Plinth heater or underfloor heating ?
As we know when it comes to the kitchen, every home owner likes to have more usable space. This may be for extra kitchen cupboards or worktop areas but the kitchen is already full so finding that valuable extra space may prove to be difficult. Sometimes the only space available is where the radiator is fixed to the wall.
Under floor heating
Installing the underfloor heating in the most energy efficient way involves excavating the floor to a depth suitable to allow the space to lay the insulation,fixing the under floor heating pipes, connecting back to the manifolds and then screeding the floor. The cost and time of the installation compaired to the plinth heater is considerably more but it can give comfort by heating floor and also does save space.
The next thing that needs to be considered is the amount of heat needed and available floor space to heat the kitchen. The normal sized kitchen (4m x 3m) with cavity walls, 2 external wall, double glazed window, PVC door and solid floor will need around 1100 watts of heat. With available floor area of approx. 6m2, under floor heating can provide around 900-1000 Watts. Older properties with greater heat losses could need more than this to give a comfortable room temperature.
Heat response is also slower compared to the radiator or a kick space heater as the under floor heating needs to warm the screed and flooring first before the heat starts rising into the room.These longer warm up period mean that retrofitting under floor heating to an existing system would need to be separately zoned correctly. This ensures existing pipework and radiators don’t heat up unnecessarily when the main home room stat is not calling for heat.
Wireless Plinth heater
Installing the wireless plinth heater is very simple compared to under floor heating as you only need to extend the existing pipework slightly and connect the plinth heater directly to your existing central heating system. There is need of electrical power supply to run the fan inside the plinth heater.
Thermix wireless plinth heaters models are available with four different heat outputs ranging from 1.2kW to 2.4 kW so there is no shortage of heat output with the plinth heater option. With the availability of the higher output (up to 2.4kW) the plinth heater can be installed in the larger kitchen and houses with higher heat loss (solid wall construction).
With the help of their low water content and fan convector technology, plinth heaters provide faster heat responses and leave much less residual heat when the heater turns off. This feature not only provides comfort heating to the user but also saves energy by not heating the room when not needed.
Installing the hydronic wireless plinth heater (fan-assisted radiator) could be a great choice for home owners when either replacing kitchen radiators or planning a new kitchen. Plinth heaters can not only save space, they are much cheaper to install compared to under floor heating.
