Why Radiant Heat?

Warm floors, is usually the first thing that comes to mind.  There’s nothing quite like walking around your home in bare feet in the dead of winter, but radiant floor heating systems offer so much more!

Flexibility
Zoning areas in your home that see little use may be individually controlled. Why maintain 70 degrees in a room you’re not using?

Comfort
Radiant Floor Heating turns your whole floor into one giant thermal mass, thereby eliminating hot or cold spots.

Energy Savings
Because the heat is kept down at floor level, you feel very comfortable, and you are able to turn your room thermostat down even further (to 65 degrees instead of 70, for example).

Radiant heat systems also operate at a much lower system water temperature, resulting in further energy savings, oftentimes even as much as 40% savings may be realized.

Integration
Radiant Floor Heating with its lower system water temperature make it an ideal candidate to be integrated with a solar space heating system for up to 50% of your energy needs from the sun.

What to look for in a Radiant Floor Heat Installation

The most important thing to ask is possibly, "What will my system operating temperature be?"

The ideal system water temperature for Radiant Floor Heating should be between 90 and 120 degrees, the lower the temperature, the more efficient your system will be. Unfortunately many contractors and designers have taken a great concept and Americanized it - robbing the consumer of the intrinsic value that radiant heating systems provide when properly installed.

Although these types of systems are cheaper to install, use less tubing, no mixing valves or injection pumps, they operate at system water temperatures of 180 degrees, thereby greatly reducing the significant savings that radiant heating is able to provide.

If all you’re interested in is warm floors, then these are the systems for you - but you’re missing out on the true benefit of a radiant heat system, substantial energy savings. After all, "Which pot of water takes more energy, the one you’re heating to 100 degrees or 180 degrees?" The realized savings value of your radiant heating system is determined in much the same way.

 We offer design services and installations for new or existing homes.

If you’ve been thinking of a radiant heating system, give us call.