Radiant Heating (To Warm Up the Floor)

Radiant heating is often associated to the directly heating! It involves the directly supplying heat to the ceiling, wall or to the floor of the room. And this method usually can heat the object more quickly with directly heating performance. The width of the radiant heat transfer (or familiar known as infrared radiation) will give a significant effect to speed of the system to heat the object. And you might be familiar with radiant floor heating! Basically it is the radiant heating located in the floor so thus the system will warm up first the bottom of the room (the floor). And there are a lot of advantages that we can get when using this method to keep warm in the winter.

With directly heating principle, radiant heating works more efficient, especially if compared to forced-air system and baseboard heating system because there are no energy loses through the ducts. Furthermore, with lower of moving air will be so beneficial to anyone who suffers from allergies. And if you are looking for one that can work with eco-friendly technology, hydronic floor heating system is nice idea. It heats the room with liquid-based and only use less electric energy to work and more efficient. The hydronic system can be powered by electric energy, gas fuels (natural gas or propane), solar energy, wood-fired boiler system, and so on.

Radiant floor heating

When talking about this method, there is not only used a single radiant heating principle to distribute the heat! But the system also involves the convection heat distribution to distribute and raise the heat from the floor in the room with naturally circulation of the convection heat. One thing that should be kept in mind “radiant panels applied in ceiling & walls are not same (significantly different) to radiant floor heating”.

Generally, there are 3 popular types of radiant floor heating (based on the installation and the way to generate the radiant heating energy):

1. The floor heating with electric heating elements installed under the floor.
2. Hydronic system with hot water distributed under the floor.
3. And air heated floor heating!

Let’s explore more those different types below!

Electric radiant floor heating systems

They are usually consisted of a lot of electric heating cables installed into the room’s floor. There are also available systems with mats of electrically plastic-conductive and mounted onto the sub-floor under the floor covering like tiles.

Today, we all agree that the cost of electricity is not cheap! Therefore they will be cost-effective if we also install a significant thermal mass (like a concrete-thick floor) & time-of-use rates service from your electric supply company. You can –charge- the concrete floor in the off-peak hours from the time-of-use rates (the off period of peak hours usually around 9 pm-6 am).

The proper large floor-thermal mass will be helpful to store the heat more powerful and eventually will keep the home warm & comfortable four more than 8 hours without needing any further electric energy input anymore (especially for daytime that usually relatively warmer than temperatures in the nighttime).

Hydronic heat-radiant floor systems

They are one of the most favorite choices for cost-effective radiant heating and powerful enough for any areas that have heating-dominated season. This system work with the heated-water based that pumped from a proper boiler through tubing installed & positioned in a pattern underneath the room floor. To control the temperature for each room of the house, the system involves the tubing loop (zoning-valve design) that has the mechanism to control the flow of hot water.

And for the up-front cost of the installation is dependent on the size, floor covering design, location, type or design of installation, labor’s cost and site’s remoteness!

Air heated floor radiant heating systems

Theoretically, the air is not able to hold large amounts of the heat energy, therefore this type is not too recommended because not too cost-effective for residential use. Although this type can be combined with solar heating technology but will not be powerful enough to supply the heat in the nighttime! Moreover air-heater radiant floor systems use a conventional furnace to pump the air through the surface of the floor, and this process works not too efficient. With these drawbacks, this type is seldom used & installed for residential applications.

Read also simple guide to troubleshoot your baseboard heater & fire hazards for outdoor heaters that you should consider as well!

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