Keep your feet warm: everything you need to know before you buy a warm floor in the form of heating mats

Heating mats for floor heating are gradually becoming the most popular method of heating apartments, and country houses. Sometimes they are combined with radiators, sometimes heat loss of the room allow you to restrict some "mats".

The heating Mat is relatively inexpensive, is mounted in two accounts, long service life and, most importantly, evenly warms the floor, so its popularity among consumers over the years only grows. In what areas installed heating mats, their right to mount how to save energy and what to pay attention to when buying, explains Natalia Terekhova, head of "electric goods," the company "Leroy Merlin".



The main difference from the usual mats, electric Underfloor heating that the cable already laid on the grid, and this significantly reduces the installation time of floor heating, providing uniformity of stacking and, respectively, of the heating surface.

What made the mats

The heating Mat consists of a thin heating section, fixed on the basis of plastic, silicone or other mesh. The composition of the heating section, in turn, includes the heating cable, the power wires and couplings that provide leak-free connection cable and power wire.

Heating mats and sections are single-core and two-core. Solid have two installation wires, so the installation process for the second end you must return to the start of installation. Two-wire floor heating are one wire connecting to the battery, the other end installed a sealed end structure, so it does not need to return, laying this simplifies. This is a serious choice: single-core cables are cheaper, but twin is easier to stow. The difference, in essence, the connection method.

The life and safety of floor heating is directly dependent on the quality of the cable in the heating section and the quality of the coupling connections. Modern cables are made from specially designed materials, so they are really durable – warm floors some manufacturers serve for 25 years.

For additional protection against electric shock the cable has a screen of alumecano tape.

The power of the heating Mat is determined by the step of laying the cable – the distance between the fragments of the heating section attached to the grid. In most heating mats step of stacking such that power enough for both the primary and for comfort heating.



How to determine your home heating Mat or not? It all depends on the shape of the room. If this is a simple square or rectangular room, the mats for you.

In such cases, the installation of mats will take a few minutes. The Mat is rolled out and fixed on the surface in several places with mortar or glue, and you can make a fill.

In areas of complex shape, rooms with Bay Windows, etc. it is better to use mats, but only the heating section.

In addition, experts recommend installing the heating Mat where it is impossible to raise the floor level. The fact that in contrast to the heating of the sections for which the required screed thickness of 3-5 cm, mats are installed in a thin layer of tile adhesive.

How to choose mats: area and power

Armed with these theoretical knowledge, you can move on to the practical part: how to buy to warm the floor and never not regret this? What to pay attention in the first place?

When choosing a warm floor in the form of a heating Mat in the first place to pay attention to the heating area, so as to shorten the heating cable. Mat with one power cord, more convenient to connect, than two.

Power Mat – not less important parameter than the heating area, and it is appropriate to say about another advantage over conventional mats electric Underfloor heating: the power does not need to count because it is incorporated-by-step installation and running the power cable. The only thing: we must consider where we are going to install the mats, because different areas of different recommended power.
So, the power of the Mat per 1 m2:

  • 120 watts/m2 for comfort heating;
  • 140-150 W/m2 for cold rooms and rooms on the first floor;
  • not less than 150 W/m2 for primary heating.
These conditions of power per square meter generally, for all manufacturers of floor heating.





Thermostats: programmable or simple?

For the management of heating systems "warm floor" are used thermostats. These are the devices that control the temperature of the surface. That is, the signal of a sensor installed in the heated surface, the thermostat turns on or off the heating Mat.

Simple thermostats simply maintain the set temperature. Programmable allow you to turn heating on only in the time (days and hours) when it is really necessary, when residents of the home. It programmable thermostats, controlling the comfort of the home, significantly save electricity. According to experts, the use of programmable thermostats gives you up to 70% energy savings. Well, besides saving on electricity by reducing the maintained temperature of the floor.

All models of floor heating thermostats are installed in the wall, such as receptacle or switch. So you'll have to make a choice not only between conventional and programmable thermostats, but also pay attention to the design and color to the thermostat harmoniously fit into the interior.

Installation of frosted sex

Before you begin installation of the heating Mat, as, indeed, any heating system "warm floor", we need to mark a place for the thermostat, make grooves in the wall under it, the floor sensor and power wires. Insulation under the Mat is not placed.

Itself is the heating Mat is mounted simply and quickly.



For fastening the Mat does not require additional fasteners – it just rolled over and in a few places fixed on the surface with mortar or glue. Because the heating Mat is installed in a thin layer of tile adhesive, the corrugated tube with a floor temperature sensor must be put into pre-prepared chase, under the heating Mat. You can then make a fill with mortar and laying tiles.

Before laying the Mat before it is filled and after it is necessary to check the resistance of the sections to ensure no damage.Before proceeding to fill or tiling, our expert recommends "to sketch the heating area showing the layout". It has to be done. It is unknown what repair work you will spend in this room in the future, but if you need, for example, drill floor, you'll know exactly where to do it, so as not to damage the heating cable.

After pouring will remain to connect the power cord, the power cord of the Mat and the temperature sensor. Here, in fact, the whole installation of "warm floor" on the basis of the mats. Typically, it is done so if the technology there are some differences about them you will learn from the manual, which is attached to the Mat. The user manual says the manufacturer based on specifications and SNIP.

It remains to say that a warm floor imposes some restrictions on the room in which it is mounted. published

 

Source: www.forumhouse.ru/articles/engineering-systems/7133

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