Every question, grouped by topic.

It depends on the area, the insulation, the floor covering chosen and the state of the existing floor. We avoid quoting a price per square metre over the phone: either it is too low and you are disappointed when you sign, or it is too high and you hang up for nothing. Give us the area and the postcode, and you have a real figure within 24 h.

In France, yes, in an existing home: we have found no text that limits direct electric heating there. In Wallonia, Flanders, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a text caps it or rules it out as main heating: one room or a bathroom most often remains possible. In a new build, it is the project's design study that says whether it is suitable. What each country allows.

5 mm for the heating assembly (carbon, insulation, reflector), where a traditional underfloor heating system needs around sixty. We lay directly on the existing floor, so there is no screed to grind down and, in the great majority of cases, no doors to trim.

One day for a typical room, heating and floor covering included. For the heating alone, the manufacturer counts about 75 m² a day for a team of two. Two trades, one contact, one invoice. Fitting, step by step.

Wood, tiles, vinyl and laminate. Wood flooring remains our most requested option; we recommend oak, which moves very little between summer and winter.

Between 15 and 50 kWh per m² a year according to the manufacturer, which read the meter in eleven buildings for at least a year, from an 1890 apartment block to a 2022 house; the median is around 24, and a house built around 1900, with no insulation, reaches 64. It all depends on the insulation and on how you heat: see its readings, building by building, and their limits. The simulator above gives you a first idea; then send us your energy certificate and your bills, and we refine the figure before you order.

Yes: all of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with our own teams, no subcontractors. The design and the quote are done from Metz, the fitting at your home.

20 years according to the manufacturer, which states a written warranty on the materials: ask us for its terms before you sign. No maintenance and no wearing parts. Again according to the manufacturer, the heating film has passed TÜV NORD CERT type examination to EN 60335-1 and carries the CE marking; the system has been in service since 2012. What each certificate establishes.

It depends on the country. In France, no new oil boiler has been fitted since 1 July 2022: an emissions cap set by decree rules it out, with some exemptions. Gas is ruled out of new builds in practice by the RE2020 standard, for houses since 2022 and apartment buildings since 2025, and a decree excludes it from homes whose permit is applied for from 1 January 2027; replacing a gas boiler in an existing home is still allowed. In Belgium the rule depends on the region, in Luxembourg the heat pump is the reference for new builds, and in the Netherlands new buildings have had no gas connection since 2018. The simulator shows the rule for your country, with its source, and we check your case with you.

For the heating itself, rarely. MaPrimeRénov' in France, Mijn VerbouwPremie in Flanders, Klimabonus in Luxembourg and ISDE in the Netherlands fund heat pumps, not direct electric heating. In Brussels, the RENOLUTION grants are suspended; in Wallonia, loans replaced grants on 1 October 2026. The rest depends on your situation and on the work done at the same time, and schemes change often. Describe your project to us: we tell you what applies in your case, without promising the impossible.

Because the manufacturer, IREWA, distributes its system there itself. Our partnership covers France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The details, and who to turn to.

This one, yes: about 1.25 kg per square metre according to the manufacturer, against 90 to 130 kg for water-based underfloor heating cast in a screed. For the structure, the heating does not count; the floor covering is checked as usual.

No. The new storey has its own heating, on its own power supply, with one thermostat per room. The existing installation goes on heating the rest.

5 mm of heating, plus the floor covering: 13 to 20 mm in all with vinyl or wood flooring, 35 to 40 mm with a dry screed and tiles, according to the manufacturer.

The manufacturer cites an 80 m² storey fitted in a day and a half. There is no screed to leave to dry: the rest of the work carries on straight away.

Yes. In the two added storeys the manufacturer cites, the heating works with the house's photovoltaic installation; in winter, the grid makes up the rest.

No. A film is a component, often striped, of which only the stripes heat. The system we fit is a film coated over its whole surface, laid on a reflective layer and an insulating layer, with a design and a thermostat for each room.

