Does anyone have experience with this?
From what I have seen in houses under construction, water underfloor heating/cooling is not complicated: a roll of insulation goes first, then some large "tiles" of polystyrene with knobs and space for the cabling, then the quite thin plastic cable with no connections, just a long spool. Over that 30-40mm of cement with special additive and finally the porcelain tiles. Total height 60-70mm plus tiles.
Does anyone know the cost of this for large areas per square meter including labour?
On Amazon.es I found the materials and including thermostat, etc, it looks like 100 euros per m2 excluding labour, cement and porcelain tiles.
In comparison to the super simple electric heating only per m2?
(Just a matt with a cable on the floor covered directly with the tile adhesive and the tiles, with some insulation boards under. Done it myself in England with an electrician making the connections).
I've seen underfloor cooling in operation at a friend's house, it's magical, the room is just a few degrees cooler, it feels so natural, no wind or noise, tiles cool to the touch.
I believe the negative of the water based system is that it takes a long time to heat or cool a room, as it needs a thick layer of 30 to 40mm cement on top of the system. I don't understand why it needs the concrete though, why not put tiles right on top as with the electric system?
In electric underfloor heating, there is no cement layer, so it's immediate, mine was warm in 5 minutes! So one can have a timer to only heat when needed.
The negatives of the electric system is of course 3 times the running cost (versus a modern heat pump at the water system) and that it doesn't do the cooling.
Does anyone have a company to recommend to either just buy the materials and have my builder install them, or have them do the job (minus the tiling on top I suppose)?
