Often in cold winters, central heating cannot cope with the heating of living rooms, and then many people have the question of how to make a water heated floor so that the air starts to heat up below. Let's find out what you will have to face and what alternatives exist.
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So, let's find out what we want to replace or, as many far-sighted owners often do, supplement the central heating system. First of all, remember that radiators in houses are usually installed along the outer walls, often under the windows, thereby creating a thermal curtain from the cold penetrating through the frames. The heated air rises up near the wall, under the ceiling begins to cool and gradually falls down. That is, the temperature below is formed much lower than under the ceiling, where heat is not so necessary for your comfort. Underfloor heating works in a completely different way, heating the air directly from below so that it rises right through the living space you occupy.
Warm floor in the bathroom
Moreover, if you have concrete floors in your house, they still remain cold when the central heating is on, which creates some discomfort during the winter months. But if you lay warm floors on top of the slabs, walking on such a surface will become much more pleasant, your feet will always be warm, which means that the list of causes of colds will decrease. It is absolutely not necessary to completely abandon radiators, because both systems can be combined into one by connecting a water-heated floor directly to the central heating risers. In this case, heat will be radiated both from below and along the outer wall of the house, which will provide a more stable microclimate in the premises.
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The most popular solution today is underfloor heating made of flexible polyethylene seamless pipes through which hot water circulates. This option is the most budgetary, since the liquid constantly passes through a practically closed system without much consumption, except for its evaporation in a heating boiler, which can be gas for economy. Electricity is spent only on the operation of the circulation pump, which ensures the movement of water through the pipes. The advantage of this option is that thanks to the screed, stable heat is always emitted without excessive overheating of the coating, which allows any materials to be used as the latter.
Underfloor heating under tiles
The second type is electric cables laid over the entire area of the room, but far from any, but those whose cores heat up and transfer heat to the environment. If you do not trust pipes, for fear of leaks, and you are not afraid of high energy costs, this option can be considered ideal. In addition to the reliability of the system, its safety can also be noted, since the insulation of such cables is multilayer. That is, such a system can be laid not only under a concrete screed on reinforced concrete slab floors, but also in a wooden house, on top of a rough flooring. The only thing you need is a special underlay that will prevent wood from contacting the cable, a reflective layer so that the heat goes up, and a lining under the finish coat. Well, and, of course, the power supply and adjusting the floor heating.
The next option that is available to many today is ready-made electric mats. They are also made using a cable, but they are distinguished by the fact that for installation it is enough to roll out a narrow, rolled mesh tape, to which the insulated conductor is firmly fixed with a snake. The principle of connecting the system is similar, the only difference is that this system can be laid under the tiles, only covered with an even layer of special glue on top, and also laid under the carpet, with a layer of polyethylene foam or other infusible material. However, when arranging the interior under the legs of furniture, stresses will arise that can lead to overheating and burning of the carpet, as well as damage to the warm floor.
And, finally, the third version of the mounted electrical system is film. In fact, these are also mats, that is, a roll base on which modules of transversely oriented bimetallic strips are located at small intervals. The latter are made of aluminum and copper alloy. Passing current through themselves and heating up, such elements begin to radiate in the infrared spectrum. Modules of elements are also made from carbon film with copper conductors. At the same time, the film's own temperature during heating rarely exceeds 28 degrees, so it can be safely laid under wooden coverings and used in frame houses and log cabins.
The last option, which is also worth mentioning, is mobile heating mats. More precisely, they could be called warm rugs, since they are not capable of raising the temperature in the room. But to provide you with comfort, being planted under a carpet or carpet, they may well be. After connecting to the network, they begin to generate heat, heating up for 1 hour, after which you can walk on a carpet that will be noticeably warmer than if it just lay on a concrete floor, albeit covered with linoleum. It is convenient that the dimensions of such a substrate can reach 5 square meters (250x200 centimeters), and several such mats can be laid. An ideal option for those who live in rented housing or are about to go to the country, where the heating cannot cope with the cold and dampness.
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This system requires perfectly flat floors without potholes and protrusions. Before you make an electric warm floor with your own hands, a polymer foam film up to 0.5 cm thick is laid with foil glued to the underside, which will reflect heat into the room from the ceiling. Next, we lay a metal mesh for reinforcement with cell sizes from 10 to 15 cm. We place pipes on it according to a certain pattern, which should be selected and thought out in advance, and fixed with plastic ties. It can be a "snake", a spiral (single or double). It is best to choose flexible polyethylene pipes for this purpose, which are easy to bend without special tools. But you can make a warm floor in the same way from metal-plastic or copper pipes.
Laying a water floor
For a wooden house, a reinforcing mesh is not needed; special metal sheets with profile channels are laid there, into which pipes are placed according to the scheme already included in the kit. Expanded polystyrene is laid on top, on top of which any coating can be laid, including parquet or laminate. If you are doing it in a house with a concrete floor, then, having fixed the pipes on a reinforcing mesh, lay another one on top, and then you can fill the floors with a pre-prepared solution. We recommend using beacons fixed with small amounts of cement for smoothing.
The main rule: between the turns of the pipe there should be an indent of no more than 30 centimeters so that the floor heating is uniform, the total length of the circuit should not exceed 100 meters so as not to create too much fluid resistance.
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Unlike water, the cable system does not always, or rather, almost never, require pouring the screed, and although a reinforcing mesh is usually used, it is needed mainly to secure the turns. You can lay electrical conductors on top of a rough plank floor or on a concrete floor, in the first case, after laying the substrates, you can immediately make a finishing coating, and in the second, tiling is also allowed. Moreover, the laying of the ceramic coating is done after applying a thick layer of a special adhesive solution.
Installation of electric floor heating
The turns of the cable should be laid with an indent of 20-25 centimeters between them, and it must be calculated so that for each square meter there are no more than 100-110 watts for the living room and 140 for the bathroom. If this type of heating is the main one, then a power of 150 watts for a living space and 180 watts for a bathroom is allowed. Be sure to calculate the layout in advance, since such a system only needs to heat the usable area, given the high power consumption. In addition, if the cable does not pass inside the concrete screed (which must be at least 3 centimeters thick), there is a possibility of damage to the conductors by the legs of heavy furniture.
Choose a place where a tube with a temperature sensor will be laid between the turns at an equal distance from them. It should be placed so that the outlet with the shutter is at the level of the screed, so it will be possible to quickly change the sensor in case of failure, without destroying the concrete layer. The cabinet, in which the underfloor heating control units are located, as well as the machine that will turn off the system in case of excessive heating (at the signal of the temperature sensor), must be installed in the same room where the cable is laid.
Regarding the installation of the film type, the principle is almost the same, except for the need for a screed. Rolled material with heating modules is unrolled on the floor surface, after which it is fixed with adhesive tape.
But before making a warm floor, it is necessary to lay a substrate with foil so that the heat does not go to the ceiling, but is reflected upwards. Then it remains only to lay another layer of foamed non-consumable material, which will serve as sound insulation, as well as shock absorption for the final coating. Now you can lay laminate, parquet, lay linoleum or carpet.
Attention! Cables from underfloor heating must be led to the cabinet in such a way that they do not intersect and, moreover, do not twist, and also do not lie on the turns of the heating circuit.
