Underfloor Heating Cost in 2026: Wet and Electric Compared
The short answer
- £40 to £85 per m² fitted for electric underfloor heating, and £90 to £185 per m² for a wet system
- £800 to £1,700 for electric in a 20 m² room, or £1,800 to £3,700 for wet
- About £515 a year to heat a 20 m² room with electric, against £175 for wet on a gas boiler, on our heat model
- About a third less electricity for a heat pump at 35°C than at 55°C, in the Electrification of Heat trial
Underfloor heating in the UK costs £40 to £85 per m² fitted for an electric system and £90 to £185 per m² for a wet system in 2026, which puts a 20 m² room at £800 to £1,700 for electric or £1,800 to £3,700 for wet. There is no official price data for underfloor heating, so these ranges are the middle half of the prices five UK cost guides publish, shown side by side below. Electric is cheaper to fit and dearer to run: on our heat model, the same 20 m² room costs about £515 a year to heat with electric underfloor heating against £175 with a wet system on a gas boiler. A wet system also suits a heat pump, which runs most efficiently at the low water temperatures underfloor heating needs.
Underfloor heating cost per m²
Fitted, electric underfloor heating costs £40 to £85 per m² and a wet system £90 to £185 per m². A new build sits at the low end; an existing home costs more because the old floor has to come up.
| System | New build | Existing home | All prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric (mats or cables) | £35 to £70 | £40 to £80 | £40 to £85 |
| Wet (pipes fed by a boiler or heat pump) | £65 to £130 | £100 to £175 | £90 to £185 |
Read the detail
An electric system is a mat or loose cable laid under the floor finish and wired into the house supply. A wet system is a loop of plastic pipe, usually set in screed or fitted into insulated panels, carrying warm water from a boiler or heat pump through a manifold. The pipe, the manifold, the screed and the plumber's time are why wet costs about twice as much per square metre.
New builds cost less because the floor is being built anyway: the pipes go in before the screed is poured. In an existing home the old floor finish comes up first, the floor may need insulating and levelling, and the new floor sits a little higher. Rated People adds that prices in London and the South East can be up to 20% higher.
The "All prices" column takes every figure from all five guides; the new build and existing home columns use the three guides that price them separately, so the columns do not line up exactly. The next section shows every figure.
What five cost guides say
Published prices run from £25 to £90 per m² for electric and from £35 to £190 per m² for wet. Our range is the middle half of every figure the five guides give, which sets aside the cheapest and the dearest.
| Source | Electric, per m² | Wet, per m² |
|---|---|---|
| MyJobQuote, updated 20 October 2026 | £40 to £90 | £100 to £190 |
| Rated People, 2026 prices | £25 to £35 | £35 to £87.50 |
| The Eco Experts, updated 1 September 2025 | £72.50 | £127.50 |
| Plumbing Superstore, 5 February 2026 | £50 to £85 | £120 to £185 |
| Fuse Energy, updated 18 October 2026 | £40 to £90 | £85 to £190 |
| Our range: the middle half | £40 to £85 | £90 to £185 |
The data behind this table
Read on 11 November 2026. All five include fitting. Rated People and The Eco Experts price whole jobs rather than square metres, so we divided: Rated People prices electric at £1,200 to £2,500 and wet at £2,200 to £5,250 for 40 to 80 m², and The Eco Experts prices 20 m² at £1,450 electric and £2,550 wet. Rated People first published its guide on 16 March 2023 and says its prices are accurate as of 2026. Plumbing Superstore is a merchant; the figures here are its installed prices, not its kit price. Fuse Energy is an energy supplier. None says whether its prices include VAT or how many jobs they cover. Checkatrade's cost guide would not load for us, so it is not in the table.
Read the detail
Two of these sources match homeowners with tradespeople (MyJobQuote and Rated People), one compares installers (The Eco Experts), one sells the parts (Plumbing Superstore) and one sells energy (Fuse Energy). MyJobQuote names its writer and editor; the others do not. Rated People sits well below the others for both systems, and its prices are for larger floors of 40 to 80 m², where fixed costs are spread thinner.
