Radiant Floor Heating Guide

If you’re considering getting radiant floor heating, you’re certainly going to want to learn more about the installation process.  Installing radiant heating really isn’t harder than installing any other type of heating system, but, installing any type of heating system really isn’t that easy!  Of course, the difficulty of the installation will depending greatly upon the type of radiant floor heating system you choose, so this article will outline basic installation needs for both electric and hydronic systems.

Let’s start off by talking about electric systems.  You can think of an electric system as a big electric blanket that sits underneath your floor and radiates its heat upwards.  This is a very simple and effective form of heat.  These systems are also easy to install, since they don’t require a boiler or plumbing like a hydronic system.  This makes them great for additions.  But their is one big drawback.

In particular, electricity is expensive.   If you run the floor constantly to get enough heat, you’ll run up quite the bill.  To avoid this, electric systems should be installed over a concrete slab to help absorb the heat.  This absorbed heat will radiate out throughout the day, even with the electricity turned off. If you can get cheap electricity at non peak hours, you can run the floor on the cheap power, and enjoy the heat from the slab during peak hours.  This can save quite a lot of money. If you can’t install on a slab or don’t have flexible electricity rates, this won’t work for you.

If that sounds like you, give hydronic radiant floor heating a good look. These systems employ a central boiler to pipe water all through your house, and under the floors through a network of pipes.  Since water holds heat, they are much more efficient than electric systems.  A traditional “wet”  hydronic system embeds the tubing into a concrete slab on the floor, which has the same efficient radiating effects at the electric/slab system described above, only even more efficient.

A “dry” system, alternately, places the tubing along with a series of reflectors and diffusers underneath the floor, which provides some of the benefits of the wet system in applications where it wouldn’t be practical (upper floor installations, for example).  These are not as efficient as the wet system, but they can still work well in the situations that demand them.

So, do-it-yourself, or not?  This really depends on your experience level.  If you’re not experienced in this type of work, you’re much better off with a professional.  That being said, electric radiant floor systems are much easier to install than hydronic ones.  A hydronic system should almost always be professionally installed.

Hopefully, this helps you realize what goes into installing radiant floor heating.  If all this sounds good to you, why not contact a local professional today to get an installation quote?  Many people have fallen in love with these heating systems, and I’m sure you will too once you feel their luxuriant heat rising from the floor.