Dining or Living Room

Whether it is breakfast with the kids before school, entertaining at a dinner party in the evening in your dining room or watching Netflix in the living room, underfloor heating helps turn the room into a warm and homely environment.
 
 
What are the main benefits of electric underfloor heating in your dining room or living room?

  • Living rooms, in particular, are somewhere to truly relax and are second only to the bedroom for the amount of time we spend in them. Our hidden heating system means no unsightly radiators spoiling the ambience and it enables you to place your furniture wherever you desire.
  • Time spent with family and friends is valuable and the warmth produced by a Heat Mat system helps create a cosy and comfortable environment however you are using the room.
  • Underfloor heating is perfectly suited to these normally fairly large rooms where most of the floor can be heated, and the system is more than capable of providing floor warming of a full heating system.
  • The gentle heat the underfloor heating provides minimises air movement and thus prevents draughts and helps to create a low dust and allergen environment. By distributing warmth around the room, underfloor heating avoids the excessive radiant heat that radiators can create. 
  • With their nearly 100% efficiency and fast heating up time, each of our electric underfloor heating ranges operates at a lower temperature than a conventional heating system, which helps reduce energy usage and therefore 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 living room or dining room?

  • Even if you are using underfloor heating as the only heating system in your room a 160W/sqm output will provide more than enough power to heat the room as a sole source of heating. In very large rooms (for instance over 25m²) you can usually drop the output to 110W/sqm as long as the floor is well insulated.
  • Underfloor heating allows you to dispense with radiators or panel heaters, so whether you go for the minimalist approach or have a ‘lived in’ look to your room you can furnish as you wish. The one thing to be aware of is that any furniture used on top of underfloor heating should have a small air gap beneath it (around 30mm minimum) to allow the heat to escape. If your furniture doesn’t have a suitable air gap beneath it then we suggest not installing underfloor heating in that area.
  • 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.
  • If the floor of your dining or living room is badly insulated you should consider installing thermal insulation boards on the floor before installing your underfloor heating. Unfortunately, many houses from the 1970s and before have no insulation in their floors. The insulation boards will minimise the heating up time of your system as well as helping it to run more energy efficiently.

 

Which electric underfloor heating system is most suitable?

  • If you have chosen laminate or engineered board flooring, our fast-to-fit Combymat system offers a great option for your dining room or living room. The system is installed onto a 6mm insulation board which prevents downward heat loss as well as providing sound insulation. The entire heating system requires only 6mm of build height including its insulation layer and it is a dry installation, requiring no levelling compounds or screeds. If you have chosen carpet or luxury vinyl tiles, you can add overlay boards on top of the heating system to allow these floor coverings to be laid. As Combymat is a ‘floating floor’ electric underfloor heating system, this is the perfect choice if there is a lot of movement in your sub floor.
  • Heating mat systems are encased in a latex screed or tile adhesive helping them to evenly distribute their heat and mitigate any thermal blocks on top of the floor (items placed on a floor that prevent heat from escaping into the room). These fast-to-fit systems are the best choice if your floor will be tile, stone or a bonded engineered board or if you simply want the ultimate in underfloor heating with the very fastest heating up time. They can provide the fastest reacting underfloor heating system of any type beneath tile or stone floors.
  • As with our heating mats, 3mm cables must be installed beneath a latex screed or tile adhesive and would normally be used beneath a tile or stone floor. They are more suited to small or complicated areas because heating mats are quicker to fit in most rooms above 3m². If 3mm cables are installed onto Heat Mat’s Decoupling membrane it 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 would normally only be used in new build or major renovation work where a 55mm screed 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 55mm or more screed is already being laid) and they can be installed at any Wattage output desired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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