ᐅ Is underfloor heating more efficient with stone flooring or wood flooring?

First of all, although we are currently building, I embarrassingly have very little knowledge about the technical features of our future house. Therefore, I cannot go into too much detail with my question. Our house will be very well insulated in terms of thermal insulation. For heating, we have decided on an air-to-air heat pump and underfloor heating. We are now faced with the choice between oak hardwood flooring or gres stone tiles with a wood-look finish. As far as efficiency goes, from what I understand, the stone floor makes more sense. We are interested in the "comfort experience." Is the stone floor unpleasantly cold during periods when the heating is off and with good insulation, compared to hardwood floors? We are also curious whether the electricity savings from the better heat conduction are noticeable. I understand that without technical specifications this cannot be determined precisely. I am only looking for a rough estimate. Is the difference around 10 to 20 percent, or should we expect a larger difference, for a living area of about 150m2 (1,615 sq ft)? Thank you very much in advance...

jimkn0pf schrieb:
We have chosen an air-to-air heat pump and underfloor heating for our heating system.

You should clarify that again. Because air-to-air means heat is transferred from air to air, which is the exact opposite of underfloor heating. That would instead be an air-to-water system.

jimkn0pf schrieb:
Is the stone floor unpleasantly cold compared to wood flooring during periods without heating and with good insulation?

The surface temperature should correspond to the room temperature for both floor types. However, the tile will still feel slightly cooler. Are you walking barefoot? In my opinion, this is negligible.

How well does an air-to-air heat pump work with underfloor heating? Saying "very well insulated" is quite a general statement.

From my experience with underfloor heating, it is very subjective how people perceive it. I usually wear socks, while my wife and children are almost always barefoot, both on the stone tiles in our home and on other floor types. It doesn’t get really warm in the winter either; you only notice the difference when stepping onto the unheated stair treads.

In terms of efficiency, there isn’t a big difference, considering how much screed mass needs to be heated.

Yes, please explain the heating system again.
Nowadays, since heating runs continuously 24/7 and the connection to the ground is well insulated, the difference is only a few percent.
Your supply temperature might be about 2 degrees higher with proper design.
However, it is true that a stone floor always feels colder than a wooden floor.

Thank you for the quick responses. I obviously meant air-to-water.

We considered the following: if you walk barefoot or in socks inside the house, you need hardwood flooring because otherwise, with tiles, the floor will feel too cold on more than 300 days a year.

If there are small children in the house, falling on hardwood is softer than on tiles... however, hardwood can also get scratches more easily.

Savings on heating costs are, if any, only marginal. Almost everyone here in the forum spends between 50 and 100 euros per month on heating, depending on the size. You can practically ignore that.

We are happy with our wooden floor. You can remove all stains, and with scratches, every new one hurts less than the previous ones.