensitive options like vinyl are ever damaged and that carpet is never a problem.
3. Creating the underfloor heating layout
The first two steps give us all of the information we need to start the physical underfloor heating design drawing. Because of the level of detail, our Designers can see how many coils of pipe are needed, what length they should be and the spacing they should be laid out at to achieve the desired heat output.
We discuss the most suitable manifold locations – which should be central to the rooms they serve – and then produce CAD drawings of the underfloor heating.
The tube layout drawing makes installing the underfloor heating as simple as possible – so much so, that some homeowners choose to lay this themselves and just get an installer in to help with the commissioning of the system!
The installation went smoothly as the Nu-Heat design and supporting paperwork was brilliantly comprehensive
Ryan Marshall, Managing Director, Marshall & McCourt
