Warming the sole

The week before last I spoke about the ease of installing an underfloor heating system on my 2UE radio gig. I put one down in my bathroom renovation last year and I am really enjoying the benefits of it during these cold winter months.

The system I put in is an "undertile" heater from warmtech. The heating wire is embedded in the sand cement screed below the tiles.

Installation.

The kit comes with all the necessary items in a small box with full installation instructions. Included in the box are items to assist with the installation as well as the actual heating element, a tester and a timer unit. It is important that a floor plan, including all dimensions of your bathroom is sent to the Warmtech people in order for the correct length heating wire to be sent to you as this wire’s length can not be adjusted.

 

The heating wire is simply installed directly over the floor membrane before a sand cement screed is laid for tiling. It’s an element and remains embedded in the screed working much like an electric blanket to warm the floor from below.

Measure the correct spacing for the wire and mark out a series of parallel lines on the floor. Then, starting at the point prepared by your electrician, work your way around the marked out grid laying and taping the wire along the lines, arcing at each end and doubling back until the entire length of wire is positioned. The starting end of the wire is pulled up to the switch position with the aid of a draw wire.

Once the wire is laid the sand cement under tile screed can be poured straight over it but I found that mixing a batch of floor leveling compound and pouring that over the wire not only embedded the wire but provided a protective layer that could be walked on whilst the screed is worked to form the fall into the floor waste.

****The heating element for this bathroom of 2.4 x 2.4metres draws just 400 watts whilst running, by setting the timer to operate for a few hours only in the morning and the again in the evening the system operates very efficiently.