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Radiant Floor Heating

By: Jerry McElroy

Radiant floor heating is far superior to forced air heat and it's popularity is increasing as people learn the many advantages of this type of heat. It is generally a more cost effective and comfortable form of heat. Besides the comfort and cost aspects, here are other benefits worth considering;

With no fans or vents, just nice clean radiated heat it is silent.

A healthier environment in the home versus a forced air systems that can spread dust, pollen, and germs.

Fewer, if any, cold drafts. The floor radiates heat evenly throughout a room.

This type of heat does not rob the air of moisture, making it feel warmer while not drying out your sinuses and skin.

Radiant floor heating delivers the heat in the lower half of a room, warming your body from the feet up. The heat is evenly distributed in the floor, which means that the thermostat can be set 2 – 4° less than a conventional forced air heating system. This can reduce your heating bill by 10-30%.

A forced air system delivers heat into a room where it quickly rises to the ceiling as opposed to a radiant floor heating system that radiates heat from the floor which heats evenly throughout the rooms.

The system delivers the heat via warm water circulating through tubing which is installed beneath or is embedded in the floor. The floor then acts as an efficient, low temperature radiator.

Radiant Floor heating is not a complicated system and is made up the follow components;

The Boiler
The Pump
The Tubing

The boiler can be heated by a variety of sources such as electricity, solar, natural gas, propane, oil, or wood. The relatively new and efficient tankless hot water heaters are perfect for this application and can also be used for domestic hot water needs. A Pump is used to circulate the heated water though the tubing when the room thermostat calls for heat. The tubing for a radiant floor heating system is installed either in concrete or under wood subfloors.

Homeowners should contact a qualified System Designer and System Installer as would be the case for the installation of any type of heating systems. For the do it yourselfer, there are many books which detail the installation process.

Renewable & Alternative Energy Resources: http://www.alternativeenergybase.com

Jerry McElroy is a writer, photographer, and artist who is building an energy efficient, off-the-grid, straw bale house in Southwest Colorado. www.labocavista.com is an on-line documentary which explains the design and components of the house and discusses the environmental challenges that we as humans face.


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