General:
- Higher comfort for living/working;
- Increased Health and Safety in your living and working environment;
- More designer freedom without radiators;
- Lower energy usage....sustainability and cost efficiency go hand in hand.
Intercell & Underfloor Heating:
- The underfloor heating system is accessible for repairs and maintenance;
- The structure of your underfloor heating can be adjusted to changes within your building;
- Quicker warming than with the underfloor heating system traditionally installed in the concrete structure.
General:
Underfloor heating is an invisible and silent method of improving our level of thermal comfort. Thermal comfort can be described as the point at which the human body feels at ease and comfortable with the surrounding environment.
There are many factors that influence the way people feel temperature, such as direct sunshine, humidity, draught and how evenly the temperature is distributed. With underfloor radiant heating the feeling of thermal comfort can be increased as the temperature is stable and there is no draught. As a consequence there is no dust circulation in the air, which is good news for people suffering from allergies or lung problems.
Source: UK Under floor heating association
Picture 1 Traditional heating through radiators
Radiators are generally sited either below, or close to windows and are hot by comparison with room air temperature. Standard practice is to size radiators with 70°C mean water temperature and 20°C room air temperature. This requires a Flow/Return of 75/65°C and boiler output higher than 75°C.
Air in contact with the radiator heats up; becomes buoyant and rises to the ceiling. It’s then pushed across the ceiling by warm air coming behind. As it crosses the ceiling, the air begins to cool and to drop back into the room - giving up energy to the structure of the room and its furnishings. It is coolest at floor level where it returns to the radiator for the convection cycle to be repeated.
The radiator must heat the air sufficiently to get it up to the ceiling and then across to the rear of the room; otherwise there’s only local convection near the radiator.
In any convective heating system the warmest air is up at the ceiling, while the coldest is down at floor level.
Picture 2 Underfloor Heating
A heated floor begins to radiate as soon as it becomes warmer than the room air temperature. This can occur with air temperature of 10°C and floor temperature of 12°C. Typically, in a new build, a floor surface temperature of 25-27°C is needed to maintain a room air temperature of 20°C.
Radiant energy from the floor strikes all the other surfaces in the room, which absorb some of the energy, and reflect the rest. As these surfaces absorb energy, they warm up and begin to radiate, directing energy right down into the corners of the room, so there are no cold spots or cold floor draughts.
Almost all the radiant energy that strikes the window is reflected back into the room. Very little transfers through the glass.
In the midst of our drive for a low carbon economy and with interest in renewable energy increasing day by day it’s important to realise that underfloor heating is more energy efficient. On top of that, less energy use means lower costs. It is great to see sustainability and cost efficiency going hand in hand!
Intercell & Underfloor heating
Intercell facilitates the installation of underfloor heating systems. Instead of an installation in concrete the pipes/tubes of the underfloor heating system run through the Intercell structure. Our thin (2mm) top steel plate easily absorbs the heat and works as a radiator, distributing the warmth evenly across the room.
The Intercell® Floor Management System enables you to combine underfloor heating with cable management thus providing you TOTAL FLEXIBILITY.
Email for more information regarding Intercell® and how it can help you.