Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Sep 04, 2012 12:44 pm The project/volume builder we thought we'd decided upon dropped a bit of a doozy on us last week; they probably don't do hydronic under-floor heating (it's still up in the air after a "most likely no", but if they're currently not sure I don't know if we really want them to use our house as their experiment!). Looking at the options (and noting that we don't have access to town gas), how much worse is under-floor electric heating than a heat-pump heated hydronic system? The ground-floor is ~100sqm and we weren't thinking of heating upstairs (except for electric in the bathrooms), but if we're going electric I'm wondering if maybe we take advantage of the relative ease of installing different zones, do the bedrooms upstairs as well, and then only heat the close-off-able lounge/family during winter. Of course, this then moves us back to something closer to the current (admittedly probably "normal") scenario where we're heating individual rooms almost on an ad-hoc basis, as opposed to one of the positives of a nicely-integrated underfloor heating system where you arrive home & open the door & your house is already a comfortable temperature without any messing-around. The marketing speils keep claiming 50% running-cost savings for hydronic vs electric, but the "fine print" of those claims involves being on town gas in the first place - I can't really find a comparison relating to use of a heat-pump boiler (?"boiler"?). Additionally we've been planning on installing solar cells (NSW - net tariff setup so only a cost-offset during the day), and I can't really see how that works into the equation (as the finer zone-control with the electric under-floor should theoretically make it easier to "tune" juice-usage to the time we're generating it). Any thoughts, suggestions, pointers to relevant comparisons, etc? Re: How bad is electric under-floor c/f (electric) hydronic? 2Sep 26, 2012 12:10 am I think the problem with in-slab electric heating is that they run on electricity and that's a product that isn't getting any cheaper as time goes on !! IMHO, and what we're planning to do, is to have a two-pronged approach and trying to get really smart on avoiding too much use of artificial temperature control and efficient temperature control when necessary. To this end we're going the full 99 Star energy rating (well, as high as we can cost-effectively go !) and having localised heating / cooling for the various rooms in the house. As we're planning on making this our "retirement house" and being there for quite some while we may be over-capitalising a bit on these efforts, but feel more than sure that it'll be worth it in the end. So maybe you might consider putting some of the hydronic $$'s into extra insulation, double-glazing, thermally broken (or improved) windows, higher rated wall / ceiling insulation ?? Just a thought ! Cheers, P_D . Block settled 07 June 2011 Our little piece of the Interwebs on HomeOne....... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=48577&start=0 Currently renovating, and our main lounge is 5m x 10m, with a cathedral roof peaking at 6.5m high. Currently have tiles on concrete slab. Room is very hard to heat. I am… 0 4813 Does anyone have a suggestion for a good hydronic in slab heating speacialist who may be able to help me with an existing system and wether or not it may need a seperator… 0 4882 |