The drawbacks of electric underfloor heating, by people who fit it.

In use

• A kilowatt-hour of electricity costs more than one of gas, oil or pellets. The prices used for each country are written under the simulator, in “How it is calculated”. And direct electric heating gives one kilowatt-hour of heat per kilowatt-hour paid for, no more.
• A heat pump uses less. The Fraunhofer institutes measured, in service, an average of 2.2 to 3.1 kWh of heat per kWh of electricity for an air-source heat pump, depending on the study; in the second, from 2.5 to 3.8 from one installation to another. On consumption alone, it wins. The page heat pump or carbon underfloor heating sets out both sides.
• It all depends on the insulation. In the manufacturer’s table, the ground floor of a house built around 1900, with no insulation, uses 63.8 kWh per m² per year: two to three and a half times more than the recent houses in the same table.
• The readings are the manufacturer’s. To our knowledge, no independent study confirms them. The eleven readings, and what they do not prove, are on the measured consumption page.

At purchase

• No grant for this heating. In France, Flanders, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the grants we have reviewed fund heat pumps; in Brussels, they are suspended; in Wallonia, loans have replaced them. In Luxembourg, Klimabonus even places direct electric heating, along with the fossil-fuel boiler, among the equipment it helps to replace.
• The floor has to be redone. The heating is laid under a new floor covering, which is added to the quote. If your floor suits you, that is an expense you would not otherwise have had.
• Hot water is separate. The system heats the rooms, not the water. If the old heating produced it, a water heater is needed: about €2,500 in the example house the manufacturer gives.

In the rules

• Outside France, it is not allowed everywhere as main heating. Wallonia: 2,500 W of direct electric heating at most per home up to 150 m². Flanders: 15 W per m² at most in a renovation subject to a permit or a notification with an architect. Luxembourg: not as the main heating of a new, extended or converted building. Netherlands: the public agency’s guide rules it out as main heating. One room remains possible in Wallonia, Luxembourg and, except for an extension, in Flanders; in the Netherlands, to be confirmed: the rule, country by country.
• In France, the energy rating is a calculation. The energy certificate counts each kilowatt-hour of electricity as 1.9 in primary energy, and as 1.7 from 1 January 2027. A home heated by direct electricity can therefore have a poorer rating than its bill would suggest.
• In a new build, the energy calculation decides. In France, the regulations count each kilowatt-hour of electricity as 2.3 in primary energy: the project’s energy calculation says whether direct electric heating is suitable there.

On site

• Extra height: 13 to 20 mm with vinyl or wood flooring, 23 to 40 mm with tiles. The doors and thresholds are checked beforehand.
• A flat floor. Beyond a deviation of 2 mm over one metre, a levelling compound is needed first.
• Under tiles, one more layer: decoupling mat or dry screed. The manufacturer itself says the mat is slightly less efficient.
• Areas with no heating: the shower, the space under the bath and under fixed furniture. We cover 75 to 85% of the floor area of a room.

The details are on the fitting without screed page.

Over time

• It does not cool. A reversible heat pump can.
• Without electricity, no heating.
• A single manufacturer. The system is fitted only by its certified partners: for an extension or an alteration, you go back through them.

When something else is better

• You already have hot-water radiators or water-based underfloor heating in good condition: changing the heat generator is enough.
• You are entitled to a large grant for a heat pump.
• The home is large, poorly insulated, and will stay that way.
• You want to heat a whole home in Wallonia, Luxembourg or the Netherlands, or in Flanders in a renovation subject to a permit: for direct electric heating, the rule rules it out or caps it.
• Your floor is recent and you do not want to touch it.

For the other cases, the system is described layer by layer.

Updated on 9 October 2026.