Hybrid floor or WHAT with under floor heating

[Mikeyboy7]

Hi all ,
I have a large area to do 100sqm ,
Would love to do with glass insulation & LimeCrete is it worth the expense(€12kfor materials without labour) & the effort ?
Nhl5 is it breathable enough especially when there will be another layer of tiles etc ! Could I do some sort of hybrid floors but how would you install the UFH PIPING where concrete would meet limecrete & the labour involved shuttering out floorsOr could I use some sort of insulation to keep off wall & use concrete , please help
thanks Mike

 

[Cubist]

Hello again Mike,
Personally I don't have a very high opinion of UFH systems of any kind. To my mind they can be expensive to run and, depending on the energy source, costly to install. In the latter case I'm thinking of air and ground source heating plants rather than the more run of the mill gas or electric c/h boilers that service wet UFH systems. The thought of a wet UFH would also give me an attack of the 'willies' when I pondered the prospect of a leak in such a system, however remote that possibility may be!

In your shoes, again, I would be looking closely at the technical benefits again and considering the differences between the net gain in the shape of 'reduced heat loss' achieved by the different measures that could be used to insulate the floors and contrasting these benefits with those that may be achieved if one were to rely on a heating system that includes AND excludes UFH. Those figures, I think, would be very interesting and perhaps may be rather surprising.

Sorry I can't offer more constructive advice but there are many members here who have installed or used UFH systems and they perhaps can offer more that would be useful to you.

Cheers,
Cubist

 

[Mikeyboy7]

Hello again Mike,
Personally I don't have a very high opinion of UFH systems of any kind. To my mind they can be expensive to run and, depending on the energy source, costly to install. In the latter case I'm thinking of air and ground source heating plants rather than the more run of the mill gas or electric c/h boilers that service wet UFH systems. The thought of a wet UFH would also give me an attack of the 'willies' when I pondered the prospect of a leak in such a system, however remote that possibility may be!

In your shoes, again, I would be looking closely at the technical benefits again and considering the differences between the net gain in the shape of 'reduced heat loss' achieved by the different measures that could be used to insulate the floors and contrasting these benefits with those that may be achieved if one were to rely on a heating system that includes AND excludes UFH. Those figures, I think, would be very interesting and perhaps may be rather surprising.

Sorry I can't offer more constructive advice but there are many members here who have installed or used UFH systems and they perhaps can offer more that would be useful to you.

Cheers,
Cubist

Hi again Cubist and really appreciate your advice,
The system I’m looking at is a hybrid system air pump combined with a condenser oil boiler , 95% air pump & 5% oil only when outside temperature drops
It works on thermal mass of the walls & floors , no need to insulate walls , just dry or heat recovery pumps , just good insulation in the roof . The system is monitoring weather forecast and adjusting the temperature constantly it actually never goes off just running very low , I’ve seen the system work in two old properties, seems good , Has anyone an experience of this system , Thanks Mike

 

[Cubist]

The air pump technology and controls systems are quite mature - the part of it that I may have some qualms about is the reliance on 'smart' systems that depend in part on connections to external data services - but then I'm a luddite, despite my long personal history in IT, that hates the very thought of some putative, non sentient, robot making decisions for me.