By eye: the coating covers the whole strip, not stripes. Through a thermal camera: the whole strip heats, with no lines.

According to the manufacturer of the system we fit, sometimes, in a very energy-efficient new building. But these films are made first of all to take the chill off a floor or to serve as supplementary heating.

It is a different product: a small, very hot surface, where the floor is a large warm one. A panel suits supplementary heating, or a home whose floor cannot be touched.

According to the manufacturer, from 17 to 21 °C in 30 to 45 minutes, and warm feet in about a quarter of an hour: there is no screed to heat up first.

It is not a condition for fitting: the system's insulating layer and reflective layer send the heat back towards the room. The floor, however, must be dry and flat.

5 mm of heating, plus the floor covering: 13 to 20 mm in all with wood flooring or vinyl, according to the manufacturer.

According to the manufacturer, it is better not to go below 15 °C, and preferably 17 °C: the room stays dry, and it comes back up in 30 to 45 minutes.

No. The heating is laid with the floor, and an electrician connects it to 230 V. It is not connected to the central heating.

Most often, no. Tiles, screed, floorboards or vinyl stay in place if the floor is dry, sound and flat to within 2 mm over one metre. A floor covering that has come loose or is damp is removed or made good first.

Yes. At 1.25 kg per square metre, according to the manufacturer, the weight is no burden on the structure. The floor must be sound and flat.

It depends on the height added: 13 to 16 mm with click vinyl, 16 to 20 mm with floating wood flooring. If an old floor covering is removed, the manufacturer states that the doors generally do not have to be trimmed. We check this at the survey.

According to the manufacturer, one to two rooms a day, floor covering included; an apartment of around a hundred square metres was fitted out in one working day. No channels to cut, no screed to leave to dry.

Yes: we proceed room by room, with no dust from cutting channels and no wet screed. The other rooms remain habitable.

Insulation is not a condition for fitting. It weighs on consumption, as with any heating: the manufacturer has measured 23 to 64 kWh per m² per year in old, uninsulated buildings.

According to the manufacturer, one to two rooms a day, floor covering included; a team of two lays about 75 m² of heating a day.

No. We proceed room by room, with no channels to cut and no screed to pour: the manufacturer speaks of dust-free fitting, during which the other rooms stay lived in. The room being worked on, however, must be empty.

An electrician. Each heating circuit has its own line and its own protection at the consumer unit, to the standard of the country. At commissioning, the electrician measures the insulation resistance and tests each circuit.

Straight away with wood flooring or click vinyl: there is no glue and no drying time. With tiles, after the adhesive's usual setting time.

Beyond a deviation of 2 mm over one metre, a levelling compound is needed before fitting. It is one more step, with its drying time.

On a test bench, yes. In service, the Fraunhofer institutes measured 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 and on what is counted. Direct electric heating gives one.

Because consumption is only one line of the cost. Purchase, maintenance and replacement are others, and carbon underfloor heating can be fitted where a heat pump cannot find its place: no outdoor unit, no plant room, no water circuit.

For a heat pump, yes, subject to conditions: MaPrimeRénov' in France, Mijn VerbouwPremie in Flanders, Klimabonus in Luxembourg, ISDE in the Netherlands. In Brussels, the grants are suspended; in Wallonia, loans have replaced them. None of these grants funds direct electric heating.

Yes. Carbon underfloor heating can be fitted storey by storey or room by room: an added storey, a loft, an extension that the central heating can no longer serve.

The manufacturer of the carbon system quotes the German heat pump association: up to 20 years at best, more often around 15. It states 50 years for its film, which has no moving parts.

The system weighs about 1.25 kg per square metre according to the manufacturer, against 90 to 130 kg for water-based underfloor heating cast in a screed. On a timber floor, it is the floor covering that weighs, not the heating.

