Electric or water heat-insulated floor is a rational and comfortable way of heating. However, all its benefits can be experienced only if you buy and install a quality system. Rehau warm floor meets expectations.
About Rehau
The company was founded in 1948 by Helmut Wagner. The company got its name from the name of the city - Rehau. The staff consisted of only 3 people involved in the manufacture of watering hoses, car parts and soles. However, already in 1951, Wagner opened a second plant for the production of plastic pipes and began to cooperate with the Volkswagen concern.
The turning point in the history of the company was the production of PVC pipes by extrusion, which began in 1958. Since then, Rehau has been rapidly mastering new technologies and expanding production. In 1968 it produces a cross-linked polyethylene pipeline, in 1988 it introduces 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 CFRP has been used in aircraft assembly.
The company released the first warm floor in 1986. For 30 years, the system has reached perfection.
Installing underfloor heating from Rehau reduces installation costs by 50%. Electrical retrofitting thanks to control systems reduces operating costs by 60%.
Types of warm floors
Rehau offers 2 types of underfloor heaters: electric - Soletec, and water - Rautherm S and Rautitan. Both systems are economical, safe, and have an efficiency close to 100%.
Water
The basis of a water floor is pipes designed for an underfloor heater. Products with a diameter of 10.1 to 32 mm and 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 provides:
- high thermal conductivity - the pipe gives off heat to the floor surface with maximum high efficiency;
- outstanding performance parameters - the heater can withstand 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 excluded;
- flexibility - when laying, they can be bent at any angle;
- no corrosion - cross-linked polyethylene is inert towards any chemically aggressive substances. No salt or clots are deposited on the pipe walls.
The pipes are connected to each other using the movable sleeve technology, which guarantees complete tightness. O-rings are not needed, as they are included in the design of the pipes themselves.
Rehau has developed all the elements of joining and fixing for a water-heated floor: polystyrene mats, film panels, harpoon brackets, RAUFIX tires. The devices reduce the installation time by 4 times.
Electric
The Rehau cable floor is devoid of the drawbacks typical of such a system. In the manufacture of a two-core cable, reinforced with Kevlar. It can withstand higher loads and temperatures. Teflon insulation prevents overheating of the elements, and the braided shield protects the user from electromagnetic radiation.
The kit includes cables, laying mats, socket boxes, protective tube for the sensor, rotation brackets, corrugated tube. The cable is only 5.5 mm thick and the mat is 3.5 mm thick. The system is laid in a screed or in a layer of tile glue directly under the tile. The warm floor practically does not change the height of the room.
The Rehau electric floor does not dry the air, does not create an electromagnetic field, and does not overheat the coating. Installation is allowed in bathrooms, in bathrooms, in kitchens, in children's rooms. Any coating: linoleum, wood, ceramics, laminate, even carpet.
Floor heaters are equipped with digital programmable thermostats and analog ones. The cost of the former is higher, but such a thermostat allows not only to decrease or increase the temperature, but also to form a heating mode, which reduces costs by 15-30%.
If the underfloor heating is the main heater, the screed thickness is less than 35 mm. Concrete accumulates heat: the thicker its layer, the longer the heated floor cools down.
Advantages and disadvantages of Rehau underfloor heating systems
Any floor heating option has the following advantages:
- Reliability - the cable is reinforced with Kevlar and the water pipes are protected by a XLPE sheath. Both heating elements withstand high loads and heating with a large margin - + 90 and +95 C at operating +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 - there is no excess air circulation when the surface is evenly heated. Dust and dirt do not move around the room.
Rehau underfloor 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, wiring diagrams and calculations are far from simple and require experience.
- Screed laying is a complicated and messy process. But here the point is not in the floor heater, but in the screed itself.
- Installation is carried out on a prepared floor.
Repairing an underfloor heater is difficult. To remove the damaged fragment, you need to remove the finishing coat, remove the screed or adhesive layer and replace the pipes or cables. This rarely happens: the manufacturer does not in vain give a guarantee for heating elements for a period of 10 years.
Installation and installation of underfloor heating
The electric floor is laid in several stages. All requirements of the instructions must be strictly followed.
- Calculate the area of the future heater. Pipes are laid only on a free area, since it makes no sense to heat the floor under the furniture.
- Choose a styling scheme: snail, snake, double snake. The laying step is calculated. 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 heats up.
- The base floor is insulated with a layer of expanded polystyrene, protected from moisture with a plastic wrap. If you install mats, no additional insulation is needed.
- Install a distribution manifold and connect it to the boiler.
- Mats or panels are placed, and flexible tubes are laid on them according to the scheme. Each tube is connected to a manifold. The heating elements are fixed with special fasteners.
- The warm floor is checked for operability: it is connected to a pump, which maintains a pressure of 4-5 bar for 24 hours.
- If there are no leaks, the floor warms up evenly, it is poured with a cement-sand screed and reinforced.
- After hardening (28 days), a finishing coat is applied.
Installation of a water floor takes longer and requires more costs than installing an electric floor, but its work is cheaper.
The choice of mats for underfloor heating
There are 3 types of backing:
- Mats for warm water floors Rehau Varionova are made of expanded polystyrene. This model replaces the thermal insulation layer, as the material retains heat well. The surface is embossed, includes clamps of complex shape. The tubes are placed between the clamps.
- Varionova panels are a shaped polystyrene foam backing with square or cylindrical bosses. Heating pipes are placed between the protrusions. The panel also traps heat and dampens sound.
- RAUFIX tires are rigid polypropylene backing. On the underside there are sharp staples so that the tire can be fixed to any surface. Does not possess thermal insulation properties.
The company also produces clips and harpoon clips for fixing heating elements.
If a warm floor is laid in a room above an unheated cellar, you cannot do without thermal insulation.
Operation of underfloor heating Rehau
Recommendations for the use of warm floors are simple:
- It is impossible to sharply increase the temperature, and even more so the supply of water. You also need to ensure that children do not gain access to the control device.
- Inspection and repair of the structure is carried out by a specialist. Independent actions are prohibited.
The entire system is buried in the floor and is practically inaccessible. She is not afraid of puddles in the bathroom, frost on the balcony, the weight of the dishwasher in the kitchen.
