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| Laying the heating mat.
The benefits of the 3-wire heating mat: |
info@soldron.de please phone the following number if you have any questions: soldroN Heating equipment Soldron Wärmetechnik Vertriebs GmbH Ringstraße 17, 97950 Großrinderfeld Tel/Fax: 09349/ 768 even in the evenings or at the weekend |
Example of laying tiles in bathroom:
If the animated clip does not start automatically, click the lower picture:
Our latest addition to the Warmtouch
product line is the 3-wire system which you will find both in the heating
cables and the heating mats.
The development of the 3-wire system is
a revolution for installing heating mats and heating cables. Unlike the conventional
heating mats, this type has only one connection lead to be connected up to
the junction box. Conventional heating mats have a connection lead at both
ends of the mat and both have to be connected to the junction box.
In the case of a 3-wire heating mat, you only have to plan the location of the junction box and can connect up the heating element without having to route the return lead.
How quickly does the heating mat warm a tiled floor?
The following table shows how long it takes to warm up the rooms with different thicknesses of flooring and different heating power ratings:
1°C increase in temperature in minutes:
| Floor thickness: |
floor 2 cm |
3 cm |
4 cm |
5 cm |
6 cm |
flooring 8 cm |
flooring 10 cm |
15 cm |
| Heating power: | ||||||||
| 120 Watt/m² |
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| 160 Watt/m² |
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| 200 Watt/m² |
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| 250 Watt/m² |
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| 300 Watt/m² |
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The figures given in
the table only refer to the heating of the flooring surface itself. The fact
that heat is lost into the room during the heating period itself is not taken
into consideration.
If this is to be factored
in, roughly 20 - 30% must be added to the time.
Colour limitations:
Not permitted, possible with restrictions, possible, no restrictions.
To answer this question you first need to know how much heat energy it takes to raise the temperature of the entire floor structure by one degree.
For this we need the specific heat
capacity of a concrete floor;
this is 1000 Joules per kg.
| The specific heat capacity of a substance tells us how much energy (in Joules) is required to heat it by one °C. |
We also need the density of the floor covering; this is between 1.8 and 2.4 kg/dm³, for which, for the sake of simplicity, we will assume is 2.0 kg/dm³.
This means that 1 square metre of floor
covering of a height of 1 cm has a mass of 20 kg.
A 5 cm thick floor covering therefore
has a mass of 100 kg.
To raise these 100 kg by 1°C we therefore need 1000 Joules per kg. Multiplied by 100 = 100,000 Joules.
A 160 Watt/M² heating mat generates heating output of exactly 160 Joule=Watt * sec.
Consequently we only need to divide the 100,000 Joules by 160 Joules to obtain the time of 625 seconds, or 10.4 mins.
With a 160 Watt/m² heating mat, a 5cm
thick floor covering heats up by one °C every 10.4 min.
| Notes on temperatures
22 - 23°C feels cool initially (touch the table top in a heated room), 24 - 25°C feels neither warm nor cold, 26 - 27°C is noticeably warm. |
The temperatures of the unheated
floor are approx.
15 - 17°C in heated cellar floor 18 - 20°C in heated living rooms, up to 20 - 22°C in heated bathrooms. |
This means that the floor needs to be heated by a minimum of 3°C and a maximum of 10°C to take the chill off it.
During this time the maximum output of the heating mat is required.
This is considerably quicker at 200
Watt/m² than at 160 Watt/m² or even 120 Watt/m², meaning that you do not
have to switch the heating on so far in advance.
How much heat
is conducted downwards?
| k-value = thermal conductivity value / insulation thickness |
If the floor plate is thermally insulated underneath with e.g. 5cm of polystyrene with a thermal conductivity value of 0.04 W/m*K, this insulation has a k-value of 0.8 W/(m²*K).
Therefore, if the concrete floor beneath
the insulation has a temperature of 18°C and the floor plate with the tiles
is 26°C, from 18°C to 26°C = 8°C times 0.8 Watt/(m²*K), meaning that 6.4
Watts per square metre are "lost" downwards.
With a polystyrene thickness of 2.5 cm
this would mean a loss of 12.8 Watt per square metre.
This heat energy is naturally not lost
entirely as it warms the concrete base to a small extent, meaning that, over
time, less heat can escape downwards.
How much heating does e.g. a conservatory need?
A conservatory built onto the side of a house, with 8m x 4m = 32m² of floor space has roughly 4m+8m+4m)x2.5m = 40m² of conservatory windows, added to which is possibly a further 20m² of roof glazing, making a total glazed area of 60m².
