Bathroom

Underfloor heating adds an element of luxury to any bathroom and provides a lovely warm floor allowing you to avoid the shock of a cold floor first thing in the morning. The gentle warmth provided by a Heat Mat system will enhance your luxuriant soak in a bath and avoid any chills when stepping out of the shower, all while freeing up the wall space from needing an unattractive radiator. For further luxury you can prevent condensation on your mirror with one of our mirror demisters or use our wall heating systems to provide hidden towel warming.
 
 
What are the main benefits of electric underfloor heating for your bathroom?
  • Underfloor heating is the perfect match for all bathrooms, en-suites and shower areas regardless of their size or floor covering, and our products are so safe that they can even be used beneath the shower area in a wet room.
  • Our systems can be used as the primary heating source in nearly all bathrooms ensuring a lovely warm room from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. They can also be used as a simple floor warming system if your bathroom is heated by an alternative system, and either way they add an element of luxury for a very low cost.
  • Bathrooms usually have cold to touch floors which can be very chilly when stepping out of the bath or shower. An underfloor heating system transforms these cold floors with luxurious warmth; and our more powerful systems have a very fast reaction time capable of heating the floor in as little as ten minutes.
  • The gentle heat that the underfloor heating provides minimises air movement and thus prevents draughts and helps to create a low dust and allergen environment. By distributing the warmth around the room underfloor heating avoids the excessive radiant heat that radiators can create.
  • For small bathrooms and en-suites with tiled or stone floors we recommend stepping up to a 200W or 240W/m² heating mat system as this will help overcome the high heat loss in these rooms.
  • While the cost of installing an underfloor heating system in a bathroom is usually great value for money, it is still considered a luxury feature by most people so when you come to sell your property it really can help enhance the value of it.
  • Heating mats are increasingly used in the floor of showers and in the lower walls to quickly dry them out after showering to prevent mould growth and the discoloration of grout.
  • With their nearly 100% efficiency and fast heating time, each of our electric underfloor heating ranges operates at a lower temperature than a conventional heating system which helps reduce energy usage and the costs of heating your rooms. Most Heat Mat systems are supplied with a Lifetime Warranty and they are sure to outlast the floor covering above them.

 

What else should you consider when heating your bathroom?
  • Demista by Heat Mat mirror heating pads ensure your mirror remains condensation free after bathing or showering and come in more than 460 sizes. The heaters are normally powered through the lighting circuit and are very simple to install. For mirrors within showers SELV units are available, and all mirror heaters act as mini panel heaters providing additional warmth into your bathroom.
  • You would normally cover as much of the available floor area in your bathroom with underfloor heating and this would include beneath any floor hung bathroom furniture and free-standing baths. We do not recommend heating beneath floor fixed bathroom furniture and units, non free-standing baths and insulated shower trays as they can trap the heat. For more information please check our guide to measuring up.
  • Smaller bathrooms, en-suites, rooms and conservatories usually have high heat loss and only a proportion of their floor can be heated, therefore a powerful 200W or 240W/m² system is desirable to ensure a fast-reacting system which can overcome these losses. This allows the system to heat quickly so rather than having the system running all day at a low level, you simply turn on the heating for the times you want to use your conservatory saving you energy in the process.
  • For bathrooms with badly insulated floors we suggest considering the use of Heat Mat’s structural thermal insulation boards beneath your heating system. These boards will speed up the reaction time of your heating meaning it is up to temperature in less time once the heating clicks on, saving you energy and money.
  • Although it is possible to install your underfloor heating controller in the bathroom it would usually be placed on the outer wall of the bathroom or en-suite monitoring the floor temperature in the room via its floor temperature sensor. If you do wish to place your controller in the bathroom we suggest selecting one of our IP21 rated models which must be placed outside of the zones; please speak to your electrician for more information.
  • The most common use of wall heating in a bathroom is to provide a hidden towel warming system heating the wall behind the towel to create a convection current to warm and dry your towel without the risk of hot to touch surfaces. Heat Mat can provide protocols on how to fit heating mats in bathrooms according to your own wall construction. These protocols also cover heating tiled seats in showers and steam rooms.
  • Heat Mat’s mats and cables are fully earth shielded for safety and there is no need to include an additional earthing grid, saving time and cost in the installation.
  • Electric underfloor heating does not suffer from the harmfully hot surfaces of many water and electric based wall heating, and unlike conventional radiators and water based underfloor heating there is no risk of water damage from burst or leaking pipes.
 

Which electric underfloor heating system is most suitable?

  • The most common floor covering in a bathroom remains tile and a heating mat system is perfect for heating tile and stone floors in this situation. Our 200W and 240W/m² systems offer a very fast heating time and are perfect for smaller bathrooms where a higher heat output is required, and for larger bathrooms a 160W/m² system will be ample. A heating mat system can also be used if you have chosen a luxury vinyl tile floor (LVT), bonded engineered board or a carpet as the heating mats can be covered with a levelling compound or latex screed and the flooring can be laid on top.
  • 3mm heating cable can be used in preference to a heating mat and these are most commonly chosen for small or complicated areas where they can be simpler to fit than a heating mat. 3mm cables can also be installed onto Heat Mat’s decoupling membrane which speeds up the cable installation process and the membrane takes the movement out of the sub-floor, preventing any risk of the floor surface cracking from sub-floor movement.
  • In-screed heating cables are only suitable for bathrooms on the ground floor when a new screed bed is being laid. They have the lowest material cost of any electric underfloor heating system and they create a very stable temperature, so are most appropriate when the room will be regularly heated to the same schedule. The cables do not increase the floors build height (if a 35mm or more screed is already being laid) and they can be installed at whatever Wattage output you desire, although we recommend 200W/m² for most bathrooms due to their higher than average heat loss per square metre of heated floor.
  • If you have chosen laminate or engineered board flooring in your bathroom Heat Mat’s recommendation is to install our heating mats covered with a levelling compound or latex screed before laying your flooring as this provides a system with 100% earth shielding and an IPX7 rating. Some projects choose to use our fast to fit Combymat system in bathrooms and although this range has a full earthing layer above it, our recommendation is to always have this installation method signed off by your electrician before proceeding.