ᐅ Vinyl Flooring – Warm Without Underfloor Heating – Warm With Underfloor Heating?

Hello everyone,

I am a bit confused about using vinyl flooring over underfloor heating.

In general, floor coverings with high thermal conductivity are recommended for underfloor heating systems, such as tiles. Due to their high thermal conductivity, tiles feel much colder when the heating is off because the floor effectively draws heat away from your feet.
Vinyl, on the other hand, generally has very low thermal conductivity, which would normally argue against its use over underfloor heating. However, it is often said that because the material is very thin, it allows for fast heat transfer.
If that were true, you would expect your feet to get cold quickly since heat would be conducted away rapidly due to the thinness of the material. But in my experience, this is not the case!
Is this just good marketing, and vinyl might actually not be that suitable?

At a thickness of 13 mm (0.5 inches), the thermal resistance (inverse of thermal conductivity) of ceramic tiles is about 0.012 m²K/W.
2 mm (0.08 inches) PVC has a thermal resistance of 0.010 m²K/W, and 3 mm (0.12 inches) plastic vinyl is at 0.015 m²K/W.

So, they are practically identical!

For comparison, 11 mm (0.4 inches) cork flooring has 0.124 m²K/W, laminate 0.05 m²K/W, 16 mm (0.6 inches) solid oak parquet at 0.08 m²K/W, and 6.5 mm (0.26 inches) needle-punch carpet at 0.12 m²K/W. That means their thermal conductivity is 5 to 12 times worse than tiles or thin vinyl. Accordingly, these materials feel warmer underfoot but conduct heat less effectively with underfloor heating.

Additionally, impact sound insulation layers are often installed underneath those materials, which also provide good thermal insulation—this is never the case with glued PVC or tiles.

Could it be that you have confused vinyl with laminate so far? [/B]

Enigma8 schrieb:

Does it really conduct heat well from the feet because it is so thin? In my experience, that’s not the case!
Is this all just good marketing and vinyl is actually not very suitable?

I have had the same experience that vinyl feels warmer even when not heated.
However, it is exactly just as suitable for underfloor heating as tiles.

I suspect this is because, although it conducts heat about 4 times worse than tiles, it is only a quarter as thick.
This causes heat to be drawn away from the soles of the feet 4 times more slowly than with tiles, but the overall resistance to the underfloor heating is the same.

With a higher thermal resistance, it simply takes longer for the heat to arrive.
If the temperature is not changed daily, this effectively makes no difference.

VeniVivi schrieb:

With higher thermal resistance, it simply takes longer for the heat to arrive.
If the temperature is not changed daily, this basically has no effect.

Unfortunately, this statement is not correct.
A higher thermal resistance requires a higher supply temperature and therefore higher consumption.

VeniVivi schrieb:

With a higher thermal resistance, it just takes longer for the heat to arrive.
If you don’t change the temperature daily, it basically doesn’t matter.

Rather not.
The floor releases heat into the air to warm the room. However, if not enough energy can "flow in" because of the floor’s insulation properties, the house will likely remain cold.