How we work out our range
For each system we put every published figure into one list: both ends of a range, or the single figure where that is all a source gives. Our range is the middle half of that list, from its lower quartile to its upper quartile, rounded to the nearest £5. For electric the list is £25, £35, £40, £40, £50, £72.50, £85, £90 and £90, which gives £40 to £85. For wet it is £35, £85, £87.50, £100, £120, £127.50, £185, £190 and £190, which gives £90 to £185. The new build and existing home ranges are worked out the same way from MyJobQuote, Rated People and Plumbing Superstore, the three that split them. This is the same method as our loft conversion cost guide.
Underfloor heating cost by room size
A 20 m² room costs about £800 to £1,700 for electric and £1,800 to £3,700 for wet; a whole 3-bed house of about 100 m² about £4,000 to £8,500 or £9,000 to £18,500. Small rooms cost more per square metre.
| Floor area | Example | Electric | Wet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 m² | Bathroom or small kitchen | £400 to £850 | £900 to £1,850 |
| 20 m² | Kitchen diner or living room | £800 to £1,700 | £1,800 to £3,700 |
| 40 m² | Open plan ground floor or extension | £1,600 to £3,400 | £3,600 to £7,400 |
| 100 m² | Whole 3-bed house | £4,000 to £8,500 | £9,000 to £18,500 |
The data behind this table
Our per square metre range times the floor area, rounded to the nearest £50 up to 20 m² and £100 above. Under about 5 m² the fixed costs dominate: MyJobQuote prices a 4 m² en-suite at £240 to £300 for electric and £600 to £720 for wet, and a 2 m² cloakroom at £160 to £180 and £340 to £380.
Read the detail
Cost grows a little more slowly than floor area, because the thermostat, the wiring or manifold connection and the call-out are paid for once. MyJobQuote's own whole-house figures for a 95 m² 3-bed semi, £3,800 to £8,550 for electric and £9,500 to £18,000 for wet, sit close to ours. Rated People puts the labour alone at £700 to £2,600 for a whole project, depending on floor size.
Many projects cover one floor or one room rather than the whole house: wet underfloor heating in a ground floor or an extension, often with radiators kept upstairs, or electric in a single bathroom or kitchen.
Wet vs electric underfloor heating
Electric costs less than half as much to fit, but about three times as much to run as wet on a gas boiler. It suits a single small room; wet suits large floors and anyone with, or planning, a heat pump.
| Electric | Wet | |
|---|---|---|
| Fitted cost per m² | £40 to £85 | £90 to £185 |
| 20 m² room, fitted | £800 to £1,700 | £1,800 to £3,700 |
| 20 m² room, to run a year | £515 | £175 on a gas boiler, £130 on a heat pump |
| Floor height | Thin mat or cable; usually no need to raise the floor | Pipes in screed can raise it by up to 75 mm |
| Time to fit one room | 1 to 2 days | 2 to 4 days |
| Best for | Bathrooms, en-suites and small kitchens | Whole floors, extensions and heat pumps |
Where these figures come from
Fitted costs are our ranges above. Running costs are our heat model, explained under running costs below. Floor height from Plumbing Superstore; fitting time from MyJobQuote.
Read the detail
The running cost gap comes from what makes the heat. Electric underfloor heating turns each unit of electricity into one unit of heat, at the 26.32p cap rate. A wet system is fed by a boiler burning gas at 7.97p, or by a heat pump that makes about 2.78 units of heat from each unit of electricity. For a 20 m² room in a typical home, the middles of the two fitted ranges are £1,500 apart and the running costs £340 a year apart, so on these figures a wet system on a gas boiler makes back its higher fitting cost in about four and a half years.
