Warmzone Blog

The last time you enjoyed a sit-down Sunday family dinner, or a special dinner at a restaurant where you shared platters, you might have found that the food platters were hot to the touch, or you’ll hold a warm mug of cocoa — it’s then that you’ll be feeling radiant heat. Objects absorb radiant heat until they are the same temperature as the heat source, after which the heat slowly escapes to other areas that are colder, such as the air. The same principle is available to heat your home, using electric radiant heat.

So how does it work? Electric radiant heat is a unique transfer of energy that naturally searches out colder objects to warm. Instead of rising like warm air, radiant heat starts by warming the coldest and closest objects from its source. This is why radiant heating systems are generally placed under floors.

You may not be aware of this, but heating a bathroom can be responsible for a significant amount of your utility bills year-round. Bathroom heating is one such energy consideration because you want the heat quickly, but for only a short period of time. Therefore traditional forced air heating systems for a bathroom can be very inefficient, and waste a lot of energy. However, electric radiant heat can make you feel comfortably warm without having to heat all the air in the bathroom.

Electric Radiant Heat Tip: It’s not a cost-efficient heating system that’s limited to bathrooms and kitchens, electric radiant heat can also increase the comfort level of these rooms because they concentrate the heat in the areas that are generally the coolest, such as tile floors.

You may not know much about radiant heat, but it’s definitely worthwhile to check out further. Whether you’re building a new home or updating your current home, you owe it to yourself to check out the amazing comfort that radiant heat has to offer.

If you didn’t know before, radiant heaters are a type of heater that warms objects instead of air. Radiant heat uses objects, such as the floor, to heat a home. The air in the room is warmed when it comes into contact with the warmed objects. Heat loss is reduced and the radiant heat remains in the lower part of the room, warmer near feet level and slightly less so at head level, creating the perfect climate for comfort. Seeing (or, rather, feeling) is believing.

It might seem hard to believe, but not only is radiant heating is one of the most comfortable ways to heat your home, but radiant heaters also offer a diversity of applications. Radiant heaters can be used in a number of applications in residential homes or businesses, including tiled areas, with hardwood flooring, carpeted areas, and even cement floors (such as in basements, garages, or even driveways or sidewalks).

Radiant Heaters Tip: Many homeowners are happy to report that their radiant heaters help to keep the whole house at a more constant temperature.

You’ll be surprised! You might think that electric radiant heat is difficult and time-consuming to install, and has the risk of uneven heating spacing – but times have changed since those early days of the radiant heat technology. Let’s get you up-to-date on how many improvements have been made to electric radiant heat, contributing to it fast becoming a popular choice for energy-efficient and cost-efficient home heating.

It used to be that electric radiant heat was, once upon a time, supplied as one long continuous length of cable with the consumer having to weave the cable up and down the floor at a pre-determined spacing and making a return loop to complete the circuit.

However, recent and improved designs in electric radiant heat cables have a built-in return meaning that you only have one end to connect instead of having to close the circuit by bringing each end of the cable back to the thermostat. Far from complicated to install, electric radiant heat cable mats have taken the hard work out of the install by having the radiant heating cable already pre-spaced on to a nylon mesh and all you have to do is simply start at your thermostat location and roll it out over the floor until it’s all used up.

Electric Radiant Heat Tip: Warmzone reports that the innovative electric radiant heat cable mats save time and offer a lowered risk of having hot and cold spots.

Maybe you’ve had it in the back of your mind that, someday, you’d like to upgrade the heating in your home, or at least in some areas of your home. After all, you might have spent all of the winter thus far avoiding your basement, a spare room, or a guest bath because it’s just too cold in those areas to spend very long. You never quite got around to the upgrades, because you might’ve assumed the cost would be too high to be worth it.

The reality is that it’s actually rather cost-effective to add heating to a small area, using a electric radiant heat system. Because electric radiant heat systems are easy to install and have a very low start-up cost, they offer more cost-savings than you might assume. An electric thermostat is all that is required and costs only about $100-$200.

Another advantage of electric radiant floor heating over a warm-water system is the floor build up or height. Floor build up can be from as little as 2mm. The electric cables are usually installed onto an insulation board or directly onto the subfloor or padding (under carpet or laminate), then the floor covering is placed directly over the heating system or thinset.

Electric Radiant Heat Tip: The typically speedy installation time of electric radiant floor heating is worth noting; it generally only takes one half-day to a day depending on thesize of the area in which to install the system.

Is this you? For some homeowners, all they have to hear is “increased comfort and significant cost-efficiency” and they are sold on electric radiant heat for their home heating systems. The increased comfort and significant efficiency benefits aren’t all that’s offered to homeowners who switch heating systems to electric radiant heat over forced air heating.

Among the other significant benefits to electric radiant heat is that, unlike with central heating and air, with radiant heat you can zone different areas of the house to fit your lifestyle. Some of our customers use one thermostat per floor, while others separate bedroom areas and living spaces. We’re happy to help with recommendations based on your project plans or vision.

Many families will enjoy the allergen reducing qualities of electric radiant heat. Radiant Heat reduces dust mites and air borne allergens by 60%-90%. No other heating system reduces allergies as effectively as electric radiant heat.

And no matter the state of the real estate market, there’s always the increased property value aspect to incorporating an electric radiant heat system to your home. Use radiant heating to heat your garage, melt ice from your roof, or melt snow from your driveway. A well-designed installation will add more value to your home than the cost of the package.

Electric Radiant Heat Tip: Want to learn more? Warmzone.com offers radiant heating solutions for almost any application… and any budget.

How many of you are you building your dream home or maybe renovating a century-old farmhouse? If you’re thinking of radiant floor heating in your home construction, improvement, remodeling, or renovation project, we like how you’re thinking.

Perhaps you’ve heard from many people that radiant floor heating is one of the most comfortable ways to heat your home – and they are not leading you astray! As opposed to forced air heating, which heats the air, radiant heat heats objects such as your floor. This increases the level of comfort in your home as the heat is distributed at the floor level where we are usually cold, and gets cooler toward our head area, which is usually too hot. Because radiant floor heating distributes the heat in this manner, the comfortability of your home is increased. No more cold feet!

Another benefit of radiant floor heating is that it can be used for nearly any floor area. Areas such as concrete, tile, hardwood, carpet, and even linoleum can all benefit from radiant floor heating.

Radiant Floor Heating Tip: Even if you don’t have a historic renovation or restoration project to do at home, radiant floor heating can be retrofitted, in most cases, to your existing floors.