Underfloor Heat Pump System

Floor heating and air source heat pump

Floor heating is an excellent partner for air source heat pumps. The heat pump absorbs renewable heat from the air (in the case of an air source heat pump) or the ground (for a ground source heat pump) and converts it into energy, which can heat your house and provide you with hot water. The air source pump from you The air outside the home absorbs heat and uses electricity to heat the liquid refrigerant that is the heat source of the heating system. The working principle of the ground source heat pump is very similar to the floor heating system. The pipes are laid underground outside your home, and the water is circulated and heated by absorbing natural geothermal energy from the earth.

Compared with traditional heating sources, they are a more energy-efficient way of heating homes, and they work best with water-based heating systems (such as floor heating). If you are considering improving the energy level of your home, our water underfloor heater series are ideal heating systems for use in combination with heat pumps.

Install underfloor heating in your property

Considering efficiency, is it wise to install underfloor heating throughout the property, all floors and all rooms? Well, it depends on the structure of the building itself. It also depends on the nature of the project.

Generally speaking, installing floor heating on the ground floor is simple for new construction and large-scale renovation. It becomes more challenging for high-levels, and it is not always the best solution for small-scale renovation projects.

In newly built properties, the ground floor is usually built on an insulated concrete slab, which is ideal for installing underfloor heating, and then covered with a screed. However, installing underfloor heating with suspended wooden floors has become more challenging. The screed system significantly increases the weight, so it is necessary to upgrade the joists to withstand the additional load, thereby increasing the cost.

Lighter overburden underfloor heating systems are an option, although they are often less efficient than screed systems (more on this later). They will not add any significant weight, but the covering system will increase the floor height by 50 mm.

Thin covering systems can be used, but thinner pipes carry less water, which reduces heat output compared to screed systems. In addition, you still need to add insulation, because if you cover the floor heating system on a solid floor, heat will be lost.

If we can liaise with the project architect and other stakeholders early in the process, these issues can be easily resolved.

Different heat distribution systems in different rooms

Due to the challenges of installing underfloor heating on suspended floors, a common solution is to install underfloor heating on the first floor and oversized radiators upstairs. As mentioned in the introduction of this article, standard size heat sinks are not compatible because of the small surface area and higher system flow temperature.

In most cases, the heat demand of the bedroom will be lower than that of other rooms, so the radiator does not need to be as large as the living room and can be designed to run the floor heating on the first floor at the same temperature as other rooms.

Air source heat pump floor heating renovation

Retrofitting underfloor heating to existing properties that have not undergone major renovations can be tricky; underfloor heating cannot be used on uninsulated solid floors because heat will be lost to the ground, and joist size and ceiling height may limit options for hanging floors.

However, underfloor heating is not always required when installing air source heat pumps-if properly designed, an oversized radiator can do the job well.

It is impossible to cut corners and expect the underfloor heating system to work effectively-if someone tells you something else, you should be very careful about their motives. Because if properly designed, the radiator system can work like floor heating, so it doesn’t make sense to put floor heating into every project because the consequences can be costly.

What are the overall benefits of installing underfloor heating for your air source heat pump?

As a cleaner and more sustainable heat source, heat pump systems can reduce your home’s carbon footprint and are considered the future of home heating as we focus on reducing global carbon emissions. The operating temperature of heat pumps is lower than that of oil or gas boilers, which means that their working efficiency in radiant floor heating systems is much higher than that of standard radiators. Floor heaters are designed to operate at these lower water temperatures while still generating the same level of heat as the radiator. This advanced technology means that water floor heating systems use less energy and provide less energy than central heating systems Operating costs.

Heat pumps also emit much more energy than they use, so installing a heat pump next to an energy-saving UFH system can help you save a lot of heating costs. In many cases, the cost of installing heat pumps and water underfloor heating systems can be offset by the long-term savings they generate.