Electric underfloor heating in Canberra
We install electric underfloor heating across the Canberra area, where a new home cannot be connected to gas. Separate houses are 63.2% of homes here, the lowest share of any state or territory. Townhouses and flats are the rest, so a bathroom in a two lot scheme is everyday work. The cold here is the plain reason for a heated floor, and the readings sit further down this page. So the work is a mat in a townhouse bathroom, or heating cable in the slab of a rebuild.
The benefits of electric underfloor heating in Canberra
Semis and townhouses are 17.2% of homes here, the highest share of any state or territory. Nearly 1,000 houses have been demolished and rebuilt after loose fill asbestos, each one on a new slab. Three of the six reasons below are Territory rules that no New South Wales council has.
A warm floor before a Canberra frost lifts
Canberra Airport's station averages 0.1°C on July nights and records about 93 nights a year at 2°C or below. Under tile heating mats warm a cold tile floor quicker than either of our cable systems. Our thermostats bring the floor heating on before the household is awake, so the tiles are warm at six.
A rebuild in Canberra cannot keep its gas
New gas connections have been banned across the Territory since 8 December 2023, and a demolition means the meter is abolished. So a knockdown rebuild in Weston Creek, Woden or Belconnen is all electric by law. In slab heating cable goes in with the new slab, and it needs no flue, no gas line and no floor space. An existing meter in a house that stays standing is untouched, so this bites on the rebuild.
A multi room floor is switched room by room
The building code here caps electric heating that serves more than one room, and renovations are included. New South Wales deleted that clause and the Territory kept it, so a Canberra floor is designed to it. In slab heating cable is laid in zones, with an isolating switch for each room and a time switch for each group. A single heated bathroom sits outside the cap altogether, so under tile heating mats there are unaffected.
Keep the heated floor out of the winter evening
Evoenergy's record demand came on a winter morning, and most of its zone substations are forecast to peak in winter. The default tariff for a new connection charges its demand peak between 5pm and 9pm, dearest in the winter months. In slab heating cable is charged overnight instead, and the slab holds that heat through the evening. Our thermostats run to the hours you choose, so the peak window stays empty.
Charge the floor while the sun is on the roof
Rooftop solar sits on 38.6% of homes here, and it is commonest of all across the Tuggeranong and Weston Creek postcodes. Charges on this network are at their lowest in the middle of the day, between 11am and 3pm. In slab heating cable can be timed to that window, and the slab holds the heat for hours afterwards. So the floor heating is still giving heat back at dinner time, on power the roof made earlier.
An old floor comes up under a licensed removalist
No asbestos containing material may be removed anywhere in the Territory by anyone other than a licensed asbestos removalist. There is no small quantity allowance, so lifting old vinyl, underlay or fibro stops for a removalist. Under tile heating mats go into the new tile bed once that floor is clear and sound. We set the heating out from the tiler's finished levels, so nothing waits on the day.
What we would install in Canberra
Townhouses and semis are 17.2% of homes here, the highest share of any state or territory. Most of those bathrooms already exist, which points to under tile heating mats rather than a cable.
A mat under the tiles
Bathrooms in about 106,000 houses and 29,000 townhouses are the everyday job in this area. The mat sits inside the tile bed, and a single heated bathroom falls outside the multi room cap.
Under tile heating matsCable in a slab
Nearly 1,000 houses here have been demolished and rebuilt after loose fill asbestos, each on a new slab. Cable is tied to the reinforcement before the pour, and the rebuilt house is all electric anyway.
Slab heating cables, dual coreCable in a screed
Garden city cottages in Reid, Ainslie and Forrest sit on suspended timber floors over bearers. Cable goes into the topping of a new room instead, and the mass it adds does the holding.
In screed heating cableWhy Canberra properties choose us
We install across Canberra and the rest of the Canberra area, and we size every job from your floor plans before we quote. Installation is always subject to checking installer availability, which we do before we agree a day.
How we install underfloor heating in Canberra
Plans first, then a quote
Send us the plans for your new home, renovation, office or hotel. We measure the heated areas from them, calculate the cable size and quote the materials. If you want us to install, a second quote covers the installation labour. Nothing is ordered and no day is booked until you accept.
Installation day
Once you accept and tell us the job site is ready, we agree a day, subject to checking installer availability. The floor has to be prepared and ready before that day: your own trades handle levelling, waterproofing and anything else above the slab. Our installer lays the cable or the mat, fits the thermostat, and tests the system with our own equipment before leaving site. Your tiler covers it with the screed or the tile bed.
The gas meter comes off before the demolition
Construction here runs from 7am to 8pm Monday to Saturday where the work is internal or needs no approval. On a Sunday or a public holiday the window runs from 8am to 8pm. Approved building work lasting more than two weeks runs from 7am to 6pm Monday to Saturday instead. A skip or a trailer on the verge sits on public unleased land, and the Territory permits that use. Whether a short builder's skip needs its own permit is worth confirming before the day. Our installer is a licensed electrician, and the test report goes to the registrar and to you within fourteen days. Evoenergy treats an in slab heater as a single appliance up to 40 amps on one phase, so the board is read first. What governs the order of work here is the gas meter. Abolishing it is mandatory where demolition is to be carried out, so it happens before the rebuild starts. That makes the heating an all electric decision at drawing stage rather than a choice made after the slab.
