Underfloor heating

blunomore

blunomore

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We are moving into an apartment with underfloor heating. If it gets used, does this have a huge impact on one's electricity consumption?
 
Absolutely. Big bucks. Look, obviously it depends on the floor area heated. But turn it on throughout the place and you will shudder when you get the bill. Just speaking to a guy last night who said some time years ago he decided to turn it on in his new house - a big one - but he turned it off smartly when the bill came.
 
I have it in 5 rooms. rooms range between 3 and 5 kilowatts each. Never had the guts to leave it on long enough to work out what the duty cycle is. But even at 30% that's R36 a day for one room...
 
What type of underfloor heating is it?

If it's water based then a few solar panels with a insulated geyser might help.
 
check the power rating of the heating. electricity costs 75c per kilowatt hour.

if heating is 1 kilowatt and on for 1 hour, will cost 75c.

work out how much power in total, multiply by hours used per day, multiply by 0.75 (for rands total per day) and then by 30 (rands total per month)
 
75c per kwh? Where? It's a rand or more in joburg. And that's before the latest increase.
 
Sinbad said:
75c per kwh? Where? It's a rand or more in joburg. And that's before the latest increase.
Click to expand...

all depends on whether you're getting your electricity from Eskom or City Power, my bill reflects a range from 55c/kWh to R1.20/kWh depending on usage
 
blunomore said:
We are moving into an apartment with underfloor heating. If it gets used, does this have a huge impact on one's electricity consumption?
Click to expand...

We have 3 of them at home. We use none.... they use over 2kW each. You can do the math on that one :p
 
I've got in 7 rooms.Had it on last year and saw my gat when the bill arrived.
Never again.
 
DrYes said:
I've got in 7 rooms.Had it on last year and saw my gat when the bill arrived.
Never again.
Click to expand...

I think the 3 of ours, running on minimum temps, for 1 month, racked up a bill of around R2000. Definitely wasn't worth it.
 
When I bought my house 2 years ago I asked the previous owner for copies of the electricity bills.

He had 3 little boys with number 4 on the way and ran the entire house's (3 bedrooms, lounge, dining room, hallway, entrance hall and bathrooms) underfloor heating 24 hours for most of the winter. The bill came to about R15k per month!

Needless to say I haven't even considered doing this, at most I have my daughters room turned on so that it stays at a nice cozy 22 degrees, the rest of us can suffer in the cold.

oh, and as a side note, don't expect the room to suddenly be warm when you turn the floors on. You will feel it underfoot but the effect only kicks in a day or so later.
 
Last edited:
froot said:
I think the 3 of ours, running on minimum temps, for 1 month, racked up a bill of around R2000. Definitely wasn't worth it.
Click to expand...
Had I known Eskom was going to shaft me I would have considered Solar underfloor heating.
More expensive to install but cheaper in the long run.
 
We also have it throughout the house. Too **** scared to turn it on.
 
There is 3 important factors
heating kw x price of kw x hour of use
Ej 1 kw x 1,4 R/Kw x 8 hr = R11,20 per day for a room of 10m2
The most important part of the system is the thermostat. Should be a programmable thermostat that can be set for ej; 2 hr in the morning and for 6 hr in the afternoon
 
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