The heating is fitted inside the home: no outdoor unit on the façade, no flue, no heating riser. See the managing agent first all the same, for two reasons: the co-ownership rules may govern changes of floor covering, because of noise; and if the building has communal heating, fitting your own does not exempt you from its charges: in France, their apportionment changes, barring exceptions, only by unanimous decision of the co-owners.

The system's 4 mm insulating layer is also an underlay against footstep noise. The manufacturer's pages give no sound reduction value: if your rules require one, ask us for the insulating layer's data sheet before choosing the floor covering.

Technically, yes: the home fitted out has its own meter and thermostats. The manufacturer cites a block from 1900, in Frankfurt, where an apartment of around a hundred square metres was fitted out in one working day. If the building has communal heating, see the managing agent first, because of the charges.

In a block that is fully fitted out, the occupant, on their own electricity meter: there is no boiler room, no heat cost allocators, no statement of heating charges.

No. The manufacturer is IREWA, the brand of Carbon Heizsysteme GmbH, a company based in Rosenheim, Bavaria. Carbosol is an official partner and reseller: we design your project, supply the system and fit it with our own teams.

Yes: it is the warranty the manufacturer states for its system. Ask us for its written terms before you sign.

In France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In Germany, the manufacturer distributes its system itself.

According to the manufacturer, yes: ten of the eleven readings come from homes where it is the only heating, the eleventh from a ground floor. The oldest has been monitored since 2012. The condition is a room-by-room design, not a film laid by the metre. The rule in your country counts too: in Wallonia, Flanders, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a text limits this choice.

Because the heating does not run five hours a day. According to the manufacturer, it runs 40 to 90 minutes a day on average over the year, 1 to 2 hours according to another of its pages, room by room, on demand.

For the supply connection, very rarely according to the manufacturer: not all the rooms heat at the same time, and it allows 40% of the installed power for the consumer unit and the supply connection. For the contracted capacity, the electrician checks what you have contracted at the survey.

They give an order of magnitude, not a promise. These are buildings in Germany and Austria, measured by the manufacturer itself. For your home, it takes your insulation, your climate and your bills.

It is not counted, unless stated: the system heats the rooms, not the water. Hot water needs a separate water heater.

Nobody can promise that, and the official calculation points rather the other way. A radiator and a heating film both give one kilowatt-hour of heat per kilowatt-hour of electricity: any difference can only come from the way you heat. The French regulatory calculation counts about 7% more kilowatt-hours for electric underfloor heating than for NF-certified convectors. The manufacturer publishes its meter readings, but none compares the two kinds of heating in the same home.

For the supply connection, very rarely according to the manufacturer. For the contracted capacity, it says nothing: the electrician checks your contracted capacity before the job.

Yes: each room has its own circuit and thermostat. According to the manufacturer, many people start with one room, then fit out the others when their floors need redoing.

Yes. According to the manufacturer, there is no technical reason not to keep the old heating in reserve.

None of the grants we have reviewed funds direct electric heating: MaPrimeRénov' in France, Mijn VerbouwPremie in Flanders, Klimabonus in Luxembourg, ISDE in the Netherlands. We have not reviewed local schemes. In France, one sheet under the energy savings certificates scheme covers electric radiators with advanced electronic control; none covers electric underfloor heating.

According to the manufacturer: 13 to 16 mm with click vinyl, 16 to 20 mm with floating wood flooring, 23 to 40 mm with tiles. The heating itself is 5 mm.

No. The film is connected directly to 230 V, room by room, through a thermostat. The connection is made by an electrician.

Yes. The film gives off its heat as infrared radiation, between 8 and 14 µm according to the manufacturer. The difference from a wall panel: the whole surface of the floor radiates, at around twenty degrees.

About 1.25 kg per square metre, according to the manufacturer: 693 g for the film, 294 g for the insulating layer and 260 g for the reflective layer. It gives 90 to 130 kg for water-based underfloor heating cast in a screed.

According to the manufacturer, no: the system has no moving parts and no fluid. If a thermostat fails, the other rooms go on heating, and it is replaced in a few minutes.

