APPLICATIONS
Hydronic floor heating is a great option for large, open entertaining areas. It works well under cold floor coverings such as marble, stone, slate, polished concrete and all varieties of tiles. It is also a great option under carpet and timber floors.
Although it is ideal to install Hydronic Underfloor Heating during the initial construction, it may also be a part of an overall renovation. During a renovation, specific aspects of the installation must be considered. For example, as the finished floor thickness increases considerably with a hydronic floor heating system installation, this will need to be factored in before the renovation.
Hydronic floor heating is installed in the following systems: in-screed or in-slab for various hard type flooring like tile and concrete and diffusion plates for under battened timber floors.
Installation Overview
The installation of water-based system can be complex due to the intricate design and workings of the system. It is important to seek out a licensed professional to do the job.
Hydronic Underfloor Heating systems are normally used in new builds as they are easier to install into the slab. However, these systems can also be used in retrofit projects, but only in screed beds that are at least 50 mm in depth (ideally 80mm). As this contributes to significantly increase the height of the floor, certain customers may prefer to instead go with electric floor heating installations for their renovation.
In hydronic floor heating systems, water is warmed up to 50 degrees Celsius and circulates at a safe, low pressure through a network of pipes, valves, manifolds and switches, all of which must work together to heat the zoned areas:
A hydronic heating system is a closed system, which means that the water that is introduced the day the system is commissioned is most likely to be the same for the duration of the life of the hydronic system. For this reason, it is crucial to select the best quality manifolds, pipes, boilers and anything that will be in contact with the water, because any impurity will worsen over time.
HYDRONIC UNDERFLOOR HEATING ESSENTIALS
Thermostats
A factor in the efficiency of your floor heating system is a high quality thermostat. This will allow you to heat specific rooms independently and program each room requirements accordingly.
Since hydronic floor heating is a central heating system, we recommend non-programmable thermostats for your installation. These thermostats can be linked to your home automation systems.
A good quality thermostat will give greater control over temperature, zoning and timing, allowing you to make the most of your floor heating system.
Gas Boiler
We recommend the use of a gas boiler with natural gas as a first choice for a heat source. The up-front cost is much lower than heat pumps while having similar running costs, and it is more reliable than solar collectors.
However if your property cannot be connected to natural gas, heat pumps is an alternative depending on the budget.
Feed Pipes
Feed pipes run from the boiler to the manifolds and can be installed in different way depending on your building. They can run under the steel mesh, or through the wall or/and the ceiling. If they are meant to be in the concrete slab or hidden in some other way, we usually use flexible PEX pipes. Otherwise for visible pipes, we would use copper pipes. Although more time consuming to install, they give a better finished look.
Feed pipes are insulated to prevent any heat loss. We put the PEX pipe into a conduit to create an air pocket that insulate the feed pipes (using the same principle as double-glazed windows). Or, in the case of copper pipes, we wrap the feed pipes with thick insulation.
Manifolds
Manifolds are essentially hubs to which all circuits are connected. The manifolds distribute the water to each circuit and the regulation of the heating is done through actuators that start and stop the flow within the circuits. All actuators are commanded by floor sensing thermostats.
Manifolds can be mounted with a mixing shunt that is used to mix the return cold water with the supply water to decrease the temperature of the supply water temperature. This is used for hybrid system that have both radiators (that work at 80deg Celsius) and floor heating (that needs to work at 50deg Celsius maximum).
XPS Insulation
The XPS (Extended Polystyrene) Insulation Sheets from Foamular are placed directly underneath hydronic floor heating pipes to minimise downward heat loss and help to heat up faster.
The standard thickness is 25mm suitable for 16mm hydronic heating pipes and has an R value of 0.89 m2·K/W. Sheets are 2.4 x 0.6m (=1.44m²) for a coverage of 0.70 sheets per m². We also offer 30mm thick sheets (for a R value of 1.07 m2·K/W) and 50mm thick sheets (R = 1.78 m2·K/W).
Diffusion Plates
Diffusion plates are ideal for batten timber. They are placed on top of the battens, just below the timber board, and provide the quickest heating system for batten timber.
Quick Heat
The Quick Heat system is ideal for floating timber. It is a combination of diffusion plates and insulation sheets. The insulation sheets are placed directly underneath the aluminium diffusion plates, minimising downwards heat loss.
OVER 4 DECADES OF EXPERIENCE
Floor Heat Australia
For over 40 years Floor Heat Australia, our installation and aftersales services & support division, has been supplying hydronic floor heating services. All designs are thoroughly customizes to suit each specific home or business owner’s needs.
We have completed over 60,000 quality installations across Sydney alone.
We are widely respected in the industry for installing technically advanced, economical and environmentally responsible heating systems that meet Australian standards.