Assuming the windows have a k-value of 1W/(m²*K), the outdoor temperature is -15°C and the desired indoor temperature is a comfortable 22°C, the required heating output is -15°C - 22°C = 37°C + 60m² glazed area resulting in 2220 Watts.
If 12m² of 200 Watt/m² heating mats
have been laid in the conservatory, this would just about be sufficient.
| (As a rule of thumb: if a tiled floor is 1°C warmer than the air in the room, the floor will emit 10 Watt/m² of heating power into the room). |
However, in order to emit 2.2 kW of
heating power into the conservatory
| (2220 Watt/12m² = 185 Watt/m², the floor heating should therefore be 18.5°C warmer than the room) |
this floor heating area would have to be heated to 40.5°C, which would be unpleasantly warm.
So you have to increase the heating area!
With 24 m² of heating space (2220 Watt/12m² = 92.5 Watt/m², the heated floor would have to be 9.25°C warmer than the room), the heated floor would only need a temperature of 31°C.
Another example:
For frost protection in the same conservatory.
Assuming the windows have a k-value of 1W/(m²*K), the outdoor temperature is -15°C and the desired indoor temperature should be at least 3°C, the required heating output is -15°C - 3°C = 18°C * 60m² glazed area resulting in 1080 Watts required heating power.
However, to emit this 1080W heating
power in the conservatory (1080 Watts/12m² = 90 Watt/m², the heated floor
would have to be 9°C warmer than the room itself), this heated floor surface
would have to be heated to 12°C.
A brief
example to explain electricity consumption costs!
| At a power cost of approx. € 0.15/kWh and a heating period of 30 minutes for taking the chill off the bathroom floor, this would result in total output of 600 Watt/unit, i.e. 4.5 cents per day. The heating mats must first use all
their power to warm up the cold floor covering and the tiles to 27°C. In
this case, the system would probably heat for the entire duration. (Warm-up)
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Another example: At a power cost of approx. € 0.15/kWh and a heating period of 300 minutes for taking the chill off the living room floor, this would result in total output of 1600 Watt/unit (10m²), i.e. € 0.15 per day. We assume that the living room is heated
to a temperature of 22°C by a different heating source, and that the floor
is warmed to 24°C. |
Please read carefully - important for understanding floor heating:
If 160 Watt/m² floor heating is fitted in a room with floor tiles, the heating only consumes 160 Watt/m² during the warm-up period, e.g. from 18°C to the target floor temperature of 24°C.
At 160 Watt/m² rating this is of course correspondingly faster than 120 Watt/m² - and you save time in the warm-up phase.
Subsequently the floor heating, i.e. from the surface of the floor tiles, only releases approx. 10 Watt/m² heating power into the room for each degree Celsius warmer than the room itself.
Roughly half of the heat is released into the room in the form of infrared heat, i.e. radiant heat.
If the temperature in the room is 22°C and the floor is 24°C, the floor heating would then only release 20 Watt/m² into the room.
If the room is warmed e.g. by the sun to 24°C, the floor heating will release no more heat at all into the room and therefore not consume any more electricity. This is the self-regulation effect of floor heating."
The high percentage of radiant heat in floor heating means that the room temperature can easily be turned down by several degrees to e.g. 20°C, and it will still be perceived as pleasantly warm.
A floor temperature of 21°C is felt as warm (the emphasis here is on the feeling of comfort created by floor heating - the prime source of heating is e.g. radiators).
In this case the floor heating would only release 10 Watt/m² into the room.
With a heating area of e.g. 10 m² and a rating of 10 Watt/m²
this would result in electricity costs of € 0.15 for 10 hours at a price
of € 0.15/kHz.
This assumes adequate thermal insulation beneath the floor
base.
In an extreme case, a 160 Watt/m² floor heating system would heat a room from 20°C to 36°C (i.e. one degree per 10 Watts) if it were not limited by the thermostat to approx. 28-29°C.
If the floor plate is thick enough, e.g. 8cm (e.g. heating base from Knauf) and if the customer has access to suitably low-cost storage heating electricity, it is also possible to heat an entire apartment or individual rooms with night storage underfloor heating. The investment costs are relatively low. If the intention is to use the underfloor system as the main source of heating, it is important to use low-cost night storage current.
The consumption costs: i.e. one litre of heating oil
provides 10kW/h of chemical energy although only 80-90% is actually used
as heat in the flat (boiler, radiation and chimney losses). In the case of
electricity, however, 100% is given up to the floor surface. And there are
no costs for chimney sweeps, boiler maintenance or fume emission measurement.
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