Radiant Floor Heating Advantages
You might have heard of radiant floor heating before, but are wondering what all the fuss is about. After all, don’t most people do OK with regular forced air systems or traditional radiators? Why go through all the trouble and expense of getting in floor radiant heat installed? What are the advantages?
Before we dive into this, lets talk about what radiant floor heating actually is. Unlike a forced air system, which heats air in a central furnace and pumps it through the house, in floor radiant heat uses some sort of heating element underneath the floor to provide heat that radiates upwards from the floor. No air is being moved.
In fact, it is the non-moving air that provides some of the greatest advantages of radiant floor heating. Heating air then moving it around the houses has several problems. First of all, it requires ducts, which can get dirty over time. These dirty ducts are a very common source of allergens. This can be mitigated somewhat by means of regular duct cleaning, but this is an extra hassle and expense. Radiant floor heating provides heat without out any added allergens.
Another advantage of these system is the evenness of the heat. By their nature, forced air systems are intermittent, which means that they turn on and off constantly in order to provide heat for the room. This leads to uneven heat throughout the room. What’s worse, the heat only comes out of a small duct located in one part of the room, which leads to hot and cold spots in the room. Anyone who has lived in a house with one of these systems can tell you what I’m talking about.
Radiant floor heating solves this problem by providing heat all through the room. Since the entire floor is radiated, there is no part of the room that isn’t warm. This provides a startling luxurious, even heat that makes being indoors in the cold months a pleasure. These systems are often quiet, and, if installed in the right way, quite energy efficient.
If anyone of this sounds interesting to you, be sure to learn more about these radiant in floor heating systems. They’re not easy to install, nor are they inexpensive, but if you’re building an addition, a new house, or simply want to upgrade to a better way of heating, give these radiant systems a good hard look.