To those with underfloor heating in S.A.?

Question

How much do you pay per month for your electrical underfloor heating? And how big is the space you are heating?

We have just started using it and the meter is going berserk. It obviously uses up a lot of energy for heating up, and then?

Answer 1

Trent,

Your question brings up a question of my own about heating in South Africa. Why does no one heat with solar heating? It seems such a natural for South Africa.

Edit to Mr. D.  I beg to differ, sir. Entire homes here (not a lot but it has been done a few times - one a government sponsored experiment several years ago) in Canada have been heated with solar and this is after all The Great White North.  If it can be done here where it really and truly gets cold, then you can do it better. It is expensive to set up I grant you but in short order, it would pay for itself.

Answer 2

ours isnt so bad, we pay a bit more electricity but its worth it.

what you should have installed is under carpet heating the cost on that is minimal.

we have solar heating as well (used to live in europe) so we knew all about it, it was expensive to install but now its paid off.

another great saving is to put a timer on your geyser.

Answer 3

Trent same here, wish I knew before we had it installed. We are heating about 30 sqm, it is so nice to have it......but for the bill. In winter our electricity bill goes up with about R 500, I am not too sure if it is the heating or the tumble dryer or a combination of both. We also have a few oil heaters, but they are suppose to use very little power, hold on winter is almost finished .......

Answer 4

I'n not sure how much it costs but we have 3.5KW undefloor heating. The Key is to leave it on a very low heat settting, becuase heating from completely cold takes very long.

Karen C - In winter the sun is not powerfull enough to heat, particualrily in the western cape. And using solar voltaic cells for electricity would be uneconomical as they are not very efficient.