How Radiant Floor Heat Can Keep You Warm And Comfortable
December 22nd, 2010If you are looking for an alternative heat source for your house, one method that is receiving a lot of attention is radiant floor heating. It is a viable and effective alternative to forced air and electrical heat sources. Knowing a bit more about it and how to set it up may show you why so many people are making the change in their homes.
Radiant floor heat uses wires or pex tubing which travel below the flooring. The heat from this source radiates to the flooring and from there, heats the room where the flooring has been put in. There are many different methods of providing this heat and advantages to applying this method instead of other, more conventional heating systems.
If you detest the fact that your room may suffer from miserable airflow and have cold spots throughout it, you may be very interested in radiant heat. The heat is run through the floor and since the heat source can be distributed through the whole room you may find that cold spots are a matter of the past. Because your rooms feel warmer than with other forms of heating, you can actually often set your thermostat lower and end up saving money on your heat bills.
Different radiant heat systems will use different heat sources. Many of them utilize a pex tube filled with water which is heated and circulated to and from a boiler unit. Other arrangements use heated wires which can be powered with electricity that can be furnished by a number of different sources. You can hook the system up to solar paneling which can provide the necessary electricity to run your arrangement very price effectively.
One of the nicest advances in radiant heat engineering has been the ability to use different flooring materials over the heat source. Tiling and cement flooring were, at one point, the most frequent types of floors for radiant heating. Now you can still have cement flooring but you can also have wood flooring as well.
Beyond lower energy costs, there are other advantages to applying this method of heat your house. The first is that the heat is not as dry as that from forced air systems. This means that you will be more comfortable in your abode and your hair and skin will not dry out as much. As well, you can retrofit a abode with this heating method much more easily than putting in duct play out. If you use hot water, that hot water can be used for different purposes as well.
You can opt to put in radiant heat yourself but unless you are extremely experienced with house renovations you may find it challenging. You may want to look for an expert who can advise you on the most cost-effective system for your abode and put in the products in order to make sure they play out well. You can find experts on the web as well as in the phone directory.
