Underfloor heating can be fed by gas boilers, heat pumps or even a biomass boiler. Subsidies aside, an ASHP won’t necessarily save you money over mains gas given the initial costs. The Renewable Heat Incentive does offer a tariff of 7.51p per kWh though, which may sway you. For others the motivation lies in producing green energy. Regarding acoustic performance, you don’t need to worry about the fans as they aren’t noisy and are normally located outside.

An ASHP is less efficient at higher delivery temperatures – so it’s more suited to supplying space heating than domestic hot water (DHW). However, it’s still more effective than electrical resistance heating (an immersion heater in a tank). I normally recommend underfloor heating when installing an ASHP as the heat output is lower than a radiator based system, so the pump does less work. Nonetheless, having underfloor heating doesn’t mean you have to use an ASHP. If your reasoning is purely financial, I recommend weighing up the cost and performance of particular models against alternatives.

Nigel (Build It Expert)