Underfloor heating is a far from new concept and has been in existence since the days of the Romans. Voids were constructed under buildings where fires were lit creating warm air which would pass through the voids and heat the structure of the building. Since Roman times underfloor heating has, as one would expect, advanced dramatically. Electric underfloor heating has been around for many years when cheap night time electricity tariffs were used to heat up the thermal mass of a building. This however proved expensive and heating up periods targeted the day time use of the building; come evening time the building was cooling off.
Wet based underfloor heating is now commonplace throughout the construction industry with increasing installations. Heat pumps are most ideally suited to producing low temperatures which complement a well designed wet based underfloor heating system. Whenever efficiency of heat pumps is described, it is usually expressed in terms of COP (Coefficient of Performance) – the ratio of electrical input to thermal output.