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Homes are becoming more advanced, more efficient and smarter. The days of controlling a new heating system by a basic dial thermostat really are behind us. The majority of heating systems now have a digital programmable thermostat (or thermostats for multi-zone systems) that can control heating at different temperatures and times for each zone. They are more accurate than a dial thermostat and have much more than on/off Smart phone/app enabled controls take this further. By having controls that are compatible to use from a smart phone, tablet or computer enables better more efficient use of the heating and therefore saves money! How many times have you left your heating on because you were in a rush to get to work etc? Smart phone controls enable you to adjust/turn on/off the heating from anywhere you have 3G, 4G or WiFi. In addition, most of the controls apps have charts or graphs so you can see when and where the heating is being used the most to enable you to obtain further efficiency. Toplo wifi 7 day app enabled thermostat At UFH1, we use Toplo wifi for our smart phone control offering. Comfort & Convenience Intuitive menu-driven set-up, programming and operation with audio prompt to confirm touchscreen entries Permanent program retention during power loss Setpoint temperature “limited range” capable Enhanced touchscreen security prevents tampering. Room temperature display can be recalibrated up to +/- 5°C      Can switch upto 16 amps (230v) Temperature display resolution: 0.5°C Temporary temperature override C / F temperature format selection Air / floor temperature calibration separately Available in white, black,granite and silver plastic finishes. A / AF/ F models all in one.                           Combination of 3 models. A - Air only, with built-in sensor. F - Floor only,controls floor temperature. AF - Controls air temperature with ability to limit the floor temperature. Each thermostat is equipped with built-in sensor and a 3 meter floor sensor. The floor sensor can be extended.  

Wall heating is the ideal solution when using eco-joists or I-Beam joists or timber frame constructions. As the joists can’t be notched and usually have the flooring down, underfloor heating can be difficult to fit. You would have to fit from below or raise the floor above and both of these options are not very cost effective, wall heating solves both these problems. The system can produce 201W/m2 @ 50 degree flow temperature and 20 degree room temperature. To put this into perspective, a screed floor heating system with tiles (the best output) is approximately 150W/m2, the wall heating has a 33% better output! A new build property is often calculated at a heating requirement of 40W/m2 and a refurbishment project is 60-80W/m2. Because of this output and the most common heating requirements of a build project, it’s easy to see that the wall heating system only requires 30-50% of the equivalent space that a floor system would require to heat a room. For example, a 20m2 room would require 6-10m2 of wall heating. 2m x 0.6m panels are the most commonly used therefore only 5 linear meters of wall space would usually be sufficient! The panels are made of gypsum fibre which warms, creating thermal mass. 11.6mm pipe is pre-fitted to the panels at 75mm spacing and the panels are ‘daisy chained’ and connected to a port on a distribution manifold via 16mm pipe to a maximum of 6.25m2 per port. The panels should be fitted to a stud type wall and insulated. The panels can be skimmed over and painted, wallpapered or tiled.

Providing Underfloor Heating solutions for unusual projects Working with the team at Skandavale Monestry, we supplied a wall heating system for a brand new, purpose-designed home for Valli the Temple Elephant. Valli has been with the Monks at Skandavale Monestry since 1981, and for the last 30 years has been living next to the Shakti Temple with her keeper Swami Karuna. Progress on Valli the Temple Elephant’s barn was really quick, building her new barn from hollow polystyrene bricks which stack upon each other just like Lego making the process extremely quick. They then pumped concrete into the bricks to make them strong. This system has been very successful, firstly because it is so quick to erect, and secondly because the polystyrene provides good insulation to keep Valli warm during the cold winter months. The wall heating pipes were then fitted with tie-wraps to the steel framework between the polystyrene blocks and framework. See more about what we did, and how we did it in the video right here:

Homes are becoming more advanced, more efficient and smarter. The days of controlling a new heating system by a basic dial thermostat really are behind us. The majority of heating systems now have a digital programmable thermostat (or thermostats for multi-zone systems) that can control heating at different temperatures and times for each zone. They are more accurate than a dial thermostat and have much more than on/off.

Positioning the underfloor heating (UFH) manifold is an important aspect of your UFH system. It is often thought that it needs to be near the boiler/cylinder/heat pump. It is in fact better to be in the room where the UFH system is to be fitted or very close by if it’s a single room (single zone) system or somewhere central for multi-room (multi-zone) system.

Variotherm modular wall heating system is a modern, high output, efficient and cost effective heating solution that can be installed where other heating methods can’t be used.

This is one of the most common questions are asked by customers retrofitting underfloor heating (UFH). As UFH designers/suppliers/installers, we would recommend insulation in every case and, not just in the floor. We design systems to produce more than enough heat output to satisfy the needs of any property, however it’s the insulation in the property that keeps that heat in where it’s required!

Whilst not the proverbial ‘rocket science’, specifying an underfloor heating (UFH) system correctly is important to ensure a number of things:

The following information aims to debunk 8 of the most common myths that surround the installation and running of underfloor heating systems.

Wall heating systems work very similar to underfloor heating in that they heat a room predominantly by radiation (like the sun) as a result of pumping warm water through looped pipes. Wall heating systems are often used as an alternative to UFH in renovation projects. Until the recent additions of retrofit and wall heating systems, installing ufh resulted in the floor having to be excavated. Although Retrofit UFH kits have eliminated the need to fully excavate flooring, this does not mean wall heating systems are now redundant. It is not always economically viable to re-lay flooring after installing ufh such as in renovations of older homes.