UFH First Timer. Many Many Many Questions...

[SwitchUK]

Hey guys,
First of all; Great forum. Have been reading for a while when i've been researching UFH and everybody seems really friendly (even to lay people like myself) so I thought I would ask all my questions in a single thread before placing my orders.

The room is a bathroom. Its on the second floor (like most are right ) with 1 external wall, 1 party wall and 2 internal walls (made of the worst type of 1900 breeze blocks). The room Dimensions are only quite small: 2100x1900 but the ceiling is quite high at 2600. Ive calculated the volume of the room to be about 10.4m3 although I didn't exclude for fixings.

The floor area excluding the bath (but including the tiny volume taken by the pedestal sink and toilet) is about 2.68m2. There is a radiator in the room at the moment (that I am hoping to get rid of) its a K2 600x800.

Question 1: If the floor space is only 2.68m2 can I eUFH as a primary heat source for the room?

Because this is a bathroom space I need to keep the thermostat outside the room (I'm told electricity and water don't mix :lol but it seems that all of thermostats on the market with air temperature sensors are built in to the unit and therefore would be inaccurate if kept outside the room

Question 2: Is there anyway around this? Can somebody recommend a thermostat with external air temperature sensor and floor sensor?

As you can imagine with a 1900s stone built terrace house the floor is made of ton and groove floor boards. These obviously flex a small amount when you walk on them so I would be looking to ply out the room with 5-6mm ply. Follow that with a 2mm layer of flexible adhesive before laying an insulating layer normally about 6mm. Follow that with 6mm of flexible tile adhesive with the heating element and floor sensor internal to it and a 6 or 8mm floor tile. This means that the rise from outside the door to inside the door would be 6+2+6+6+8 = 28mm. If the floor was carpeted on the other side the rise would be nothing like 28mm. I'm Worried its gonna look crap when its done because the door opens internally and would have to be cut to accommodate the step. You would then see the step from the outside before even entering the room . Plus this creates a trip hazard .

Question 3: How do I make a 28mm rise look good? and less of a trip hazard?

That's about all I can think about for now, If I can think of anything else then I will of course let you all know.

Many thanks
SwitchUK

 

[Mike]

ufh does vary in wattage so that could make a difference as to wether it will or not. what make and wattage is it? you could always fit a nice chrome towel rail for heat and to have a nice warm towel after your shower/bath. I remove the t & g boards and fit 18mm wpb ply then 6mm cement boards (with adhesive and screws) then ufh then slc (self levelling) to cover the cables. (you can 'sink' the sensor so it's no higher than the ufh cable)

 

[SwitchUK]

Mike; thanks for the reply. The system I was looking at I found right here on the forums its from uHeat. A loose wire system. Looking at about 400w.

I hadn't considered taking the existing floor up but it is something to consider. Its a lot more work than i was expecting though.

Also re: thermostat the problem is not sinking the floor sensor in. Its finding an ambient air temp sensor that I could use inside the bathroom.

 

[kilty55]

hi,the 6mm ply will be no use,change that to a 6mm cement sheet if possible

you can call the forum sponsor u heat for advice on your sensors as well that may help you,for bathrooms i use loose cable installs as oppose to mats as there are small awkward spaces sometimes to be gone round to acheive the heat where you want it without cold spots

 

[Uheat - Keith]

As others above, use a cement board.
You could send us over a sized plan of the room, for us to check for you. Do you have a heat loss figure for your area?
We have a number of small size mats from the MD200 range that are not on the web page. These for use with cement board base, tile floor finish only.
We can prepare a quotation for you and e-mail direct if you wish.
Remember that the cable can come off the backing mesh for the smaller parts and left on the mesh for the 500mm runs.
The MD200 Mat range is for Conservatory type rooms and other areas of high heat loss, so ideal for your room where you are losing some of your floor area to the bath etc.
The controller for our programmable thermostats must be installed outside the bathroom, (pcb's do not like bathrooms) with the floor sensor inbedded in the compound in the room. Both models we stock are switchable on site, from Air & Floor, to Floor only, Floor only being what you would need to do for your project.
Hope that is of some help, warm regards,