How much does the floor heat consume?

Heating element power

The main types of electric underfloor heating is a film( infrared), a thermometer and a heating cable. As for the film coating, it is customary to use it when laying the system under a laminate and linoleum, mats and cable are used to heat the floor from ceramic tiles. Each of the listed heating elements has its own characteristics: power, thickness, heating temperature, etc. Now we will consider how much electricity consumes the warm floor of each species.

So, the energy consumption of the heating elements is as follows:

• film coating - from 150 to 400 Watt / m2;
• heating cable - from 10 to 60 W / meter( an average of 30 watts).Usually, about 5 turns of material are laid on 1 square meter of the surface, so that the total power is 120-150 W / m2;
• thermometers - from 120 to 200 W / m2( average consumption is taken according to the characteristics of manufacturers of floor heat DEVI and TEPLOLUX).

As you can see, the power of the electric warm floor is on the average from 120 to 200 Watt / m2, which allows to make the system both for complete room heating and for auxiliary heating.

Cost calculation technology

To determine how much the electric heat energy of a floor takes, it is necessary to use the following formula:

W = S * P * 0,4 ,

where:

• S - areapremises;
• P - power of the system;
• 0,4 - coefficient that takes into account how much the floor surface in the room is covered with cable / film. In other words, 0.4 * S is the effective heating area.

Usable heating area

So, for example, if you decide to calculate the electric power consumption of an electric floor heating power of 150 W / m2 in a living room of 25 m2, the formula will look like:

W = 25 * 150 * 0.4 = 1500 W,which means consumption of 1.5 kW per hour.

Hourly consumption is known, but it's not all yet. Typically, the heating system runs 8-9 hours a day, when all residents are at home. Total, per day electricity costs will be approximately 12-13.5 kilowatts. Simple calculations can determine that the monthly consumption of the warm floor will be about 360-400 kW.

Immediately draw your attention to the fact that these calculations are very rough and, as a rule, the actual consumption is less than 2 times. This is due to the fact that you can additionally use thermostats, which reduce the energy consumption by another 40%.In total, the system will consume not 360 kW per month, but 216, besides, we selected 150 W for an example, and you can use a cable with a characteristic of 90-120 W / m2, which also can suffice in individual conditions!

The last thing you will do is multiply the power that the system consumes per month by the cost of one kilowatt of energy in your city. In total, it turns out the ready-made energy consumption of the system, on the basis of which it is possible to do analysis, it is beneficial such heating or not. As you can see, the calculation formula is quite simple. With this technology, you can easily calculate the energy consumption of a warm floor in any room: bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and even on the balcony, the main thing is to have a calculator on hand!

I would also like to note that for the heating of the house with infrared film material, the calculation of electricity consumption is based on the fact that about 1 meter square of unheated room requires about 60 watts of power of the material. For a heated room, this value is reduced to 20-30 watts. This is due to the fact that the film has a high efficiency and low power consumption, which is in principle an advantage of infrared heaters of any type!

How can I reduce costs?

Above You saw how much electricity a warm floor uses. If you calculate for all rooms, then a decent amount of "for the light" will be released at the end of the month. Of course, if you pay the first receipt, you will think about how you can reduce the cost and make the heating system economical.

So, to your attention tips that will significantly reduce the electricity consumption of the heated floor in the house:

1. Take care of the quality insulation of the house. Experimentally, it was determined that a good thermal insulation reduces the power consumption by 35-40%, and this is almost half!
2. Be sure to install the thermostat on the wall in the coldest point of the room. Thus, the heating will turn on when the temperature drops below the set point and vice versa - turn off when the room is sufficiently heated. Regulators of temperature, as we have already said, can reduce up to 40% of electricity consumed.
3. Install a multi-tariff electricity meter in the house, at which the electricity tariff at night is 1.5-2 times less( depending on the region).Anyway, the electric warm floor will work at your presence, and this is just in the evening when you come home from work. So why pay more? About the most important advantages and disadvantages of dual-rate electricity meters, we told you, while providing feedback from customers.
4. Only place the material in a useful area. It is not worthwhile to make installation under furniture and household appliances, this is not advisable from the point of view of reducing consumption and moreover it is forbidden by manufacturers of heating materials.
5. You can slightly sacrifice heating by lowering the temperature in the room by only 1 degree. A small donation makes it possible to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the electric floor heating by as much as 5%!

That's all I wanted to tell you about this issue. Now you know how much electricity is spent by such a heating system, and how to reduce the consumption yourself!

We advise you to study:

• The most economical and cheap heating of the house
• How to check the electricity meter
• The warm floor as the main heating