What could be better than slapping barefoot on the heated floor in the bathroom or kitchen in the morning! Comfort, environmental friendliness, efficiency, type of installation are the main parameters for choosing a warm floor.
Water heated floors are not considered in this article.
All images in this article are clickable.
- Types of warm floors
- Cable underfloor heating
- heating mat
- Carbon warm floor
- Film floor heating
- Thermoregulators
- Thermal sensors
- Remote access
- Saving energy when operating underfloor heating
- Environmental Safety. The most environmentally friendly underfloor heating
- Installation and connection of electric underfloor heating
Types of warm floors.
- Theory. Joule-Lenz law. "The power of heat released per unit volume of the medium during the flow of direct electric current is proportional to the product of the density of the electric current and the magnitude of the electric field strength."
- Practice. If the current strength is the same throughout the electrical circuit, then in any selected area, the more heat will be released, the higher the resistance of this section.
By deliberately increasing the resistance of a circuit section, localized heat generation in this section can be achieved.
Electric heaters work on this principle. They use a heating element - a conductor with high resistance. An increase in resistance is achieved (jointly or separately) by choosing an alloy with high resistivity (for example, nichrome, constantan), increasing the length of the conductor and reducing its cross section. The lead wires are usually low resistance and therefore their heating is usually imperceptible.
Cable warm floor.
cable
Structurally, there is a cable underfloor heating - a cable, but not a simple one, but a resistive one. Inside it is a heating core made of an alloy with high resistivity in Teflon insulation. The cross section of this vein is very small. In cables for underfloor heating, single- and two-core cables are used and, of course, they are connected in different ways. Installation in a coupler 3-5 cm.
Carbon warm floor.
carbon fiber
This is a heating mat, which consists of carbon rods connected in parallel with each other by power wires. Nanotechnology is already present here. The carbon rods have a self-regulating function and are therefore protected from overheating. Installation in a layer of tile adhesive or a thin screed. Coverage - any.
Underfloor heating control
Temperature controllers.
In order to increase the efficiency of the underfloor heating, reduce energy consumption, as well as for ease of use, the design provides for the installation of a thermostat (thermostat).
Depending on the design features, the thermostat allows you to turn on and off the heating system connected to it, set and regulate the temperature in the room. These functions are endowed with mechanical, the simplest, but reliable temperature controllers. Pros: price, ease of use.
programmable
More advanced, electronic models, in addition, can be programmed to maintain and change the set mode by time of day and day of the week. There is child protection. Such thermostats are more expensive and may be subject to various damages due to the imperfection of the element base.
Chip lovers. There are ultra-modern models on the market, equipped with a Wi-Fi module and equipped with a free mobile application for monitoring and controlling underfloor heating remotely or in the Smart Home system.
Thermal sensors.
temperature sensor
To determine the temperature, a remote floor temperature sensor (temperature sensor) is connected to the thermostat.
It should be said that there are models with two temperature sensors (the second one is for air). Such things are already for a full heating system.
The design of the temperature sensor includes a thermistor (thermistor) with a wire connected to it, about two meters long, which, if necessary, can be extended. The end of the sensor is protected by a special sheath (see fig.)
According to the type of dependence of resistance on temperature, thermistors are distinguished with negative (NTC thermistors, from the words "Negative Temperature Coefficient") and positive (PTC thermistors, from the words "Positive Temperature Coefficient" or posistors) temperature coefficient of resistance (or TKS). For posistors, their resistance increases with increasing temperature; for NTC thermistors, an increase in temperature leads to a drop in their resistance.
Energy savings when operating underfloor heating.
Personally, I believe that electric underfloor heating is not the most economical option for basic space heating. However, walking on a floor heated to 22⁰ C is quite comfortable even if the temperature of the room itself is slightly lower.
How to save electricity?
- How much heat is gone - so much will have to be added. To maintain the required temperature, it is necessary to exclude as much as possible heat loss through the floor, ceiling, walls, windows, doors. Take care of the insulation of the apartment or house.
