To heat modern premises with the help of warm floors is an optimal and quite profitable solution. Therefore, manufacturers keep abreast of, introduce the latest developments for the arrangement of comfortable living. Because of the wide variety of heating elements, the consumer constantly faces the question: how to choose warm electric floors for your home?
The main advantages of a warm floor
Conventional radiators often do not fully cope with their duty – to warm the room. Their work is based on the principle of convection. The air heated at the level of the battery rises upwards, leaving the bottom of the room cold. In the frosty season, a similar problem is fraught with colds.
The equipment of a heat-insulated floor will relieve of problems with cold rooms and health. It provides a fairly high level of thermal comfort. Thanks to a wide range of thermoregulation functions, it is easy to ensure an optimal human temperature.
Also the advantages of such heating elements include:
- high reliability;
- noiselessness and stealth;
- space saving;
- uniform heating;
- long service life.
Everyone who has installed warm electric floors will have only positive feedback. Mount them much easier than water, it is much easier to adjust the temperature. Depending on the flooring, you can choose the most suitable option for a particular room.
There are several variants of floor heating designs. Each of them has its own characteristics, methods of heating and installation. Warm elements can be made using:
- heating cable;
- heating mats;
- infrared film.
Each material is good in its own way and has some drawbacks. What type of underfloor heating will suit a particular room, you need to understand.
Helpful advice! If in a private house it is possible to arrange a water heating system for the floor, then in apartments of multi-storey buildings it is allowed to use only electric one.
Such a heating system is fairly simple to install, but requires some skill. It is easy and convenient in operation, allows you to effectively heat the floor with minimal losses. Its installation includes the following steps:
- Insulation is laid on the first layer of the screed.
- On the mounting tape is attached cable.
- After checking the operability of the heating structure, a second layer of a 2-3 cm thick tie is poured.
- After the concrete has set, the finishing coating is laid.
Cable system can be used as a full heating. But this method of heating has its drawbacks. For installation requires special skills, if they are not, you should use the services of an experienced master. You can use the finished floor no earlier than in a month, only after the concrete screed has completely dried.
Helpful advice! On the site where there is furniture and kitchen equipment, the cable can not be laid.
When the floor screed is not planned to be done, thermomats can be purchased for arranging the heating structure. The principle of their operation is the same, only the heating cable is located on the fiberglass grid, and not in the screed. Installation of heating mats is very simple, they need to roll around the room and turn on the network, and then lay the finish. You can connect them to each other with the help of special connectors, which allows installation in any areas.
One of the drawbacks of such a heating system is its low power, about 10 W / m. But it is precisely this that allows thermomats to be laid in a layer of glue under the tile, as well as under the laminate without pouring a concrete screed.
Recently, a newest development has emerged among existing methods of heating – a film design with infrared radiation. It is sold in the form of a thin film, about 0.5 mm thick. Installation of such a heating system also does not cause trouble. The design must be necessarily isolated from moisture, so it is not used when wet laying the flooring.
This is the only kind of floor heating structures that can not be laid under the tile, but this technology works fine under the laminate flooring or parquet flooring. Heating occurs due to infrared radiation. This method has a fairly high efficiency, about 20% more economical than their more common counterparts. Against the background of many positive properties, a film warm floor has one serious drawback – the service life of such a product is relatively low.
What to look for when choosing electric underfloor heating? Which is better under the tile, and which under the laminate? Many such questions arise before the owner, who decided to arrange additional heating in the room. Let’s try to understand such subtleties.
In order not to be mistaken when choosing electric heating systems, it is necessary to evaluate their technical characteristics. The most important parameter that is worth paying attention to is power. If a heating cable is used for a room with normal humidity, this indicator can be in the range from 100 to 120 W / m ?. Thermal power in this case should be higher, approximately 160-180 W / m ?.
Thanks to the concrete screed, the floor with the cable system warms up much more and cools much more slowly. Therefore, such an electric floor can be switched on less often and it will be much more economical. Having created certain conditions, having conducted additional insulation of the ceiling and walls, the system with a heating cable can be used as the only way to heat the entire room, if necessary.
Helpful advice! If it is planned to use floor heating as the main heating, the heated area should be more than 80% of the total.
The answer to the question, what is better electric underfloor heating under the tile is unequivocal. Ideal for arranging such a heating system is the use of a heating cable. But if the ability to perform a coupler is missing, it is convenient to use thermomats. Such floor coverings as linoleum, carpet, parquet or laminate easily fit over the heating structure and warms up well.
Opt for infrared floors is worth it if you want to get the optimal combination of high efficiency and fairly economical energy consumption. Also as heating mats, the thermofilm can keep within on any basis and even on an old floor. Due to the small thickness of the product does not decrease the height of the room.
Thermofilms, due to uniform heating, have worked well when working with wooden coatings. Another advantage of infrared systems is their health effects on the body. They are ideal for people with allergies because they do not carry dust particles due to the lack of convection.
How to choose a warm electric floor is more or less clear. But you should pay attention to the additional equipment. The main device for controlling the electric floor is a thermostat. It is connected to special sensors that monitor the temperature and transmit signals. The simplest thermostat maintains constantly the same level of heating, but there are also multifunctional options that provide:
- temperature control in the floor area;
- temperature control in the room in general;
- automatic on and off of the system.
With their help, it is possible to program the work of the heating structure at a specific time, on specific days of the week. Such systems independently control the indoor climate and do not require constant adjustment.
Warm electric floors, reviews of which are always positive, are becoming more common. Thanks to its ease of use and efficiency, they can significantly improve the quality of life and solve problems with heating with heating for many years.
