Underfloor Heating Running Costs

Electric Underfloor Heating Running Costs Information

The cost of running an underfloor heating system varies based around how well insulated your room is, the temperature you desire, the number of hours you want your room heated and the type of room the system is installed in. The detail below provides some general guidance about the likely cost of heating a room for a year in different circumstances:

  • A 3m² Bathroom system heating for 3 hours a day would cost around £13.60 per year
  • A 3m² Bathroom system warming only the floor for 3 hours a day would cost roughly £7.80 per year
  • A 5m² Kitchen system heating for 2.5 hours a day would cost around £18.90 per year.
  • Heating a 10m² Conservatory system for 8 hours a week would cost in the region of £22.70 per year

As a general rule of thumb we expect an underfloor heating system to cost between £3.50 and £5.00 per square meter per year to run in well insulated rooms with 'average' usage. The larger a room is, and the greater proportion of the floor is covered, the less expensive it will be to run the system per meter. This is because larger rooms are usually better insulated than smaller rooms as they have less wall area per meter of floor, and heat losses through walls are usually substantial.

The calculations above are based around systems running at between 190W and 200W per square meter. In general, the higher the Wattage output of a system the more efficiently it will run as powerful systems get up to the desired temperature more quickly, so there is less heat loss in the 'warm up' time of the underfloor heating.

The running costs are only part of the story of the economic ownership of an electric underfloor heating system. Unlike alternative heating systems there are no moving parts in Heat Mat underfloor heating and the system should last as long as your floor covering without any requirement for servicing or replacement. In addition our systems are almost 100% efficient at converting electricity into heat, so you do not have the efficiency losses you experience with gas boilers, or the repair and servicing costs.

When you take into account the 'whole life cost' of running an underfloor heating system they can compare very favourably with a conventional heating system.

Please note that the the following assumptions have been made when calculating this running cost information:

  • The buildings insulation is up to the latest Part L requirements
  • The cost of electricity is 12p per Kilowatt unit
  • The system is installed at between 190W and 200W per square meter
  • The system is installed directly onto a 10mm thick structural insulation board with a U Value of at least 2.7
  • The system is controlled by Heat Mat's NGT thermostat with the adaptive function employed
  • The system covers at least 90% of the available floor area
  • The assumption has been made that the bathroom is a wet room, with heating beneath the shower area
  • The room/floor is heated for 6 months of the year
  • The aim is to increase the room temperature by 5°C when the system is powered up
  • Please be aware that a system purely being used for floor warming is likely to cost significantly less to run