On a wet Tuesday evening, with the kind of drizzle that soaks through your shoes, I watched a couple in their thirties argue quietly in a DIY store aisle.
They were standing between bags of insulation and shiny electric thermostats, calculator app open, doing that familiar dance: comfort versus budget.
Their underfloor heating had broken in their 2000s-era house, and the quote to repair it was almost the price of a small car.
“Or,” the salesperson said, gently sliding a brochure across, “you could stop paying to heat the concrete… and just heat the people.”
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The couple exchanged a look.
Fifteen minutes later, they were walking out with a totally different heating plan.
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Something big is shifting in our homes.
Why underfloor heating is quietly losing ground
For years, underfloor heating was sold as the dream: invisible radiators, warm tiles, spa vibes at home.
The reality, especially in older or badly insulated homes, is less glamorous.
Long preheating times, repairs that mean breaking floors, and energy bills that look like a bad joke at the end of winter.
Many homeowners are now asking themselves a blunt question: “Is this really worth it?”
When energy prices jumped and stayed high, that question turned into a movement.
People started looking for a system that was cheaper to run, easier to control, and didn’t involve tearing up half the house just to fix a leak.
Take Marta and Louis, who live in a 120 m² semi-detached house outside Lyon.
They bought in 2018, proud of their “modern” underfloor heating fed by a gas boiler.
The first winters felt pleasant enough, until gas prices surged and their annual heating bill hit €2,400.
They started tracking their consumption.
They noticed something striking: hours of heating were spent just bringing that heavy concrete slab up to temperature.
When they got home late or left unexpectedly for a weekend, the system simply could not adapt.
Last year, they took the plunge and changed everything.
Their new setup costs them around 35% less per year, and they say the house feels “more alive”.
That story is becoming less of an exception and more of a pattern.
Underfloor heating is a slow, inert system.
You heat a mass, not a space, and you wait.
Modern life doesn’t always match that rhythm.
People travel, work hybrid, move between rooms, heat only the office during the day, then the living room at night.
It’s no surprise that an alternative that follows people rather than concrete is catching on.
*We’ve all been there, that moment when you’re shivering in the kitchen, looking at a thermostat that says 21°C and wondering why your toes feel like ice.*
The alternative everyone is jumping on: heat pumps + smart radiators
The big winner of this quiet revolution is actually a combo.
A **modern air-to-water (or air-to-air) heat pump**, paired with high-efficiency radiators or fan coils and smart controls.
Instead of burying your heat in the floor, you send it directly into the rooms you use, at the moment you need them.
In practice, that means a compact outdoor unit, small wall units or slim radiators inside, and a thermostat system you can pilot from your phone.
You can heat the living room from the train, lower the temperature in unused bedrooms, and use “boost” modes when friends come over.
The new generation of systems is quieter, more discreet, and much less energy-hungry than people think.
A simple example: Paul, 45, lives in a renovated 90 m² house.
His old electric underfloor heating was a disaster: slow to respond, costly, and impossible to zone.
Last year, he installed an air-to-air heat pump with three indoor units and basic smart thermostats.
He didn’t touch his floors or walls, just reused existing ducts and electrical connections.
His average winter electricity bill dropped from €210 to around €130 per month.
More interestingly, he says he now “manages heat like light”: on in the room he’s in, off in the one he’s not.
That flexibility simply doesn’t exist with old underfloor systems.
From an energy point of view, the logic is clear.
Classic electric underfloor heating turns almost 1 kWh of electricity into 1 kWh of heat.
A decent heat pump turns 1 kWh of electricity into 3 or 4 kWh of heat, sometimes more in mild weather.
Add to that the possibility of zoning: bedroom at 17–18°C, living area at 20°C, office slightly warmer during the day.
When people talk about “saving money and heating better”, they are really talking about **controlling where, when, and how you heat**.
Let’s be honest: nobody really adjusts every thermostat by hand every single day.
Automation, sensors, and clever scheduling are doing the boring part for us.
How to switch without ruining your winter (or your budget)
The first concrete step is not to buy a device.
It’s to map your real life at home.
For one week, write down which rooms you actually use, and at what time.
You might realise the guest room is heated to 21°C for… two nights a month.
