A house we are considering buying has wet underfloor heating connected to an oil fired boiler.
Said house was built in 2003.
Q1. As heat pump outputs are at a lower temperature, is there likely to be sufficient heat output from the wet UF heating if I switch from oil fired boiler to heat pump feeding the UF piping?
Q2. An estate agent told me that UF heating tends to start developing faults past around 20 years old. Anyone heard of this?
Thanks
Our wet U/F heating is maybe 30 years old and is fine. We flushed it through about 7 or 8 years ago.
In the other half of house we have heat pump with wet U/F heating which works fine. It takes 24 hours to heat up if you go away in cold weather tho”.
I switched from an oil fired boiler to a heat pump, I have underfloor heating in half of my (old) house and it is fabulous. A gazillion times better than my ofb.
What are the main benefits Vero apart from predictable fuel cost and environmental? Assume UFH was connected to oil burner previously. Is the warm up time any longer?
Must ask seller about this but isn’t it only needed when there are steel components like radiators?
Yes the UFH was connected to the ofb, but the warmup time was longer than with the heat pump, it took ages to warm up mainly because my house is quite long so even going across the courtyard underground then pipes had some way to go and the boiler wasn’t as reactive or efficient as the heat pump. The thermostats were set to the same temperatures etc. it is lovely in that part of the house in winter - it’s ok in the rest where there are radiators but I infinitely prefer the UFH. I love the heat pump.
I have another question. I’ve been told a vide sanitaire is important in areas like the Cause de Quercy where houses are built predominently on rock. They isolate the property from damp. I’m referring to modern houses.
I know they make life a lot easier for inspecting/installing various services.
Any views?
Whilst the crawl space allows access to some services etc its also a big source of heat loss as it has to have ventilation. If considering UFH considerable insulation should be installed with a breather membrane. I have to renue our underfloor insulation as the original has failed after 25y. I would look at removing the suspended floor in my next house if it has one and filling with shale and thick insulation.