Underfloor Heating
Direct from our Warehouse
Global Energy Direct is one of the leading underfloor heating suppliers in the UK. You can benefit from cheaper underfloor heating by purchasing direct from our warehouse. We hold massive stocks of industrial and domestic underfloor heating systems and products.
Global Energy Direct also provides a BPEC certified training course for installing underfloor heating. This is a recognised qualification in domestic underfloor heating system installation.
Call Global Energy Direct on 0800 652 0058 for all your underfloor heating parts and training needs.
Underfloor Heating – It’s Not New!
Underfloor Heating was first introduced to Britain by the Romans about 2,000 years ago who spread the concept of central heating throughout their Empire.
The system the Romans employed involved a series of ducts under the floor and flues in walls with hot air from fires travelling through them. The hot air would then warm the tiles or bricks and the heat would be passed into rooms.
What the Romans had discovered was that this form of heating was incredibly efficient.
There was no need to continually feed or stoke the fires and a relatively small furnace could heat an entire property.
In the 1960s, underfloor heating made something of a comeback in the UK, but this time electrical systems were used. However, in Europe a different form of the technology was developed – Underfloor Water Heating. It proved an instant success and has remained popular ever since.
Not until the introduction of plastic water pipes for floor heating in 1975 did installation costs reduce sufficiently to enable warm water underfloor heating systems to become a credible option in the main UK central heating market that we know today.
Today warm water underfloor heating is proving increasingly popular in the UK, particularly among self-builders who can choose to install a system during the build.
Basic principles of Underfloor Heating
Whilst there are a number of systems on the market, the basic principle of all types is the same: To warm the floor and create a low temperature heat source with a large surface area.
With underfloor heating, the entire floor becomes a radiator under a person’s feet, instead of one relatively small piping hot radiator on the wall.
A warm water underfloor heating system works by pumping relatively low temperature water (typically 35o-55oC) through a series of continuous high quality, plastic or plastic metal composite pipes which are laid under the floor.
The floor surface temperature required for the underfloor heating system is usually quite low and very close to the room temperature. It should be at or below 29oC in all occupied areas in order to achieve an acceptable level of foot comfort, although lower temperatures such as 27oC for timber floors are sometimes required for delicate floor structures or surface finishes.
A warm water underfloor heating system is ideally suited to high efficiency gas boilers, but can just as easily be used with any other heat sources, including Air and Ground Source Heat Pumps.
The plastic pipes are placed in the floor construction which can be either a solid floor (concrete and screed), or timber floor systems. Warm water is then pumped into the tubes and around the rooms which can be zoned with individual thermostats. The process is entirely automatic, providing warmth in an unobtrusive, comfortable and economic way.
