Rules for arranging furniture when using underfloor heating
Owners of apartments and private houses increasingly prefer alternative heating options to centralized heating. However, when deciding in favor of a particular method of heating a home, it is important to consider the features of the installed system. So, manufacturers do not always explain why it is impossible to put furniture on a warm floor. But ignoring this rule entails rather unpleasant consequences, starting with the rapid loss of consumer qualities in cabinets and kitchen sets and ending with the failure of heating equipment.
Why you can not put furniture on the heated floor
This rule is true, but with some reservations. Placing furniture on a heated floor is undesirable only if the height of its legs is less than 20-50 mm. The explanation is quite simple.
If the gap between the bottom of the cabinet or sofa and the floor is minimal or absent altogether, it is difficult to remove heat from the heating elements. As a result, the efficiency of heating the air in the room decreases, the furniture deteriorates, the heating system fails.
To make it easier to understand what is happening, you need to look at the heat distribution scheme when arranging a room with a warm floor.
Convection flows are directed vertically upward. Sliding wardrobes or cabinets without legs installed directly above the cables will not allow heat to rise. As a result, not the air in the room will be heated, but furniture and floor elements. Imagine that the kitchen and the wall in the living room are on a constantly switched on electric stove.
The rule applies not only to furniture, but also to large-sized household appliances, such as washing machines and refrigerators.
Today, the share of wood mass in furniture is minimal. The main material is sheets of plywood, between which piles of sawdust are stamped, abundantly impregnated with adhesive. Constantly high temperatures destroy the structure of fiberboard, particleboard and other types of plates. Glue loses its bonding qualities, the facades are stratified, the furniture becomes unusable faster. Even worse, the elements of the warm floor regularly overheat, and this is fraught with a complete failure of the system.
It is not recommended to place large furniture without legs or with low supports on the heated floor, the height of which is less than 20-50 mm. Another thing is coffee tables or chairs. Planning a heating system should be carried out taking into account not only the current location of furniture, but also future permutations. If you follow this rule, underfloor heating will most likely serve you faithfully for many years.
