Underfloor Heating

wildebus

wildebus

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One of the jobs I've been meaning to do for a while (I bought the stuff for it maybe 18 months ago?) is to replace the fitted carpet in the Motorhome with some hard flooring.
Now I will say given the age of my Autotrail Motorhome at 18 years old, the carpet is honestly in very decent condition and clearly a quality product, but it is just a bugger to keep looking nice and clean and I would much prefer a hard surface.

I happened to be speaking to one of my neighbours about random stuff and he mentioned that he installed an underfloor heating setup in one of his old campers and that made me think it might be quite a nice thing to have in a van, as it is not very expensive thing to but and fitting when changing the floor is the ideal opportunity.
Has anyone here added, or has, underfloor heating in their van? If so, what are your experiences with it? Note that I am talking specifically and exclusively about underfloor heating in a campervan or motorhome, and not about underfloor heating in a house (which I actually happen to have and have run for over the last 10 years).
 
Toasty in the Concorde , the whole floor area had Alde pipes backwards and forwards under the floor in the tank void it also had radiators and heating pipes around all the walls , didn’t need slippers and if anything too warm once it got going
 
Are you for useing hot water or electric, me i put bubble ally backed foam down and plastic click planking on top, my van has a single floor under that.
 
Very interesting. My carpets have seen better days.
A thread I’m going to follow.
If you sort it David, don’t be shy.
 
Trotter said:
Very interesting. My carpets have seen better days.
A thread I’m going to follow.
If you sort it David, don’t be shy
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I'll no doubt post about it :D

one thing I do need to consider is the increased height if fitting heated underfloor elements and the impact on openings such as in my case access doors to table storage and rear of heater plus the bathroom door. Not sure how much can be shaved off the bottom of those doors as already likely pretty hollow? This *could* make the heating addition a non-starter.
Other thing needed to do is remove the thetford toilet to remove the old carpet underneath and fit new hard floor. Not hard I understand but needs to be done.
 
wildebus said:
I'll no doubt post about it :D

one thing I do need to consider is the increased height if fitting heated underfloor elements and the impact on openings such as in my case access doors to table storage and rear of heater plus the bathroom door. Not sure how much can be shaved off the bottom of those doors as already likely pretty hollow? This *could* make the heating addition a non-starter.
Other thing needed to do is remove the thetford toilet to remove the old carpet underneath and fit new hard floor. Not hard I understand but needs to be done.
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Cupboard doors, My thoughts exactly. Could be opening an irreversible can of worms. Or an open void.
 
Trotter said:
Cupboard doors, My thoughts exactly. Could be opening an irreversible can of worms. Or an open void.
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On that subject, I would also expect to have some kind of rugs on the hard flooring. For - in my case - the two cupboard doors that go to the ground, they are very rarely opened so moving a rug out the way is not an issue, but wouldn't want to be having to do that with the bathroom.
 
Liam (Coalition Vans) has fitted underfloor heating in the Overland truck they are working on David. The heating didn't look to be that thick either.
 
nabsim said:
Liam (Coalition Vans) has fitted underfloor heating in the Overland truck they are working on David. The heating didn't look to be that thick either.
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That truck seems to be having more problems than enough. I reckon he’ll be glad to see it go out of the workshop.
 
nabsim said:
Liam (Coalition Vans) has fitted underfloor heating in the Overland truck they are working on David. The heating didn't look to be that thick either.
Click to expand...
I think it tends to be around 3-4mm thick? To be most effective I would picture adding a reflective layer on the floor first, so I thinkwe are looking at 5mm minimum extra for the heated option.
It would be pretty simple to accommodate this on a new build as you can fit any doors to clear but changing flooring on an existing build does add potential complexity. I'll need to check clearances :)
 
wildebus said:
I think it tends to be around 3-4mm thick? To be most effective I would picture adding a reflective layer on the floor first, so I thinkwe are looking at 5mm minimum extra for the heated option.
It would be pretty simple to accommodate this on a new build as you can fit any doors to clear but changing flooring on an existing build does add potential complexity. I'll need to check clearances :)
Click to expand...
They didn't fit it under seating etc. David, only in walked areas on that build
 
I think you'd struggle David.
You need to try and stop the heat going downward and wasting energy. A decent layer of XPS insulation would probably be needed to avoid warming up stuff that shouldn't be.
The floor effectively becomes a huge low temperature radiator but there's a maximum recommended floor temperature that you should have due to health reasons so you need a decent floor area VS room volume to make the numbers work and floor area isn't something that most MHs are blessed with.
The overall poor insulation levels of a MH wouldn't be conducive to an effective system either.
If you wanted to simply get the floor to feel pleasant underfoot with just your socks on then yes It would be quite pleasant and simple to do providing you can work around the raising of the floor level but as for heating the van...I'd say pretty much impossible.
 
I found that putting interlocking polyurethane foam floor tiles down gave a nice surface to walk on even with bare feet, bonus points were extra insulation layer and easy to keep clean, “Sidders” went one further and used multicolour tiles to brighten things up.
 
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