bheating

	*Of all the features of our homes it is the heating system which customers praise most.* We build amazingly well insulated homes, one benefit is that storage heating actually works. In this photo you can just make out a white wire running back and forward across the floor. This is a heating cable which will be sealed in under a floor screed. This type of storage heating has been used by us for over 30 years. It has significant advantages over the wall mounted storage heaters which you may have seen before.
		no wall space is taken up within the room by bulky heaters. This makes arranging furniture easier under windows. wall mounted heaters are often too hot in the morning but have cooled down by the evening. a warm floor has far greater heat capacity and needs only to be a few degrees above desired room temperature to give a warm house day and night.
	the temperature at low level within the room is more constant. There is far less chance of cold feet caused by downdraughts from windows. In fact you probably won't need your slippers much at all. wall mounted heaters get dusty and will look old one day - they are often replaced after 10 years just for aesthetic reasons. The photo above shows the network of discs around which the cable is laid. It is not laid under where walls will be so they are marked out in yellow and avoided. The photo to the right shows the floor after the screed has been laid.
		Most living rooms end up with a focal point electric fire. These can be chosen from a catalogue which we give to purchasers. We do not include the fire or surround in the house price but will sell you one at a reduced cost to normal retail suppliers. In a two storey house we provide timer controlled top up heaters upstairs. The underfloor heating downstairs does most of the work but they can be set to give a short boost of heat at preset times.
	The main reason our heating system works so well is because of our superb insulation. see insulation

	Some people ask if the underfloor cable can be repaired if it goes wrong. The answer is yes, although problems are extremely rare. Once sealed in there are no moving parts and cables should last for decades. Just say however that you put a nail into the floor screed deep enough to go through a cable by mistake when doing some DIY. An electrician can bypass the fault by eliminating one of the zigzags in the cable, one small part of the floor near the edge is excavated to reveal the plastic discs around which the wire is led. If the location of the fault is not known several small patches are excavated and the cable tested for continuity until the fault is isolated to a smallish section of floor, three holes may narrow it down to 1/8th of the cable for instance. That section is cut out of the circuit and the cable continues to function. It just takes a little longer to heat the floor to the right temperature during the night - the same amount of heat will be stored in the floor and there will be no noticeable drop in comfort levels.