This article provides a quick overview of radiant-floor heating, reviews the benefits of this heat-delivery approach, and reviews when these systems do-and do not-make sense in homes and small commercial buildings. systems are the most popular and cost-effective radiant heating systems for heating-dominated climates. Although some early solar air heating systems used rocks as a heat-storage medium. I’ve long been a fan of the comfort delivered by radiant-floor heat, and strong arguments are often made about energy savings and indoor air quality advantages.īut is this really the best match for high-performance green homes? In the most energy-efficient buildings, the answer seems to be “no,” though radiant-floor heating can offer both comfort and IAQ benefits. Despite its name, radiant floor heating depends heavily on convection, the natural circulation of heat within a room as air warmed by the floor rises. After going to all the effort and expense to superinsulate the envelopes of these houses and provide passive solar design, did they still need $10,000 heating systems? And did those systems really make sense from a performance standpoint? I wasn’t sure, and decided to dig into these questions. A majority of these entries had sophisticated radiant-floor heating systems. Clearly, I thought as I began reviewing the features, we’ve come a long way in high-performance residential green building since my first experience with passive solar in the mid-1970s. Source: Uponor Wirsbo During judging of the Northeast Green Building Design Competition last spring, I was struck by the number of residential entries with really stellar passive solar design and super-high-performance building envelopes. Radiant-floor heat provides a high level of comfort. PEX tubing has been secured in place before pouring a lightweight gypsum concrete radiant-floor slab.
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