The manufacturer says it has been in service since 2012. Its consumption readings cover buildings dating from 1890 to 2022.

A kilowatt-hour of electricity costs more than one of gas, and a heat pump uses two to three times fewer of them for the same heat. What limits the bill is the home's demand: the manufacturer has measured from 18 to 64 kWh per m² per year depending on the building.

No grant among those we have reviewed: MaPrimeRénov' in France, Mijn VerbouwPremie in Flanders, Klimabonus in Luxembourg and ISDE in the Netherlands fund heat pumps, not direct electric heating. We have not reviewed local schemes.

In France, it can be: the certificate is a calculation in primary energy, in which each kilowatt-hour of electricity counts as 1.9, and as 1.7 from 1 January 2027. Have the rating simulated before the work if you let or sell.

No. It is a resistor: it heats, it does not cool. A reversible heat pump can.

It stops heating. That is also the case for a heat pump, and for a boiler whose circulation pump and controls are electric.

In France, yes, in an existing home: we have found no text that limits it. In Wallonia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a text rules it out or caps it. In Flanders, it is capped in a renovation subject to a permit or a notification, when an architect is required.

Partial heating: one room, a bathroom. In Wallonia, within the limit of 2,500 W per home up to 150 m², appliances already in place included; in Luxembourg, the regulation itself cites the bathroom; in Flanders, an extension subject to a permit has its own cap; in the Netherlands, have it confirmed by the municipality.

In the Netherlands, because the rule reasons in primary energy: the guide from the RVO agency counts one kilowatt-hour of heat per kilowatt-hour of electricity, that is 1.45 in primary energy, above the cap of 1.31. The Walloon, Flemish and Luxembourg texts do not give their reason.

The installer first. In Wallonia, the owner must have, at the end of the work, a signed report with the calculation of the output; in the Netherlands, the installer assesses the performance of the system and documents it. Ask for this document along with the quote.

In France, the regulations for new builds count electricity 2.3 times in primary energy. In Luxembourg, direct electric heating cannot be the main heating of a new building. In Wallonia, the 2,500 W cap also applies to new builds: the order makes no distinction. In the Netherlands, the system requirement also applies to new builds. It is the project's design study that says what is allowed.

Because there is none. The film contains neither cable nor pipe: its carbon layer covers more than 85% of its surface, and that whole surface heats.

It is not a requirement. It is the most direct way to see that the whole surface heats, on the day itself, without waiting for the first winter.

No. It shows the surface temperature at a given moment. Consumption depends on how well the home is insulated and how it is used, and is read on the meter.

The manufacturer does not provide for one: the floor surface stays between 20 and 24 °C, and the thermostat measures the room temperature. It accepts a floor sensor as a limiter, if the manufacturer of your floor covering asks for one.

Yes, according to the manufacturer: the thermostat connects to the home Wi-Fi and to an app. It can also be set by touch, on its screen.

Only its room stops heating; the others carry on. According to the manufacturer, it is replaced in a few minutes. It is on the wall: the floor is not affected.

The manufacturer advises 17 to 18 °C at night and during a long absence, and never less than 15 °C, to rule out the risk of condensation.

Beyond about 30 m² of film, yes: a thermostat switches 16 A at most. We then fit several thermostats, or a single one that controls several circuits through a contactor.

According to the manufacturer, KNX integration is possible. Say so at the design stage.

The tile and the base it sits on do not expand in the same way when the temperature changes. The decoupling mat absorbs these stresses and prevents cracks. On large areas or with large formats, a dry screed does this job.

According to the manufacturer: 23 to 38 mm with a mat, 35 to 40 mm with a dry screed, including the 5 mm of heating and the tiles.

No. The film stops before the shower: the rest of the bathroom is heated, the shower is left clear. The slope and the waterproofing remain the tiler's job.

Yes, if they hold firm and the floor is flat. The heating is laid on them, then the mat and the new tiles.

According to the manufacturer, yes: the room is sized like the others, and the heated towel rail becomes a matter of comfort.

