AN INTEGRATED APPROACH


Paul Woolvine, CEO of IOBAC UK Ltd, explores the role that far infrared underfloor heating can play in making buildings more energy and cost efficient, and how its ease of installation is beneficial to flooring contractors and building owners alike.


From both environmental and economic perspectives, it is widely agreed that the way we heat our buildings must change. To meet this challenge, new heating solutions offering sustainable alternatives are being introduced to the market.


Much has been reported recently on rising energy costs, with price cap increases meaning that millions of households will be facing an increase in their gas and electricity bills of around 54% from 1 April.


And with war in Ukraine increasing the concerns around the stability of global energy supply, there is a real possibility that prices may go up still further again later in the year.


Couple this with the fact that heating properties using fossil fuels is a major contributor to carbon emissions, with nearly one quarter of the UK’s total emissions coming from domestic heating, and the argument for alternative heating solutions becomes very strong.


The UK Government’s commitment to net zero by 2050 includes its Future Homes Standard which states that all new homes will need to be “zero carbon ready” from 2025. It will be illegal to install gas boilers in new build homes, with gas and oil boilers phased out almost completely by 2050.


The Future Home Standard sees heat pumps as becoming “the primary heating technology for new homes” targeting an increase in installations from 30,000 per year currently to 600,000 per year by 2028.


Underfloor heating is the ideal partner to heat pumps, as it can operate at lower temperatures than boilers and radiators, yet still provide comfortable heat for homeowners. Underfloor heating typically uses either water pipes or electric mats as the key heating element, with many products well established on the market today.


We spoke to both homeowners and installers to understand some of the barriers associated with traditional underfloor heating systems.


The homeowners who had underfloor heating installed already told us that there was a lot of disruption in retrofitting a solution to their homes and that they worried the system would be difficult to repair if anything went wrong.


Flooring contractors said that the installation process was often fragmented, with installation of the underfloor heating component and the top surface flooring happening independently of one another, causing compatibility problems and needless rework.


So, we used our flooring knowledge in collaboration with heating specialists NexGen Heating to develop a highly efficient system that was as simple to install and maintain as possible and which uses far infrared as the heat source.


BUT WHAT IS FAR INFRARED


UNDERFLOOR HEATING? One of the main benefits of far infrared heating is its efficiency.


32 | UNDERFLOOR HEATING


Traditional convection heating works by warming the air in a room. However, this can be a very inefficient method as the warm air rises to the ceiling, and it is only when it loses energy and falls back into the main part of the room that humans feel the warmth. Much of the energy is wasted.


In contrast, far infrared underfloor heating directly heats humans and objects in the room, rather than the entire space. The infrared energy is absorbed, turning the objects into sources of warmth. In turn, they gradually emit the energy, gently and evenly warming the room, with no heat loss.


Infrared energy waves are safely absorbed by our skin, where they are transformed into a safe, gentle warmth, which research suggests has many health benefits. And there is not the dust and allergen build-up, or mould or mildew problems that can be experienced with conventional heating systems.


The IOBAC and NexGen Heating solution incorporates graphene technology, which is the lightest, most conductive man-made material on earth. Hailed as a wonder material due to its many amazing properties and potential applications, graphene is even better at conducting electricity than even copper, and conducts heat better than almost any other material.


This efficiency enables energy costs to be significantly reduced, with independent testing demonstrating 15% less


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