Seven questions, each answered on its own page with the working shown. Where we concede ground to a competing technology, that is deliberate: a comparison you cannot check is not worth reading.
Can electric underfloor heating be the primary heating for a house?
Yes, provided you choose a system designed to heat the room rather than one installed purely to warm a small area of flooring. Floor warming and primary heating are not the same thing, and most of the market is the former. The Ribbon runs at 150W per m² and needs at least 70% of the floor covered.
Can you install underfloor heating directly beneath carpet without screed?
Yes. The Ribbon is 1.8mm and lays dry beneath compatible carpet with no screed, no self-levelling compound and no overboard. The rule that decides it is tog: a combined carpet and underlay tog of 2.8, no higher. And it is the weave of the carpet that sets the tog, not the thickness, so ask for the tog certificate before you buy
Can underfloor heating go beneath LVT, laminate and engineered wood?
Yes to all three, but they are not the same job. Laminate and engineered wood float straight over the Ribbon. LVT and sheet vinyl are different products from each other, and that difference decides the build-up.
What does electric underfloor heating cost to run?
For a 10m² room the maximum at full power is 29p an hour at 28p per kWh, used as a worked example. That is the ceiling, not the bill, because the thermostat cycles it off. A typical hour is just over 7p for that hour. The full calculation is on the page, so you can run it on your own room.
Which type of underfloor heating is best: water, cable, carbon film or ribbon?
It depends on the job. For a new build designed around a heat pump, water underfloor heating deserves serious consideration. For a small tiled bathroom a cable system may be all you need. Ribbon is what we build around for a retrofit that has to give primary heat under several floor types with no screed.
Who is answering these
Russell White founded EkoBuild in 2001. Thirty years in contract flooring, twenty five specialising in underfloor heating, twenty working with renewable energy.
He has installed and assessed water, cable and ribbon underfloor heating, as well as solar panels, heat pumps, biomass boilers and wind turbines, and he has been involved in developing products rather than only fitting what was already available.
Twenty years ago he built his own eco home using waste pallet blocks, solar, wind, heat recovery, biomass and electric underfloor heating. Living with and maintaining that taught him that making something work is only half the job. It also has to be practical to install, control, service and repair.
EkoBuild is the sole UK importer of AHT amorphous metal ribbon since 2001, and the system is running in over 100 UK homes.
Still not sure?
Map your actual room in the free Room Designer and it works out the layout, the coverage against the at least 70% threshold, and the price.