It is a fair statement to say that any underfloor heating system is only as good as the control system attached to it. At Begetube we place a huge importance on the controls which we specify and use. Underfloor heating is more difficult to control than a high temperature convection heating system because of the longer response time associated with underfloor heating. This is why it is imperative that the correct controls are always specified and used. The control system is an integral part of any underfloor heating system and should certainly never be considered as an "optional extra".

1. Underfloor heating works at a much lower flow temperature (typically 50ºC) than a traditional radiator system. This means that you must have a mixing device in place before the manifold(s) to blend down the high temperature boiler flow. There are two accepted methods of doing this a) By the use of a mechanical 3 port blending valve, this method is used in our standard control system and delivers a fixed water temperature as set on the valves head. b) By the use of an electro-mechanical 3 or 4 port blending valve, this method is used in our weather compensation system and delivers a variable water temperature governed by the prevailing climate conditions inside and outside the building. The latter of these two options gives finer and more economical control and should be considered in any project over 100 square metres.

2. Individual rooms or areas within a building have different uses and varying influences acting on them (e.g. Amount of glazing, North or South facing, auxiliary heat sources, etc) The temperature requirement for each area/room can also be slightly different. For these reasons we always recommend and specify an accurate digital room thermostat for every room/area. This is linked to the electric actuator which either opens or closes the valve(s) on the manifold serving that room/area. Wet areas where it is not allowed to put a mains operated thermostat are controlled using a thermostat which employs a low voltage remote sensor. This sensor can be used to sense the air temperature or the floor temperature. See intelligent controls section.

3. Because it is uneconomical to run any heating system at the full comfort settings 24 hours a day there has to be a method of setting back the temperature during the night. With the standard control system a programmable clock thermostat is used along with all the individual room thermostats. The clock stat has time control along with two different temperature settings. One of the temperature settings is used to run the system at the room stat settings and the second temperature setting is used to provide a night setback setting (this allows the overall temperature to drop back overnight or when the building is not being used). With the Weather Compensation option a simple timer is linked to the compensator, the compensator has two main settings and the timer changes which one the compensator is working from.