Or that the home office is cold in the morning but empty after 3 p.m.
Once you have that mini-map of your habits, you can size your heat pump and radiators for reality, not fantasy.
Many installers still oversize systems “just in case”, which means higher upfront cost and worse efficiency over time.
Then comes the tricky part: not falling for shiny gadgets that don’t fit your house.
A very old, poorly insulated building doesn’t react like a recent, well-insulated one.
Some houses will benefit from an air-to-water heat pump with low-temperature radiators.
Others, especially smaller or milder-climate homes, do better with an air-to-air setup plus a simple backup heater.
The emotional trap here is the fear of being cold.
So people crank everything up, or buy overpowered units “to be safe”.
Talking honestly with an installer about your real comfort threshold (19°C? 20°C?) can save thousands over 10 years.
You’re not supposed to live in a tropical greenhouse.
“Switching from underfloor heating to a heat pump with smart radiators felt scary at first,” says Laura, who renovated her 1970s house last year.
“I thought we’d be cold all the time.
Instead, the warmth feels more direct, and the bills stopped giving me anxiety.”
- Start small
Begin with the most used rooms (living room, office, bedrooms) instead of changing the entire house at once. - Keep a backup
A simple pellet stove or modern electric panel in one room can provide reassurance and handle cold snaps. - Watch the settings
Many heat pumps come with “factory” settings not adapted to your reality.
Spend one weekend fine-tuning schedules and temperatures. - Ask for real numbers
Request simulations of annual consumption based on your region and house type, not vague promises. - *Live with it for one winter*
Your sensation of comfort will evolve.
Give your body and habits a few months to adjust before judging the system.
A new way of thinking about warmth at home
Underfloor heating isn’t disappearing overnight, and in some ultra-insulated new homes, it still makes sense.
What is fading, slowly but surely, is the idea that the floor must always be warm for a house to feel comfortable.
People who change systems often notice something subtle: they stop “heating the building” and start heating moments.
A film night in the living room at 20:30, a child’s homework session in a bright kitchen, a late Zoom call in a tiny office corner.
Each of those moments has its own thermal need, which doesn’t require firing up every circuit in the house.
When energy was cheap, that nuance looked like overthinking.
With today’s prices and climate anxiety in the background, it just feels like common sense.
This shift is not only technical, it’s almost cultural.
We are learning to live with adjustable comfort, rather than a uniform 21°C everywhere, all the time.
Some will see it as a loss, others as a new freedom.
The conversation has only just begun around kitchen tables and in those fluorescent-lit aisles of DIY stores.
| Key point | Detail | Value for the reader |
|---|---|---|
| Underfloor heating is less flexible | Slow response, costly repairs, hard to zone room by room | Helps you understand why your bills stay high and comfort feels “laggy” |
| Heat pump + smart radiators combo | 3–4 times more heat per kWh, targeted heating in used rooms only | Clear path to lower bills without sacrificing everyday warmth |
| Plan around your real life | Map room usage, avoid oversizing, tweak settings over one winter | Transforms a risky renovation into a controlled, step-by-step upgrade |
FAQ:
- Is it worth keeping my underfloor heating and just adding a heat pump?
Sometimes.
If your underfloor system is water-based and still in good condition, a heat pump can replace the gas or oil boiler and cut running costs.
The limits of inertia and lack of zoning will remain, though.- Will a heat pump really heat enough in very cold weather?
Modern models work down to –15°C or even lower, but their efficiency drops.
In cold regions, many people keep a small backup heater or stove for the very coldest days.- Is air-to-air heating as comfortable as “radiant” underfloor heat?
The sensation is different.
You feel warm air rather than warm tiles, yet with good insulation and quiet units, most users adapt within a few weeks and don’t want to go back.- Do I need smart thermostats, or is that just a gadget?
You can heat without them, but smart controls unlock the real savings: precise schedules, geolocation, and room-by-room control.
Used well, they can shave 10–20% off your consumption.- What’s the first step if I’m thinking of switching systems?
Get an energy assessment of your home and a heat-loss calculation.
Then compare at least two quotes that explain clearly the estimated annual consumption, not just the hardware price.