Underfloor heating for Canberra homes
The lowest share of houses of any state or territory
Separate houses are 63.2% of homes here, the lowest share of any state or territory, and semis and townhouses are 17.2%, the highest. Flats are 19.4%, and mortgages are the highest share of any state or territory. Mortgages are 40.2% of tenures, the highest of any state or territory, and 35.8% of homes have four bedrooms or more. Canberra Central and Belconnen each hold about 23% of the homes, Tuggeranong 18.9% and Gungahlin 17.0%. Weston Creek is 81.7% houses and the oldest belt, and Molonglo at 2.5% is the newest. So a quote here is as likely to be a townhouse bathroom as a four bedroom house.
Garden city cottages, then four new towns
Public building ran this city until 1972, when privately built homes first outnumbered government built ones. Federal Capital Commission houses of the 1920s are rendered masonry with prominent gables. Department of the Interior houses are red face brick under pitched roofs, in Reid, Braddon, Ainslie, Forrest, Kingston and Red Hill. Those cottages sit on strip footings with suspended timber floors, so a mat or a screed topping is the way in. Belconnen's 1960s cul de sacs and Tuggeranong's 1970 Y Plan streets are brick veneer, on slabs or on piers. Gungahlin, Molonglo and the loose fill asbestos rebuilds are all slab, which is where in slab heating cable belongs. The heritage housing precincts hold about 2,000 homes, and their own guidelines allow internal building fabric to change where the external fabric is not affected.
Unit titles, and a two home scheme means your neighbour
There are 4,840 unit title schemes here holding 77,932 lots, and 44% of them have only one or two lots. The default rule under the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 lets an owner alter a structure only by special resolution. A scheme may register rules of its own that say something different. Nothing here matches the minor renovation class that applies across the border in New South Wales. In a two lot dual occupancy that resolution is your neighbour's agreement, and the paperwork is short. Under tile heating mats sit inside the tile bed, so nothing is drilled or chased into the slab underneath. The towers of Braddon, Turner, Kingston, Phillip and Gungahlin are the other half of that work.
Winter mornings in Canberra
Canberra Airport's station stands inside this area at 577m, nearest to Pialligo, Fyshwick, Kingston and Narrabundah.
- July nights
0.1°C at Canberra Airport station 070351 inside this area, against 8.1°C at Observatory Hill in Sydney. A tiled floor sits close to that overnight, and it is the first thing a bare foot meets in the morning.
- Frost
93 nights a year at or below 2°C at Canberra Airport, and 60 of them at or below freezing. The overnight low is what decides how cold the floor is at seven in the morning.
- Summer
10 days a year at or above 35°C at Canberra Airport, and 8 at Tuggeranong station 070339. Heating is a winter item here, and a thermostat on a timer draws nothing for the rest of the year.
- Climate zone
Zone 7 for every home here, and the 7 star heating limit on a slab is 129 megajoules per m² a year. Insulation under the heating is what keeps the warmth in the room, and it is sized from that zone.
Get a free quote in Canberra
Tell us what you need done in Canberra and we will get back to you with a price as soon as we can. There is no obligation to go ahead.
Services we provide in Canberra
New home builds
Home renovations
Bathroom renovations
Apartments
Hotel bathrooms
Office buildings
Cold storage and frost heave
Suburbs we service in Canberra and surrounds
We install across the Canberra area and the surrounding localities, and we check installer availability before we agree a day. If your suburb is not listed below, contact us and we will confirm coverage.
Frequently asked questions about Canberra
Do you cover every suburb in the Canberra area?
Yes. We install across the Canberra area and the surrounding localities, including every suburb listed on this page. We check installer availability before we agree a day, which is the one condition that travels with every job. If your suburb is not shown, contact us with the address and we will confirm coverage before we quote.
What are your service hours in Canberra?
Our hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5:30pm, and we are closed on Saturday and Sunday. Plans and photographs can be sent at any time through the quote form on this page. If you need us on site in Canberra, the day is agreed once we have checked installer availability. It is worth sending the plans as early as you can.
What does a Canberra winter morning actually read?
The station at Canberra Airport records a July mean minimum of 0.1°C, the lowest of any area we cover. It logs about 93 nights a year at 2°C or below. Sixty of those are at or below freezing. The Tuggeranong station at Isabella Plains reads the same July minimum. Ten days a year reach 35°C or more, so heating is a winter item here and cooling is a separate system. We time the floor heating to be warm at the hour the household gets up.
Does the building code limit floor heating in Canberra?
Yes. The code here caps electric heating that serves more than one room, and the Territory applies it to renovations as well. New South Wales deleted that clause, so this is a Canberra design rule rather than a national one. A system over one room is zoned, with an isolating switch for each room and a time switch for each group. A single heated bathroom is outside the cap entirely.
Can a new Canberra home still be connected to gas?
No. New gas connections have been banned across the Territory since 8 December 2023, and that includes a rebuild on an old block. Abolishing the meter is mandatory where demolition is carried out, so the rebuilt house cannot reconnect. A meter already installed in a house that stays standing can keep running. So the heating in a new home or a rebuild here is an electric decision from the start.
When should a heated floor run on Evoenergy's network?
Overnight, or in the middle of the day. The default tariff for a new connection charges its demand peak between 5pm and 9pm, and the winter rate is the dearer one. Its record demand was set on a winter morning rather than a summer afternoon. A timer on our thermostats keeps the heated floor out of that window altogether.
Do I need my owners corporation's agreement in a townhouse?
Yes. Under the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 an alteration to a structure in the unit needs a special resolution. There is no minor renovation class here, so a bathroom floor goes the same route as anything else. Of the 4,840 schemes in this area, 44% have only one or two lots, which makes that resolution your neighbour. We write you a one page scope of works to take to them before anything is ordered.
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