Electric still makes sense where a room is small, heated only for short spells, or where running pipes from the boiler would mean lifting floors in other rooms. A bathroom is the classic case. Wet systems last longer, too: MyJobQuote puts the pipework at around 50 years. Plumbing Superstore and Fuse Energy both say electric suits small areas and wet suits larger ones.
Extras to budget for
Floor insulation, screed, a new floor finish and the controls are often priced separately. Ask every installer which of these the quote includes.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Floor insulation, 10 m² concrete floor | £220 to £400 |
| Floor screed, average room | About £430 |
| New floor finish | £15 to £100 per m² |
| Smart thermostat, unit only | £100 to £220 |
| New consumer unit, if the electrics need it | About £525 |
| Removing a radiator | About £200 each |
| Servicing a wet system | £80 to £150 a year |
Where these figures come from
MyJobQuote, updated 20 October 2026, read on 11 November 2026. One source only, so treat these as a guide.
Read the detail
Insulation matters more than it looks. Heat goes down as well as up, and a heated floor laid straight onto cold concrete warms the ground. The Building Regulations set a minimum for the insulation under the heating, covered below, so a fair quote includes it. The floor finish also affects output: Plumbing Superstore suggests a floor surface of no more than 27°C for timber, vinyl and linoleum, while stone and tile can run warmer.
A wet system has to connect to a boiler or heat pump. If the boiler is old or small, or you plan to switch to a heat pump, price the two together, because the flow temperature the system is designed for decides how well it will work with a heat pump later.
Underfloor heating running costs
A 20 m² room in a typical home costs about £515 a year to heat with electric underfloor heating, £175 with a wet system on a gas boiler and £130 on a heat pump, on our heat model. A new, well insulated extension costs far less to heat.
| Heating | Existing room, typical home | New extension, built to today's standards |
|---|---|---|
| Electric underfloor heating | £515 | £320 |
| Wet, gas boiler | £175 | £110 |
| Wet, heat pump on a heat pump tariff | £130 | £80 |
How we work this out
Our heat model puts a typical 3-bed semi at 11,000 kWh of gas a year over the 101 m² of floor the model implies for three bedrooms, about 109 kWh a square metre, or 98 kWh of heat at the model's 90% boiler efficiency. A 20 m² room is then about 1,960 kWh of heat a year. For a new extension we scale that by 0.62, the ratio our model measures in the government's energy data for homes rated EPC band A or B against band D, which gives about 1,215 kWh. Electric underfloor heating is priced at the Ofgem cap for October to December 2026 (electricity 26.32p a kWh, all of it turned into heat), a gas boiler at 7.97p a kWh at 90% efficiency, and a heat pump at an efficiency of 2.78 on an 18.7p heat pump tariff. The model's figure comes from meter readings that include hot water, which cannot be separated out, so it is on the high side for heating one room; the comparison between systems holds. Standing charges are left out because they do not change.
Read the detail
Other guides land either side of our figures. For a 20 m² room MyJobQuote gives £230 to £460 a year for electric and £100 to £200 for wet on a gas boiler, at about 24p a kWh of electricity, and Rated People gives £768 and £161. MyJobQuote puts electric underfloor heating at 5p to 50p an hour while it is heating.
How much you pay depends most on how long the room is heated and how well it is insulated. Underfloor heating responds slowly, especially in a thick screed, so it works best left on a steady, lower setting rather than switched on and off. Our energy bill calculator shows what the whole house costs to run, and our underfloor insulation guide covers insulating a floor you are not heating.