- In the case of underfloor heating, it is necessary to lay a special foil substrate during installation.
- Correctly calculate the area of the heated surface, taking into account furniture, corners, columns, etc. There is no need to lay underfloor heating under furniture or bathroom. Do not lay the floor and close to the walls.
- A properly configured thermostat will save 2 or 3 times more. If no one is at home, then there is no point in turning on the floors. Programmable and remotely controlled models to help you!
- You can lower the temperature by 1 - 2 degrees, this will save about 5% of electricity.
- Take responsibility for the choice of flooring. For example, tiles, carpet, natural stone and linoleum have excellent thermal conductivity and are best for underfloor heating. A board, laminate, parquet cannot boast of such characteristics, but they are used.
- Use electric underfloor heating only as an auxiliary heat source.
Environmental Safety.
Some doubt the advisability of installing a warm floor due to the fact that, like any electrical appliance, it creates an electromagnetic field around itself that has a harmful effect on the body. Still, the danger should not be exaggerated.
The levels of the magnetic field of the industrial frequency of household electrical appliances at a distance of 0.3 m.
For reference:
Tesla is a unit of measurement for the induction of a magnetic field, and microtesla (µT or µT) is 10 −6 T
Based on mass epidemiological surveys of the population living in conditions of exposure to magnetic fields of power lines as a safe or "normal" level for conditions of prolonged exposure, which does not lead to oncological diseases, independently of each other, Swedish and American experts recommended the value of the magnetic induction flux density of 0.2 - 0.3 μT.
Just in case: the natural background of the Earth, on average, corresponds to about 50 µT. Crap! Why this information?!
In short, I do not use warm floors, the rest is up to you
Compliance with the ISO 14000 standard confirms the environmental safety of production. To make the right choice, you need to familiarize yourself with the technical characteristics in the product passport.
Installation and connection of electric warm floors.
Important! Before pouring, sticking tiles, installing a laminate, be sure to check the performance of the assembled underfloor heating circuit. Remember! Miracles do not happen, there are bad contacts.
Do not forget to draw a diagram of the heating cable laying on a scale, for which it is convenient to use a checkered sheet (in extreme cases, take a picture of the mounted circuit). Take my word for it - it can come in handy.
Usually, each ready-made set of underfloor heating has instructions for installing and connecting the product. I recommend to take a look. Here are some details and diagrams.
It is best to first prepare the wiring according to the selected scheme. The connection scheme depends on the total power of the floor in a separate room relative to the maximum power of the thermostat.
direct circuit
If you purchased one factory kit, then the load is connected directly to the thermostat terminals.
Important! You need to know exactly the maximum power of the thermostat.
via contactor
contactors
If there are several sets for one room or, then you will most likely exceed the maximum power of the thermostat. In this case, two or more sets must be connected through a modular contactor in parallel to each other. The rated current of the contactor should be selected according to the total load.
We select the cross section of the power wires for connecting the floors themselves according to this, and to power the thermostat and connect its output contacts to the contacts (A1 and A2) of the contactor coil, you can use a four-core cable with a cross section of 1.5 mm² or even less. Stranded wires should be pre-terminated with lugs or irradiated.
Don't do it!
It is most correct to install the contactor in the shield and stretch the wires from the floors and the thermostat there.
A hole is drilled for mounting the installation box for the thermostat. If the wall is brick or concrete, then you will have to make a strobe from the installation box to the groove in the floor.
Prepare a groove in the floor for installing the temperature sensor, according to the instructions for the thermostat. A corrugated pipe with a plug is placed in the groove, and a temperature sensor is already in the corrugated pipe, the wire of which is connected to the thermostat according to the diagram.
On the Internet, I found a more or less normal video on the installation of heating mats. It should be said that you should not strictly judge the creators of the video. The video was made to understand the stages of installation, for the end user, what needs to be done and in what sequence, the duration is 10 minutes. Recommended for viewing.
