Solar Radiant Floor Heating: The Basics
Solar Radiant Floor Heating. What in the world is it? Well, radiant floor heating is something that has been around for literally thousands of years- the ancient Greeks and Romans heated their bath floors with fires. From a physics standpoint, this is the perfect method of heating a room- or your entire house- because heat rises, so you’re using less energy to heat your home.
An increasingly popular method of radiant floor heating is solar, thus the term Solar Radiant Floor Heating. Solar energy; either in the form of water heated by solar power, or air heated by solar power is used now and pushed through piping underneath the flooring in your home or a room in your home. Floors are a form of thermal mass, and they can store heat for extended periods of time.
Solar radiant AIR flooring is where the sun warms air that is stored in solar collectors. This air is then pushed through piping made out of any number of different materials; plastic pipe, concrete blocks laid on their sides, or layers of corrugated steel. However, most of the time radiant air floors are not really cost-effective because air doesn’t hold heat for extended periods of time. But as far as solar radiant flooring, the solar radiant air flooring tends to be the easiest to install.
Solar HYDRONIC radiant flooring systems are where heated water is pumped from a solar storage tank through tubing that is laid underneath the flooring. Single thermostats in each room will control the flow of the solar heated water through a valve and manifold into each room of your home.
In most parts of the world, there isn’t enough solar heat harvested from solar radiant flooring systems to heat a home by itself, although it’s a good supplementation to conventional heat and can reduce your heating bill by as little as ten percent to ninety percent in optimal weather.
On excessively cloudy days, when there isn’t any direct sunlight to heat the home alone, it is necessary to use a “back-up” heating system. This can be gas or oil-fueled burners, a wood stove , or even a conventional hot water heater can do the job.
Solar radiant floor heating can be a wonderful way to supplement your conventional heating and also to help cut energy costs. Solar radiant floor heating is a wonderful option for those in ordinarily mild climates, and those who are environmentally conscious. There aren’t any negative effects to the environment by using solar radiant floor heating.
Perhaps if we were to go back in history, we’d learn a lot more from the ancient Greeks and Romans about saving energy and protecting our environment. Solar radiant floor heating is a wonderful example of this.