Electric or water floor heating is a rational and comfortable way to heat. However, all its advantages can be felt only if you buy and install a high-quality system. The warm floor of Rehau lives up to expectations.
About Rehau
The company was founded in 1948 by Helmut Wagner. The company received its name by the name of the city - Rehau. The staff included only 3 employees involved in the manufacture of watering hoses, automotive parts and outsole. However, already in 1951 Wagner opened a second factory for the production of plastic pipes and began to cooperate with the Volkswagen concern.
The turning point in the company's history was the production of PVC pipes by extrusion, which began in 1958. From this moment, Rehau is rapidly mastering new technologies and expanding production. In 1968, it produces a pipeline from cross-linked polyethylene, in 1988, it presents a technology for connecting pipes using a movable sleeve. In parallel, the company offers innovative solutions for the automotive and aerospace industries. Since 1995, Rehau carbon fiber has been used in aircraft assembly.
The company launched its first underfloor heating in 1986. For 30 years, the system has reached perfection.
Rehau floor heating installation reduces installation costs by 50%. Thanks to control systems, electrical modification reduces operating costs by 60%.
Types of underfloor heating
Rehau offers 2 types of floor heater: electric - Soletec, and water - Rautherm S and Rautitan. Both systems are economical, safe, and have an efficiency close to 100%.
Water
The basis of the water floor is pipes designed for a floor heater. Products with a diameter of 10.1 to 32 mm with a wall thickness of 1.1 to 2.9 mm are produced. They have an additional oxygen-protective layer of cross-linked polyethylene. This technology determines:
- high thermal conductivity - the pipe gives off heat to the floor surface with maximum high efficiency;
- outstanding operating parameters - the heater withstands heating up to 90 degrees and pressure up to 6 bar;
- resistance to mechanical damage - the tubes are difficult to damage during installation, leakage is eliminated;
- flexibility - when laying them can be bent at any angle;
- no corrosion - crosslinked polyethylene is inert with respect to any chemically aggressive substances. Neither salt nor clots are deposited on the walls of the pipes.
Pipes are connected to each other using the technology of a movable sleeve, which guarantees complete tightness. O-rings are not needed, as they are provided in the design of the pipes themselves.
Rechau for the underfloor heating floor has developed all the elements of joining and fixing: polystyrene mats, film panels, harpoon-clips, RAUFIX tires. Devices reduce installation time by 4 times.
Electric
The cable floor from Rehau is devoid of the drawbacks typical of such a system. In the manufacture of take a two-core cable reinforced with Kevlar. It withstands higher loads and temperatures. Teflon insulation prevents overheating of the elements, and a shielding braid protects the user from electromagnetic radiation.
The kit includes cables, mats for laying, socket boxes, a protective tube for the sensor, rotation locks, corrugated pipe. The cable thickness is only 5.5 mm, and the mat is 3.5 mm. Place the system in a screed or in a layer of tile adhesive directly under the tile.The height of the room underfloor heating practically does not change.
The electric floor Rechau does not dry the air, does not create an electromagnetic field, does not overheat the coating. Installation is allowed in bathrooms, in bathrooms, in kitchens, in nurseries. Any covering: linoleum, wood, ceramics, laminate, even carpet.
Floor heaters are equipped with digital programmable thermostats and analog. The cost of the former is higher, but such a temperature regulator allows not only lowering or raising the temperature, but also creating a heating mode, which reduces costs by 15-30%.
If the underfloor heating is the main heater, the thickness of the screed is less than 35 mm. Concrete accumulates heat: the thicker its layer, the longer the heated floor cools.
Advantages and disadvantages of Rehau floor heating systems
Any option for floor heating has the following advantages:
- Reliability - the cable is reinforced with Kevlar, and the shell of cross-linked polyethylene protects the water pipes. Both heating elements withstand high loads and heating with a large margin of + 90 and +95 C at working +60 C.
- Overheating and destruction are excluded. Insulation and cross-linked polyethylene prevent mechanical damage;
- Flexible tubes and cables are laid according to different schemes and achieve uniform heating of the entire area.
- No contamination - with uniform heating of the surface there is no excessive air circulation. Dust and dirt do not move around the room.
Rehau floor heating can be installed in apartments where allergy sufferers live.
There are also disadvantages:
- Installation of the system is technically simple, since the kit includes all the necessary elements for installation. However, the connection schemes and calculations are far from simple and require experience.
- Screeding is a complicated and dirty process. But here it is not a floor heater, but the screed itself.
- Installation is performed on the prepared floor.
Repair of the floor heater is complicated. To remove the damaged fragment, you need to remove the finish coat, remove the screed or adhesive layer and replace pipes or cables. This rarely happens: the manufacturer is not in vain giving a guarantee for heating elements for a period of 10 years.
Installation and installation of heat-insulated floors
Laying the electric floor is carried out in several stages. All requirements of the instructions must be strictly followed.
- The area of the future heater is calculated. They lay pipes only on the free area, since it does not make sense to warm the floor under the furniture.
- Choose a laying pattern: snail, snake, double snake. Calculate the installation step. In central Russia, the optimal distance between the loops is 11–18 cm. The total length of the contour is taken into account - no more than 120 meters, even with the largest diameter of 32 mm.
- The subfloor is leveled, a damper tape or profile is laid to compensate for the expansion that is inevitable when the pipe is heated.
- The base floor is thermally insulated with a layer of expanded polystyrene, protected from moisture with a plastic film. If laying mats, additional thermal insulation is not needed.
- Install the distribution manifold and connect it to the boiler.
- Place mats or panels, and lay flexible tubes on them according to the scheme. Each tube is connected to a collector. Fix the heating elements with special fasteners.
- Check the warm floor for performance: connect to a pump that maintains a pressure of 4-5 bar for 24 hours.
- If there are no leaks, the floor is evenly heated, it is poured with a cement-sand screed and reinforced.
- After hardening (28 days) put the final coating.
Installation of a water floor takes more time and requires more expenses than installing an electric one, but its operation is cheaper.
The choice of mats for underfloor heating
There are 3 types of substrate:
- Mats for warm water floors Rechau Varionova - made of expanded polystyrene. This model replaces the insulating layer, as the material retains heat perfectly. The surface is embossed, includes fixators of complex shape. Tubes are placed between the clamps.
- Varionova panels - profile polystyrene foam substrate with square or cylindrical bosses. Between the protrusions place heating pipes. The panel also retains heat and dampens sound.
- RAUFIX tires are a rigid polypropylene backing. Sharp staples are located on the underside so that the tire is fixed to any surface. Does not possess thermal insulation properties.
The company also produces clips and harpoon staples for fixing heating elements.
If a warm floor is laid indoors over an unheated cellar, you can not do without thermal insulation.
Operation of underfloor heating Rehau
Recommendations for the use of underfloor heating are simple:
- You can not sharply increase the temperature, and even more so the water supply. It is also necessary to ensure that children do not gain access to the control device.
- Inspection and repair of the structure is performed by a specialist. Independent actions are prohibited.
The whole system is buried in the floor and almost inaccessible. She is not afraid of puddles in the bathroom, frost on the balcony, the weight of the dishwasher in the kitchen.
