ᐅ Underfloor Heating or Radiators?

Which type of heating system would you prefer?

The underfloor heating would cost about €8,000 more. Is it worth it?

It depends... If you want to work with low heating flow temperatures (e.g., due to a heat pump), then underfloor heating does make sense. Provided it is also properly designed (i.e., designed for the low flow temperatures).

For us, there was no question: I didn’t want radiators getting in the way, and the heat pump was already decided.

If you want to drastically reduce the resale value of your house, choose radiators. There are barely any reasons in favor of radiators and many against underfloor heating.

What is the advantage of underfloor heating? (Besides not having radiators)?
I'm not concerned about the energy consumption 🙂 That’s not that significant.

Radiators severely limit furniture placement options. Besides, they don’t look very attractive (once you have them, you get used to it).
Underfloor heating nowadays holds the same status in a house as air conditioning does in a car. You don’t want to live without it – the value of the car or house decreases when selling.
If you plan to sell only in 20 or 30 years, houses without thermal insulation, underfloor heating, or similar features will no longer be marketable. They will become hard to sell.

In addition, with underfloor heating there is less convection, meaning less dust is stirred up. This is beneficial if you have allergies. You also have nicely tempered floors in winter. This is mainly an advantage for tiled floors, but other types of flooring benefit as well. Depending on the heating system, you can also run cold water through the pipes in summer, which can lower the room temperature by about 1-2°C (2-4°F). It’s not much, but still a small benefit.