Underfloor heating with a heat pump
Underfloor heating lets a heat pump run at about 35°C, where it is most efficient. In the Electrification of Heat trial, the median heat pump used about a third less electricity at 35°C than at 55°C for the same heat.
| Water temperature | Efficiency, median in the trial | 20 m² room a year |
|---|---|---|
| 35°C, typical of underfloor heating | 3.50 | £105 |
| 55°C, typical of radiators | 2.38 | £155 |
| All trial homes, whole system | 2.78 | £130 |
How we work this out
Efficiency is units of heat for each unit of electricity, as measured in the Electrification of Heat trial for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Energy Systems Catapult, December 2024). The 3.50 and 2.38 are the trial's median at each water temperature. The 2.78 is the measured whole system median across 428 air source heat pumps that our heat model uses everywhere; it is measured in a different way, so compare the first two rows with each other. Each efficiency is applied to the same 1,960 kWh of heat for a 20 m² room in a typical home, at the 18.7p heat pump tariff.
Read the detail
A heat pump gets more heat from each unit of electricity the cooler the water it has to make. A radiator needs hot water because it is small; a heated floor covers the whole room, so it can warm the room with water at 30 to 45°C, as Plumbing Superstore and MyJobQuote describe. Running at 35°C rather than 55°C, the trial's median heat pump used about a third less electricity for the same heat; put the other way, 55°C used about 47% more.
The Building Regulations already push in this direction. When a wet heating system is newly installed, or fully replaced along with its boiler and emitters, Approved Document L asks for the whole system to be sized to heat the home with water at 55°C or lower. Underfloor heating meets that easily.
You do not need underfloor heating to have a heat pump: larger radiators do the same job in most homes, as our radiator sizing guide explains. Underfloor heating is worth it when the floor is coming up anyway, such as in an extension or a ground floor renovation. Try our heat pump calculator for the installed cost and running cost of a heat pump in your home, and see our heat pump running costs guide for tariffs and settings.
Building regulations for underfloor heating
Underfloor heating must meet the Building Regulations. In England that means insulation underneath, the right controls, commissioning and, for electric systems, Part P for the wiring.
- Insulation under the heating. Heat lost downwards through a ground floor should be no more than 10 watts a square metre. Over an unheated room, or where the heating runs on and off, the insulation needs a thermal resistance of at least 1.25 m²K/W. On an upper floor, at least 0.5 m²K/W for electric and 0.75 m²K/W for wet.
- Controls. Every system needs controls to adjust its temperature. Electric systems need programmable room thermostats with a manual override, sensing both air and floor temperature. A screed thicker than 65 mm needs heating that turns the room down automatically at night or when it is empty.
- Commissioning. The installed system should be commissioned to the standard BS EN 1264-4.
- Electric cables in screed. Direct electric cables go in a screed no thicker than 60 mm.
Read the detail
Lifting a floor can bring in the insulation rules for the floor itself. Under Approved Document L, stripping a floor down to its structure and rebuilding it counts as renovating it, and if you renovate more than half of a ground floor the whole floor should be brought up to a U-value of 0.25. A lesser standard is allowed where meeting it would cause serious problems with the levels of the floors next to it. Lower U-values mean less heat lost.
If a wet system replaces the whole heating system, boiler and emitters included, it should be designed to run at 55°C or lower. When the boiler is replaced, each room should have thermostatic room controls, or each zone where room by room control is not justified.
Electric underfloor heating also falls under Part P, the electrical safety rules. Under Approved Document P, a new circuit is notifiable work, and so is any addition or alteration to a circuit in the space around a bath or shower. A bathroom system near the bath or shower, or any system on its own new circuit, is therefore notifiable: use an electrician registered with a competent person scheme, who certifies the work, or tell building control before you start.
These rules are from Approved Document L, Volume 1, 2021 edition incorporating 2023 amendments, and Approved Document P, 2013 edition, which apply in England today. A new edition of Approved Document L takes effect in England on 24 March 2027. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulations.
How to get quotes
Get at least three itemised quotes for the same floor area and build-up, and check what each includes. Insulation, screed, the manifold, controls and the floor finish are the lines most often left out.
Read the detail
- Measure the area to be heated, not the whole room: kitchen units and fitted furniture sit on unheated floor.
- Ask for a heat loss figure for the room and the water temperature the system is designed for. For a heat pump, ask for the lowest temperature that heats the room.
