Radiant heating is a wonderful option for any homeowner looking for a new home heating system. Despite its myriad of benefits, however, most homeowners remain ignorant even of its existence. In an effort to remedy this unfortunate situation, we’re going to examine some of the advantages of installing radiant heat in your home.
What is it?
Radiant heating is a boiler-based system, consisting of a network of hot water pipes laid throughout the house. These pipes are installed in either the walls or subfloor of each room to be heated. The network then connects to the central boiler. As the boiler heats and distributes water throughout the house, the heat from the water radiates through the pipes and into the room.
Benefits of Radiant Heat
Most people install radiant heating systems because they want their floors to be warm during winter. While it’s true that the floor is often the first thing to heat up when a radiant heating system is turned on, it isn’t the only reason to install one.
Because of the way that radiant systems heat a room, by transferring thermal energy directly from object to object, they can heat the entire room very evenly. Contrast this with forced air systems, which often create hot and cold spots through their method of blowing hot air into a room. Warm air naturally rises, and so tends to collect near the ceiling where it is of little use to the occupants.
Radiant heating systems are also incredibly energy efficient. Forced air systems can lose up to 30% of their heat to duct leaks. Radiant systems avoid this issue completely, which means that they already transport a third more heat on average than forced air systems. On top of that, water makes a much better thermal conductor than air does. This means that water heats up faster and retains heat longer, making water-based heating systems more energy and cost efficient.
If you’d like to know more about the benefits of radiant heating systems, call Sunset Air. We provide radiant heat installation throughout Olympia, WA.
