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I am over-simplifying things but you get my point.Īnother reason I don’t love the mats system is that the area represented in the above drawing just in front of the shower. For example, I have a 7 foot wide area to be covered and my mats will only accommodate 6′ so the solution is to widen the gaps between the mats (boooo). Some of our bathrooms run a little (cough, cough) larger and these mats only come in predetermine widths. If you have a really simple layout than this system work fine. The good part about this system is that you can control the exact areas of coverage and the installation procedure doesn’t change for irregular areas.Īnother variant on the electric cable and strap system is the electric wire preset into a mat mesh. The heat will not extend more than about 2″ from the wire so that is a consideration for the spacing and general layout pattern. There is a strap (shown below as a gray bar) that you adhere to the sub-floor and then weave the wire back and forth to create your area of coverage. This is a view looking down at a typical electric wire layout (Nuheat and Infloor offer these types of systems). As far as the degree of difficulty for the different types of installation, I suspect the contractors have their preference as well. and they are all good products although I’m not a huge fan of using the mat systems. There are several different brands we specify – Nuheat, Infloor, Suntouch, etc. Despite what G-Man Bill tells me, electric radiant heating systems are the only type we ever use. There is also product and installation cost difference in a typical bathroom we might spend $800 on the electric system where a similarly sized hydronic system might cost $4,000. Since we only are looking for “spot heating” (warming just the bathroom or kitchen) instead of “sole source heating” (heating your entire house), we are in a turn-on & turn-off situation … and the cost of running these small areas just a few hours (at most) a day is vastly more cost-effective.
#Electric radiant floor heating full#
The DOE tells me that hydronic systems are very energy-efficient but we don’t use boilers in Dallas and I think the DOE is full of baloney. I can’t imagine using the air-heated ones – it seems like something Dennis Hopper would have come up with and wildly inefficient. Out of these three systems, we only use the electric radiant systems.
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![electric radiant floor heating electric radiant floor heating](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515AKTrj8mL._AC_SX355_.jpg)
In some systems, the temperature in each room is controlled by regulating the flow of hot water through each tubing loop. Hydronic radiant floor systems pump heated water from a boiler through tubing laid in a pattern underneath the floor. Hydronic (liquid) systems are the most popular and cost-effective radiant heating systems for heating-dominated climates. Because of the relatively high cost of electricity, electric radiant floors are usually only cost-effective if they include a significant thermal mass, such as a thick concrete floor, and your electric utility company offers time-of-use rates. Systems that feature mats of electrically conductive plastic are also available, and are mounted onto the subfloor below a floor covering such as tile. Because of the inefficiency of trying to heat a home with a conventional furnace by pumping air through the floors, the benefits of using solar heat during the day are outweighed by the disadvantages of using the conventional system at night.Įlectric radiant floors typically consist of electric cables built into the floor. Although they can be combined with solar air heating systems, those systems suffer from the obvious drawback of only being available in the daytime, when heating loads are generally lower. Since I tend to get “wordy”, I thought I would have some G-Man from the Department of Energy describe the different types of radiant floor heat – it won’t be as interesting but you’ll have a firm grasp of what you have to work with.īecause air cannot hold large amounts of heat, radiant air floors are not cost-effective in residential applications, and are seldom installed. I know she would love to have nice warm floors in the colder months so that she could forego socks or slippers – sort of a big deal since our house has concrete floors. My wife on the other hand hates having anything on her feet and constantly walks around barefoot. I still wonder if I would put them in my house … I am not a barefoot person inside, not sure why but I like to wear slippers. That might not sound that unusual but I do live in Texas and we are going through one of the hottest summers on record – and yet people are asking for radiant floors … that’s because radiant floors are wonderful. Currently I am working on three projects that all have radiant floors in some of the rooms.