subject: Finding The Correct Floor Heating System For Your House [print this page] Floor heating can be terrific, especially in the northern climates! There are two main kinds of floor heating, electric and radiant (tube.) Heated flooring might have crossed your mind many times, even when you where a youngster roaming around your own house on those cold mornings. Heated floors go back thousands of years. Yep - The Romans had warm floors under their marble ones.
Above floor radiant heating systems have the goal of warming the floor and room. It operates on the principal of circulating air or water once warmed, through a series of tubes. These cylinders can be installed in an above or below floor installation. No, you don't walk on the heating system. It's installed in the sub-floor space and below your actual walking surface.
Then there is the kind of radiant heating installed below the floor. It is embedded in a series of panels or grooves. These tubes snake their way throughout the entire area a few inches apart. Sometimes the tubes are laid when the wet concrete is being poured, building in the heating system. Reflective material is installed underneath the tubes, directing heat upwards. This system uses two principals of physics. Heat rises, and the cold from the floor coming up through the feet causes the whole person to feel chilled.
Warming floors by electricity is a little different. It uses a layer of material embedded in a wire mesh, which allows electricity to pass through it slowly heating the entire area. This heat is then conducted upward through the floor and into the room. It keeps the surface where your feet are and to a degree, the area where you are is warmer.
At first, this of course doesn't sound very safe but it is acutely safer than an electric blanket. People often think about water on the floor of bathrooms and kitchen areas. It is these floors that are often heated by electricity. People wonder how safe that can be. Every installation is well insulated and even the flooring itself whether it be wood, ceramic, or vinyl - adds an even larger safety factor.
For the average bathroom, most electric floor heating systems cost a few hundred dollars to install, but they operate on a few pennies a day. Depending on the size and model, they can add considerable heating ability to the bathroom. The kitchen tends to be more open and they'll do well on the floor and provide some area heating. As for the actual heating, warm air rises the mesh or tubes and starts at the floor. It of course gives you a universally pleasant feeling on the feet. It continues upward where, depending on the system, it warms the room from a few degrees to any temperature desired.
