Ribbon mat vs cable mat?

[must_sal]

Hi There,

Please help, we are trying to decide on what sort of electric UFH to go in a shower room. it will have porcelain tile and is a new extension so has a suspended floor with 200mm of mineral wool insulation installed. the tile is continues through the shower room, utility and hall but we only want the hall and shower room to have the UFH. therefore we need to have the thinnest mat poss so the heights work out. we have seen the Ribbon mats but cant find any reviews/comment. Uheat don't seem to stock it. has any one used it? we are also thinking that we wouldn't need any more insulation than is already in, what do folk think. Thanks you.

 

[Dan]

Some older posts regarding ribbon UFH

http://www.tilersforums.com/electri...83-ribbon-underfloor-heating-aht-heating.html
http://www.tilersforums.com/electric-underfloor-heating/30589-need-expert-advice-opinions-aht.html
http://www.tilersforums.com/electric-underfloor-heating/21993-cutting-ribbon-cable-matting.html
http://www.tilersforums.com/electric-underfloor-heating/3652-elektra-aht.html


I've always understood that ribbon is for carpet, cable and cable-mat for under tile, and foil under laminate. Then in-screed cable (the thick stuff) for in-screed, obviously.

Though AHT advertise the ribbon for under tile, and claim it has super heating powers and costs nothing to run, I installed it under tile and found that it wasn't as good as cable at all.

I'd go for the thinnest cable myself, which is a couple of mm thick.

 

[Dan]

Oh, and what insulation "is already in"? Do you mean the insulation under the slab? If so, you probably will need insulation to prevent using the slabas a sort of storage heater which will clearly cost more to run, and have slow heat-up /cool-down times.

 

[must_sal]

Cheers Dan, that's really useful. The floor is a suspended wooden floor with 200mm of crown wool in between the joist, which meets current regs.
Cheers

 

[Dan]

Ahh, right, you should be fine insulation-wise then. If you had a skilled tiler, and it's a small area to cover, you may find he's capable of tiling directly onto the 2 or 3mm cable or whatever it is saving you a mm or two in self-levelling compound.

Make sure he is still using a bit more adhesive though as you don't want the tile to sit on the cable as it may not be fixed fully and could have air-pockets in the adhesive near the cable which acts as an insulation and no heat can get through.

It is always best practise, if you have the couple of mm extra height, to self-level using a flexible self-levelling compound (probably two-part in your case as it's on wood).

 

[david campbell]

i would always self -level this as the cost would be minimal compared to the extra adhesive you will be using and makes life a lot easier with less chance of clipping a wire