Floor Radiant Heat For Saving Energy For Concrete Floors

Floor radiant heat is one of the best heating technologies ever invented. With floor heating, walking inside your home in winter feels like walking on a sandy beach that's been soaking up the rays of the sun all day with the warmth that is emanating from the floor.
With this technology, there is a transfer or heat from a warm surface giving up its heat to a cooler surface. This technology is simply heat radiating upward from the floor providing you with optimum comfort.
This is best for concrete flooring as concrete is an ideal carrier of radiant heat due to inherent thermal mass of the concrete. The warm water that circulates through the tubing turns your floor into an efficient and inconspicuous radiator. Floor radiant heat warms your floor to temperatures of 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This warmth slowly radiates upward into your living space unlike traditional heating system, which blows heated air into your home.
Other than the warm comfort that this technology can bring, this heating system can also lower your energy cost. Though installation can be expensive but this also runs more economically and can retain heat better unlike forced air systems. Though energy cost will also depend on the region where you live, severity of winter, fuel source, layout system and most importantly the insulation of your home. But with this technology, homeowners can save approximately 10 to 30% for commercial installation.
A floor radiant heat system can save you energy because it uses lower temperatures of around 6 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit, which is lower than the convective system like forced air and baseboard heat. This also uses a lower thermostat setting as compared to forced air system thereby lowering your energy bills.
This heating system also allows you to heat your home in zones. You can heat different areas of your house at different temperatures, giving you freedom to direct heat to chilly room or high use areas like bathrooms, bedrooms, basements and entryways. And you can lower the thermostat in rooms that are less used like your formal dining room.
Another way that you can lower your energy cost with floor radiant heat system is that you can actually turn off the heat during the day. This is because when concrete floor warms up, it can actually retain the heat and release this gradually thus maintaining the warmth comfort of your home for hours.
But, heating up a concrete floor depends on the thickness of the concrete. Thick concrete slabs, for example, can have high heat storage capacity but, they also have slow thermal response time.
Thus the thicker the concrete the slower it takes to heat up if the floor is allowed to cool down. This can limit the number of hours you can have to turn off the system to save operating costs. It is true that you can save energy cost by lowering your floor radiant heat system but take into consideration the characteristic of the concrete that your home has.

We provide information on under floor heat and other radiant heating systems. It's time to start lowering your heating bills. Visit our site for more information on this heating alternative!
By M. Applebaum

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Radiant Heating - What is the Best Way to Install It?

Radiant heating is best known for the fact that it is one of the most comfortable heating systems. After that the next best thing about radiant heating is the efficiency that it provides. Unfortunately there are many systems that are installed without efficiency in mind and really do no better than any other hot water heating system. This deprives the homeowner of probably the most important benefit of a radiant heating system.
Over the past twenty years radiant heating has come to the best a very acceptable way of heating. As I have watched this heating become more popular, I also have watched many people do it all wrong and then wonder why this latest and greatest heating system does not perform properly or save them any money.
The biggest mistake that people make is that they think they can install a radiant heating system for the same amount of money as any other hot water heating system. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If anyone ever tells you that they can do that run as far and as fast away from them as you can! A properly installed radiant heat system will cost you more money! The benefits will offset that, but you must spend the money upfront. Also, just installing a high efficiency boiler does not give you a high efficiency heating system. A great heating system involves much more than just a high efficiency boiler!
To have a radiant heating system that will perform efficiently you will need to install radiant heat plates with your tubing, install the radiant tubing in a gypcrete or concrete pour, or install your tubing in a specially prepared sub floor. These three methods will allow you to heat your home or building with very low temperature water. Low temperature water is what gives you high efficiency. If you have to crank up the temperature of the water to get the heat out of the pipes and into the room you are fighting a losing battle.
So, if you are considering a radiant heating system there are really only three considerations for you. Good quality radiant heat plates that attach to the sub floor with a reflective insulation under that to give the radiant heat the signal to go up. Pouring the radiant tubing into the concrete of a basement floor, or gypcrete (light weight concrete), over the sub floor of upper floors. In either instance make sure that you use a good quality insulation under the floor. Insulation for radiant systems is another topic that I will have to cover in a future article. Thirdly, there are products made that are specifically made to be incorporated into the sub floor that accept the radiant tubing. Grooves are cut into the sub floor and the tubing is inserted into the grooves. Usually these products will have a type of plate and insulation incorporated into the product.
A radiant heating system is one of the very best types of heat you can have if it is installed correctly! A correctly installed system will give you many years of service with the lowest possible operating cost. It will be maintenance free and trouble free give you many years of comfort, with no worry or fuss. When you are looking to buy a radiant heating system look around for the company that will give you one of these options. Not just be trying to get you to buy on price. If they are cutting price to get you to buy, the chances are that they are also cutting their quality to get to that price. That will never give you the best deal when it comes to a radiant heating system.

Floyd Kolb has worked in the Mechanical/HVAC industry for over 20 years, gaining a wealth of knowledge to share. Just as with air conditioning systems you can have either good or bad companies to guide you with network or internet marketing. I have tried many things that don't work. I also have found a few companies that have products that I feel I can recommend. You can see those by checking out my website. I am continuing to evaluate other companies and will add more when I am confident in their ability to perform for people. I am now part of a top internet marketing team of mentors that has a passion for helping others achieve their goals, dreams and aspirations. You can check it out at http://www.bttwme.com

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