- Ask what goes under the heating, how thick it is and how much it raises the floor, and whether doors will need trimming.
- For electric, ask who does the wiring, whether a new circuit is needed and who certifies it under Part P.
- For wet, ask where the manifold goes, how it connects to the boiler or heat pump, and whether commissioning to BS EN 1264-4 is included.
We do not recommend underfloor heating installers yet, and no link on this page is paid. When we do, every firm will have to meet our trusted supplier standard.
Frequently asked questions
How much does underfloor heating cost per m²?
Fitted, electric underfloor heating costs £40 to £85 per m² and a wet system £90 to £185 per m² in 2026. That is the middle half of the prices five UK cost guides publish. New builds sit at the low end; laying it in an existing home costs more because the old floor has to come up.
How much does it cost to put underfloor heating in a whole house?
About £4,000 to £8,500 for electric and £9,000 to £18,500 for a wet system across 100 m², roughly the floor area of a 3-bed house. Screed, insulation, new flooring and any new boiler or heat pump come on top.
Is wet or electric underfloor heating cheaper?
Electric is cheaper to fit and dearer to run. For a 20 m² room in a typical home, electric costs £800 to £1,700 fitted and about £515 a year to run; a wet system costs £1,800 to £3,700 fitted and about £175 a year on a gas boiler, on our heat model at the October to December 2026 price cap.
How much does underfloor heating cost to run?
For a 20 m² room in a typical home, about £515 a year for electric underfloor heating, £175 for a wet system on a gas boiler and £130 for a wet system on a heat pump with a heat pump tariff, on our heat model. In a new extension built to today's standards the same room costs about £320, £110 and £80.
Is underfloor heating good with a heat pump?
Yes. Underfloor heating can run with water at about 35°C, and a heat pump is most efficient making cool water. In the Electrification of Heat trial, the median heat pump ran at 3.50 at 35°C and 2.38 at 55°C, so it used about a third less electricity for the same heat. For a 20 m² room that is about £105 a year against £155.
Does underfloor heating need building regulations approval?
The work must meet the Building Regulations. In England, Approved Document L asks for insulation under the heating, controls to adjust its temperature and commissioning to BS EN 1264-4. If you renovate more than half of a ground floor to fit it, the whole floor should be insulated to a U-value of 0.25. Electric underfloor heating on a new circuit, or near a bath or shower, is notifiable electrical work under Part P.
Data sources
Updated 11 November 2026.
Prices come from five UK cost guides, read on 11 November 2026. Building rules come from the government's Approved Documents, and running costs from our own heat model.
Show every source
Underfloor heating prices: MyJobQuote, Underfloor Heating Cost (published and updated 20 October 2026); Rated People, How much does underfloor heating cost in 2026? (first published 16 March 2023, prices accurate as of 2026, built with PriceBuilder); The Eco Experts, How much does underfloor heating really cost in the UK? (updated 1 September 2025); Plumbing Superstore, A guide to underfloor heating (5 February 2026, installed prices); Fuse Energy, Underfloor heating costs explained (updated 18 October 2026). All read on 11 November 2026.
Insulation, controls, commissioning, flow temperature and floor renovation rules from Approved Document L, Volume 1: Dwellings, 2021 edition incorporating 2023 amendments, paragraphs 5.10, 5.20, 6.28 to 6.35, 8.13, 11.2 to 11.3 and Table 4.3. Notifiable electrical work from Approved Document P: Electrical safety, 2013 edition, regulation 12(6A).
Running costs from our heat model, built on the DESNZ National Energy Efficiency Data-Framework 2026, with heat pump efficiency from the Electrification of Heat trial (Energy Systems Catapult for DESNZ, December 2024), energy prices from the Ofgem price cap for October to December 2026 and the heat pump tariff from Cosy Octopus at its rates from 1 October 2026. Full method on our methodology and data sources pages.