Your home’s underfloor heating can be powered by solar energy. For example, water heated by solar thermal panels can be used to run a wet underfloor heating system. At the same time, solar PV panels can produce electricity, which may be utilised to run home appliances like an underfloor heating system. Here we will go through everything you need to know about using underfloor heating with heat pumps and solar panels.
What Is Solar Underfloor Heating?
As the name implies, a solar underfloor heating system uses solar panels to heat your home with heating elements buried in your floor.
Solar thermal panels and solar PV (photovoltaic) panels are the two types of solar panels. Wet underfloor heating and electric underfloor heating are two different underfloor heating systems.
This implies that you can use the energy produced by your solar thermal or solar PV system to fuel your underfloor heating system.
Recently, there has been a rise in the use of solar panels and underfloor heating among savvy homeowners. In the UK in 2019, underfloor heating made up 7.7% of all heating systems, which is still expanding. In addition, about 1 million households in the UK currently have solar panels installed due to the rise in demand for them over the past year. This popularity results from the high efficiency, low operating costs, and accessibility of government funding for solar-powered underfloor heating systems.
How Solar Underfloor Heating Functions
Underfloor heating systems radiate heat across the entire floor surface to warm a room. Additionally, they rely on radiant heat transfer more than radiators, which use convection heat. Convection heating raises the temperature of the surrounding air, whereas radiant heating directly warms the surfaces of objects (including people).
Benefits of Solar Panels and Underfloor Heating
The ideal heating option for contemporary UK homeowners is underfloor heating coupled with solar panels. When compared to other heating systems, this type of heating system has several advantages that are significant to consider.
Extra Room
Radiators can be large and occupy much space in a room, as is common knowledge. They aren’t the most aesthetically beautiful things and can interfere with where we want to put our furniture. These issues are resolved by underfloor heating, allowing you to design your home as you like.
Comfort
As was already noted, radiant heat makes up most of the underfloor heating. Underfloor heating stands out for its equal heat distribution compared with radiators. We prefer it when a room’s heat is distributed equally; we don’t want our heads to be too hot or our feet too cold.
Lower Operating Expenses
Due to its consistent heat distribution and ability to operate at a lower temperature, underfloor heating is very effective. At the same time, solar energy can be produced for free using solar panels. Consequently, this combination can lower your energy expenses. In addition, both solar panels and underfloor heating have low maintenance expenses. Become more eco-conscious
Because solar energy is a renewable and sustainable energy source, it helps to lower CO2 emissions. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that underfloor heating is between 15% and 20% more efficient than conventional heating systems, requiring less energy to achieve the same effects.
Health
Having underfloor heating lowers your chance of getting respiratory issues. This is because, compared to radiant heating, convection heating from radiators absorbs and distributes substantially more dust particles. In addition, underfloor heating can reduce dust mites by 80%.
Safety
This is another crucial factor to consider, especially if you have young children. In addition, radiators have the potential to get extremely hot, which increases the danger of someone getting burned on one. To remove this safety risk, an underfloor heating system should be installed.
As you can see, using solar energy in conjunction with underfloor heating has a lot of advantages. You may also gain by comparing quotations from other area installers to ensure you are not passing up the best deal.
Underfloor Heating And Heat Pumps
Heat pumps provide more sustainable heat for your home than conventional gas-fed boilers.
How Is A Heat Pump Operated?
Heat pumps extract heat from the earth or the air to heat your home and supply you with hot water. Air-source pumps use energy to heat their liquid refrigerant, which is the heat source for your heating system, by absorbing heat from the air outside your home. Like underfloor heating systems, ground-source heat pumps circulate water outside your home through pipes buried in the ground that gradually absorb geothermal energy from the earth.
They operate best with water-based heating systems, including underfloor heating, and are far more energy-efficient than conventional heating sources. Our selection of water floor heaters is the perfect heating solution to utilise with a heat pump if you’re thinking about raising the energy efficiency of your house.
What Are The Advantages Of UFH In Combination With A Heat Pump?
Heat pumps are considered the future of household heating as we work to reduce global carbon emissions since they are a cleaner, more sustainable heat source. They can also lower your home’s carbon impact.
Heat pumps work much more effectively with radiant floor heating systems than standard radiators because they operate at lower temperatures than a standard boiler. Floor heaters are made to operate at these lower temperatures while still producing the same amount of warmth as radiators. Because of this cutting-edge technology, underfloor heating systems are up to 40% more efficient than central heating systems and have reduced operating expenses.
Installing a heat pump with an energy-efficient UFH system reduces your heating costs significantly because heat pumps produce more energy than they consume. In many circumstances, the long-term savings from installing a heat pump and underfloor heating system will be more than the upfront costs.
Contact us today if you have any more questions or need expert advice on underfloor heating. Our experts would love to help!