Heat Mat Blog
Underfloor Heating – an Interior Designers dream
The problems with radiators
As an interior designer, I have frequently faced difficulty in placing furniture and other ornamental items into rooms while having to take into account the location of the radiators. It has always baffled me why radiators, until recently, have been such ghastly monstrosities.
Radiators are often very ill placed, installed either below windows or along the largest wall that would be best used to place furniture, and by taking up this space they often prevent the room from being arranged in the most logical way. Even now, when more modern, decorative options are available to us, the interior designer or home owner is still left with the problem of where to place the radiator within a room. To this day I still have memories of huddling round a radiator with my siblings to warm up when the weather outside has been wintery and we had got cold and wet.
Underfloor heating – furnish however you wish
On so many occasions, clients have told me how frustrating it is that they cannot place a sofa or wardrobe on a wall without blocking out the main and sometimes only heat source. Thankfully, whilst attending a trade show I discovered Heat Mat electric underfloor heating, thus solving many design and decorating issues while also providing an energy efficient and wonderfully even heat source. The heating system allows me to place furniture wherever I want, safe in the knowledge that the entire room will be heated quickly and comfortably by the heat mats.
I had encountered water based underfloor heating systems before, however these often require a large build height or need the floor completely ripping up. The systems also take longer to warm up and you also need to find somewhere to put the manifolds to control them. With heat mats and heating cables the build height is negligible, usually they are subsumed into the tile adhesive layer. With alternative systems for heating laminate floors and carpets the build height still stays below 15mm.
Comfortable and even heating
I have also been amazed by the difference in the feel of rooms that are heated by underfloor heating. The rooms feels evenly warm anywhere that you stand and, even on the coldest day, there is no desire to rush to the radiator and park yourself there until you are warmed through. By heating roughly 95% of the floor area in a room the system ensures that wherever you sit or stand you will feel the benefit.
Of course, to me the decorative benefits are endless. How refreshing it is to be able to place furniture on any wall or by any window without blocking out the main heat source for the room. To be able to have that ‘feature wall’ without trying to accommodate a ghastly white radiator is such a blessing, and with the average running costs for electric underfloor heating being so reasonable, the only real benefit to having a radiator I can think of is the ability to dry your laundry on it when it is raining outside. Enough said!
