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Heating Your Home: Radiant Floor Heating From "Blueprint for Home Building" episode DBHB-109

Figure A

Alternative heating for your home can include more than adding a fireplace or two or some space heaters, you now can consider even more unique innovations such as radiant floor heating.

Radiant floor heating (figure A) is a wonderfully efficient heat-distribution system that takes advantage of the whole floor to heat the home, as apposed to forced air coming out of one small vent and trying to heat a huge space.

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Figure B

How Does Radiant Floor Heating Work?

This innovation in home heating provides warmth for your house from underneath the floors. It's an effective method of heating that works in an unusual way -- hydronics or water going through a PEX tubing in the floor. The water in the tubing radiates the heat into the structure. It's an efficient and cost-effective way to heat a house.

Running hot water beneath the floor -- or hydronics -- is becoming more popular in residential homes thanks to a flexible plastic tubing called "PEX" (figure B) -- a polyurethane, durable tubing that has a lifespan of more than 100 years. It serpentines underneath the floor and uses the whole floor as a heat-distribution system.

Comfort and efficiency are two reasons why new homeowners like radiant floor systems. Comfort, in fact, is the number one advantage with its warm-feet, cool-head environment. And since the whole floor is used, it's an extremely efficient system. The aesthetic quality is another reason some homeowners love this system. Since the heating system remains hidden beneath the floor, there are no vents or radiators in sight. This can be a huge advantage when it comes to interior design.

	Electric Radiant Flooring
	Hydronic (Liquid) Flooring

Three Types of Radiant Floors

There are three radiant flooring systems you can apply to your home:

1. Radiant Air Floors -- Don't hold large amount of heat, and for this reason they are used mainly in commercial buildings.

2. Electric Radiant Floors -- Do a great job at heating any kind of home, but they're extremely expensive.

3. Hydronic or Liquid Floors -- These cost less and are, therefore, used more often in residential construction.

Radiant floor heating is a distribution center for the home by taking advantage of the floor and putting tubing throughout the whole floor, mild temperatures of water and concrete application. Beautiful tile, marble and slate floors are being utilized in homes, but they're ice cold. With radiant floor heating you can now have a beautiful floor and barefoot comfort.

Using a hydronic floor system is a great way to heat your home, but you also can use it on a smaller scale, installing it in a cold room such as a basement.

Note: Since a radiant floor system is different from a traditional centralized heating system, your builder will need to hire specialized contractors with experience in this area.

	Figure C
	Figure D

Installing a Radiant Floor System

There are two categories of installation for radiant floor heating -- wet and dry. Wet installation is most commonly used in the ground floor.

Here are the five steps to the wet installation on a ground level:

1. Excavate the area you wish to heat. This will be your sub-base.

2. Add a layer of insulation (figure C) to create a base over which the rest of the floor system will lay.

3. Add rebar to the space (figure D). This will add strength to the floor system.

4. Add plastic tubing, tying it to the rebar for support.

5. Use concrete to create a slab foundation for the floor.

When installing a radiant floor system on the upper floors of your home, the most common method is called "dry installation," which is a system that suspends the tubing underneath the subfloor, between the joists.

For more information on Radiant Floor Heating from our Home IQ series, click here.

In the final segment Wilson shares tips on how to save energy and avoid costly heating bills.

GUESTS :

Greg Allen
Site Supervisor
Hendolhurst Homes
955 Markman Park Rd.
Baden, PA 15005
Phone: 724-935-5658
Fax: 724-935-0884
E-mail: buildm@zoominternet.net
Website: hendolhursthomes.com

Anthony Grisolia
Building Performance Specialist
IBACOS, Inc.
Website: www.ibacos.com

Bruce Dickson
Project Manager
IBACOS
Website: www.ibacos.com

Kevin Waldo
Product Manager
Carrier Corp.
7310 W. Morris St.
Indianapolis, IN 46231
Phone: 317-240-5219
E-mail: Kevin.waldo@carrier.com
Website: www.global.carrier.com

Bill Rittlemann
Project Engineer
IBACOS
2214 Liberty Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Website: www.ibacos.com

Kirk Vigil
Regional Sales Mgr.
Wirsbo Co.
5925 148th St. W.
Apple Valley, MN 55124
Toll-free: 800-321-4739
Phone: 952-891-2000
Fax: 952-891-2008
Website: www.wirsbo.com

Jeff Thayer
Vice President, Sales
Hearth & Home Technologies™, Inc.
20802 Kensington Blvd.
Lakeville, MN 55044
Phone: 952-985-6577
Fax: 952-985-6777
E-mail: thayerj@hearthnhome.com
Website: www.hearthnhome.com

Dave Meyers
Vice President, National Accounts
Carrier Corp.
7310 W. Morris St.
Indianapolis, IN 46220

Gary Ostler
President
Four Seasons Heating and A.C., Inc.
367-D S. Vermont
Phone: 626-335-5496