At least 8 mm, with a rigid core, and its manufacturer's approval for underfloor heating and floating installation. Below that, the vinyl is glued onto a dry screed.

According to the manufacturer: 13 to 16 mm with click vinyl, 15 to 19 mm with laminate, 27 to 35 mm with a floor covering glued onto dry screed.

Vinyl manufacturers most often limit the surface to 27 or 28 °C. According to the manufacturer of the heating, it stays between 20 and 24 °C in service: the limit is not reached in normal operation.

Yes: vinyl is waterproof, and the heating is underneath. Only the shower itself stays without film.

Both work. According to the manufacturer, wood flooring feels warmer to the touch and remains the usual choice for living areas; vinyl is thinner, waterproof and cheaper.

The manufacturer does not provide for one: the surface of the wood flooring stays 1 to 2 °C above room temperature, and control is by the room thermostat. A sensor can be added as a limiter if the manufacturer of the wood flooring asks for one.

The manufacturer states 16 to 20 mm. The sum is simple: 5 mm of heating, plus the thickness of the wood flooring. With 13 mm planks, that makes 18 mm; with 15 mm planks, 20 mm.

Yes, if it is dry, sound and flat: tiles, screed or an old floor covering stay in place, the heating is laid on them, and the floating wood flooring on top.

It is possible, but higher: glued-down wood flooring needs a decoupling mat (19 to 25 mm in all) or a dry screed (35 to 45 mm). For solid wood, the manufacturer refers you to the floor layer's advice.

Oak is the rule. Beech and maple move more when the temperature changes: the wood flooring manufacturer's approval is what decides.

20 years, according to the manufacturer, which states a written warranty on the materials. Ask us for its terms before you sign: it is the terms that say what is covered.

According to the manufacturer, TÜV NORD CERT, a German certification body: type examination of the heating film to standard EN 60335-1, the one for household electrical appliances. It publishes the certificate number, 44 780 24002601, valid until 18 August 2029; this number can be checked in the body's public database.

It has been tested on this point: the Sentinel Holding Institut lists it in its database as a product tested for pollutants, and the manufacturer cites a 2025 test report from eco-INSTITUT.

The manufacturer says it is designed for at least 50 years, and has been in service since 2012. Those are its statements; the warranty it states is 20 years.

According to the manufacturer, the build-up is under a European patent, granted in 2021, and the reflective layer under a utility model. It provides the numbers on request.

Water-based underfloor heating, when a heat pump supplies it. ADEME measured 100 houses in France: there the heat pump gives on average 2.9 kWh of heat per kWh of electricity. Electric underfloor heating gives one.

Yes, but it is a heavy job. According to the manufacturer of the system we fit, a screed with its pipes adds 45 to 65 mm and 90 to 130 kg per m², and needs weeks of drying. Thin systems exist: 15 to 30 mm, without the insulation or the floor covering.

The limit is the same. In France, the regulations cap the temperature in contact with the finished floor at 28 °C, under the basic conditions of the calculation, for any underfloor heating. The manufacturer of the carbon system states 20 to 24 °C in service.

Neither of the two floors has compulsory servicing. It is the heat generator of the water-based floor that is serviced: in France, every year for a boiler, every other year for a heat pump of 4 to 70 kW.

In France, one sheet under the energy savings certificates scheme covers low-temperature water-based underfloor heating in an existing home, and MaPrimeRénov' funds the heat pump, subject to income conditions. None of the grants we have reviewed funds electric underfloor heating.

Yes. The manufacturer cites a house where the geothermal system heats the original storeys, and its electric underfloor heating the added storey, which the installation was not enough to heat.

No. In Germany, both sale and fitting are handled by the manufacturer, IREWA, and its local partners.

Yes. What counts is the address of the project, not yours: in Luxembourg, Belgium, France or the Netherlands, we do the work. Thomas will answer you in German.

No. They are written for German speakers in Luxembourg and eastern Belgium.