Freezing floors in your home, basement, or bathroom? Wouldn’t you love your bathroom floor to be nice and toasty on those cold winter mornings? You might want to install a room floor heating system.
Got cold floors or freezing floors? In-floor radiant heating systems – which are either small pipes or electrical wiring elements that carry heat through the floor – can often be a wise and more importantly, efficient heating option. But there are a number of factors to consider first before investing into one, say energy experts. For example, what type of flooring would you like for the space that will house the in-floor system?
If it’s ceramic tile or stone int he room of your home, then an in-floor system makes perfect sense. If it’s wood or carpet, then you’re probably better off staying with the forced-air system that you have (although there are a limited amount of wood floor and carpeting products now sold for in-floor heating systems). Ceramic tile is most conducive material to a radiant floor heating system. It is the material that most efficiently passes along the heat from the in-floor system.
If you are freezing in your home, you might like this article on heating costs and heating systems: Save Money on Heating Costs
Here’s another factor: what shape is your existing forced-air heating system in? If it is fairly new and can handle the extra capacity needed for the new space, you may be better off sticking with it cost-wise. While a more-efficient in-floor system may be less expensive to run month-by-month than forced air, it would take years – if not decades – to recoup the additional costs that would go into the installation of a new in-floor system.
Also consider your air conditioning needs. If you want the new space cooled, you may need to extend the existing system to do that (another option would be to use window air conditioners).
If your existing heating system can’t take the additional weight, and you choose an in-floor heating system, there are several benefits. The main benefit is that the heat is uniform. Heat from the floor spreads evenly across the room. That’s versus the warm-cold feeling that often comes with a forced air system.
An in-floor radiant heating system also produces a less dry heat. You may also have cold spots in a room, particularly with ceramic tile. The floor heating system eliminates those cold spots. In-floor system manufacturers brag that you can walk across their heated floors barefoot in the middle of winter. Also, being buried in the floor, you don’t see the system – versus vents or baseboard heaters or radiators.A final benefit is you’ll have more usable floor and wall space available.
There are two types of in-floor heating systems. The first is a system that pumps hot water through a serpentine tubing buried in the floor. Your boiler or hot water heater heats this water. Once you install the tubing, you can install tile or stone. The heat radiates upward from the tubing. The second system uses an electrical web. This electrical web resembles a thick wire. You install the web under the floor in the same manner as the tubing.
There are a number of heating contractors that specialize in both systems. Get referrals. Also, check the Internet for more information.
© by Jim Sulski