Healthy heat from below

These days, sur­face heat­ing sys­tems have already been installed in every second new build­ing – in most cases under­floor heat­ing sys­tems. This is the res­ult of a sur­vey pub­lished by the Fed­er­al Asso­ci­ation of Sur­face Heat­ing and Sur­face Cool­ing. There are good reas­ons for the pop­ular­ity of under­floor heat­ing sys­tems since they dis­trib­ute the heat evenly through­out the room. As a res­ult, the res­id­ents no longer suf­fer from cold feet. In addi­tion to the high liv­ing com­fort, under­floor heat­ing sys­tems also fea­ture low energy con­sump­tion. The oper­at­ing costs are there­fore about ten per­cent lower than those of radi­at­or heat­ing sys­tems. In prin­ciple, any type of floor cov­er­ing can be installed on under­floor heat­ing. How­ever, the aspect of healthy liv­ing plays a key role today. The build­ing mater­i­als used in our homes should always carry the EMICODE® EC1 seal awar­ded by GEV.

While it is nat­ur­ally warm­er near the radi­at­or than in the middle of the room, under­floor heat­ing radi­ates the heat evenly over the entire sur­face. As a res­ult, there are no “cold corners” in the room. Warm feet are not the only advant­age of under­floor heat­ing sys­tems, how­ever. Unlike radi­at­ors, they do not take up any space. The res­id­ents can there­fore give free rein to their cre­ativ­ity and fur­nish­ing ideas. On top of that, under­floor heat­ing is also easy on the wal­let: the oper­at­ing costs of under­floor heat­ing sys­tems are around ten per­cent lower than those of radi­at­or sys­tems. It is there­fore not sur­pris­ing that almost every second build­ing own­er today opts for this heat­ing sys­tem (source: Bundes­verb­and Flächen­heizun­gen und Flächen­kühlun­gen – Fed­er­al Asso­ci­ation of Sur­face Heat­ing and Sur­face Cool­ing).

Wheth­er water-based or elec­tric: floor heat­ing sys­tems can be a won­der­ful thing. How­ever, it must be ensured that the floor­ing installed on top is well able to con­duct the heat. Tiles and nat­ur­al stone slabs have proven to be a good choice. They not only have excel­lent thermal con­duct­iv­ity but also store the heat, which makes the sys­tem par­tic­u­larly effi­cient. Also par­quet floor­ing can be laid on under­floor heat­ing. The only import­ant thing is that the floor­ing mater­i­al needs to be fixed to the sub­strate over its entire sur­face with a par­quet adhes­ive. This allows the heat to flow unim­peded through the screed and adhes­ive right into the wood, without the form­a­tion of dis­turb­ing air pock­ets.