Underfloor Heating - Designed For the Future Or Failure?
As the world come to terms with the fact that we cannot simply keep plundering the resources of the earth without consequence, we look towards ways of reducing our impact on the planet.
Over the last ten years there has been a massive increase in people's awareness in the need for renewable technologies such as underfloor heating, solar collectors, biomass boilers and heat pumps.
But one thing that people do not realise is that without the correct design and installation of renewable technologies, they will not live up to their capability.
Take underfloor heating for example; if the density of the heating pipe is not spaced closely enough together, the system will perform at half of its capable performance.
The only solution to this problem is to increase the temperature of water that circulates around the system.
So put simply an UFH system that could have operated at 35 degrees now must operate at 50 degrees.
What are the implications you may say, well rising the temperature from 35 degrees to 50 forces the heat source to work a lot harder.
Take a heat pump for instance, the Stiebel Eltron WPL 10 A air source heat pump at 35°c will have an efficiency (COP) of 3.
3.
Whereas the same machine having to produce an output of 50°c has an efficiency of 2.
5, meaning the heat pump has lost 0.
8 of its efficiency.
So say if you put a kilowatt of energy into the machine, it should produce 3.
3 KW of heat for the household, but if the machine is working harder to produces the higher temperature needed for the underfloor heating to operate sufficiently, it would only produce 2.
5 KW.
With electric costing twice as much as gas, the low efficiency of the heat pump could mean the client has bought an expensive machine that hasn't really saved any on the energy bills, rendering the project a glorious waste of money.
Looking beyond the financial implication what is the cost of incorrect underfloor heating system design to the environment? Well considering the energy that went in to producing the UFH equipment, insulation and controls plus the manufacturing of the heat pump, in the end just to save a fraction energy, I would say it doesn't look good.
Renewable technologies are the way forward there is no arguing with that, but there needs to be stricter guidelines and enforcement to ensure that these systems are being design and installed to their full potential.
We need to make sure that as companies involved in renewable technologies, we take every precaution to ensure we achieve the best results we can from every project undertaken.
Over the last ten years there has been a massive increase in people's awareness in the need for renewable technologies such as underfloor heating, solar collectors, biomass boilers and heat pumps.
But one thing that people do not realise is that without the correct design and installation of renewable technologies, they will not live up to their capability.
Take underfloor heating for example; if the density of the heating pipe is not spaced closely enough together, the system will perform at half of its capable performance.
The only solution to this problem is to increase the temperature of water that circulates around the system.
So put simply an UFH system that could have operated at 35 degrees now must operate at 50 degrees.
What are the implications you may say, well rising the temperature from 35 degrees to 50 forces the heat source to work a lot harder.
Take a heat pump for instance, the Stiebel Eltron WPL 10 A air source heat pump at 35°c will have an efficiency (COP) of 3.
3.
Whereas the same machine having to produce an output of 50°c has an efficiency of 2.
5, meaning the heat pump has lost 0.
8 of its efficiency.
So say if you put a kilowatt of energy into the machine, it should produce 3.
3 KW of heat for the household, but if the machine is working harder to produces the higher temperature needed for the underfloor heating to operate sufficiently, it would only produce 2.
5 KW.
With electric costing twice as much as gas, the low efficiency of the heat pump could mean the client has bought an expensive machine that hasn't really saved any on the energy bills, rendering the project a glorious waste of money.
Looking beyond the financial implication what is the cost of incorrect underfloor heating system design to the environment? Well considering the energy that went in to producing the UFH equipment, insulation and controls plus the manufacturing of the heat pump, in the end just to save a fraction energy, I would say it doesn't look good.
Renewable technologies are the way forward there is no arguing with that, but there needs to be stricter guidelines and enforcement to ensure that these systems are being design and installed to their full potential.
We need to make sure that as companies involved in renewable technologies, we take every precaution to ensure we achieve the best results we can from every project undertaken.
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