Question In Scandinavia a lot of new and refurnished houses are heated with an underfloor water distibution system (in pipes). The system are (normally) fed via a heat-pump combined with electrics. My question is: Do you have to feed the system with more energy the thicker the floor is above the pipes? Many systems incorporate the pipes in the the underfloor (chip floors) and then put parquet or whole-plank wooden floors on top (ca 14-20mm). Other systems attach heat-conductive sheets with the pipes incorporated UNDER the chip-floor, i.e. you get a layer of 22mm + 14-20mm floor before you hit the air you want to heat. Will such a system require more energy - i.e. you need higher water-temperatur to get the desired air-temperature? In my world energy can't be created or disapperat, i.e. the thicker floor only delays the heat (from you turn it on), but it doesn't require higher temperature. The heat resistance formula does not take into account that energy "disappear", only the rate of which heat flows through the material (as far as I understand).
Answer Hi Thomas,
You are thinking entirely along the right lines. A thicker floor only delays the heat from getting to the air in the room. Under steady state conditions, provided losses to the ground are at a minimum, there will be no difference. On start up the thick floors will take longer to reach steady state this will be recovered on shut down when the thicker floors will stay hotter for longer.
