Warmzone Blog

In today’s volatile and topsy-turvy housing market, it’s not a bad idea to add value to your home in new and innovative ways. Don’t just think about renovating a bathroom, consider using radiant heaters to warm towel racks in the bathroom, or a heated floor. Can you think of anything cozier on a chilly winter morning than toasty toes when you step out of the shower?

Not only is radiant heating is one of the most comfortable ways to heat your home, but radiant heaters also offer a surprisingly wide diversity of applications. Radiant heaters can be used in a number of applications, including in tiled areas, hardwood flooring, carpeted areas, cement floors, basements, and garages.

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.

Radiant Heaters Tip: The variety of high efficiency boilers or electric radiant floor systems makes radiant heat one of your most efficient ways to heat your home.

If you have a small space in your home that you’d like to heat, a traditional heating system may cost you far more than it’s worth. This is almost always the case for those who may live in small or older homes and apartments. Older homes often times don’t have the necessary heating ducts needed to install a traditional forced air system, and installing these ducts is very expensive. Due to the cost associated with installing these systems, many people choose not to heat smaller rooms. However, there is a very cost effective and efficient solution to this problem.

Many people find that electric radiant heat systems are very cost-effective solutions for smaller spaces (1-5 rooms) because they are easy to install and have a very low start-up cost. 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: Also worth noting, warm up times with electric radiant heat systems are generally a lot quicker than “wet” systems because the cables are installed directly below the finished flooring making it a direct acting heat source rather than a storage heater.

It’s pretty remarkable, we think, how electric radiant floor heat combined with the proper fuel, a high efficiency heat source and good building practices will give you dramatic fuel savings and a greater level of comfort over any other system. Your radiant system could use 30% less fuel than the average new forced air heating system. Installing a high efficiency air conditioning system will result in dramatic energy savings year-round.

Instead of rising like warm air, radiant heat starts by warming the coldest and closest objects from its source, which is why radiant heating systems are generally placed under floors. <Electric radiant heat is a unique transfer of energy that naturally searches out colder objects to warm. The radiant heat increases our comfort by bringing the heat to our feet, which leaves the air at head level cooler. This scenario creates the perfect level of comfort.

Electric Radiant Heat Tip: Nothing else can compare to the extraordinary comfort offered through in-floor electric radiant heat. Combined with the proper cooling system, electric radiant floor heat offers the most efficient and comfortable living conditions available in any climate.

It sounds a little space-age, doesn’t it? Having the heating system embedded into the floor. But it’s actually a kind of residential (or business) heating system that has been used overseas for some time, and is now becoming well-known and more commonly used here in the U.S. Instead of warming air and then circulating it throughout your home using ducts and vents, electric radiant heat is embedded under your floor and uses the entire floor to evenly distribute low-temperature heat.

No matter the method, technology, or system used, a homeowner quickly discovers that the benefits of electric radiant heat are the same. 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 in any direction. Since floors are usually cold, radiant heating systems are commonly placed under them.

Electric Radiant Heat Tip: Whether you’re renovating your current home or building your dream home, you’ll soon find that electric radiant heat is available for many different applications, including bathrooms, kitchens, heated towel racks, and heated walls and ceilings.

We’re finding that a lot of homeowners might not realize there’s a number of types of radiant heaters for residences or businesses. Today we’ll discuss the electric cable heating system kind of radiant heaters.

Electric cable heating systems are gaining popularity in as radiant heaters and are ideal for heating smaller areas (10-300 square feet) like bathrooms, kitchens, and sun rooms. These systems are comprised of a thermostat and a heating cable. On some systems, the cable will be shipped to you as a large spool of cable. These systems are oftentimes less expensive, and give you the ability to space the cable how you want and customize a layout that will heat every square inch of your floor. Other systems have the cable attached to a plastic mesh or tape to create a mat to maintain its proper spacing.

Every available cable system is equally effective, so when determining which radiant heater system to purchase, you should look at the warranty of the product, along with the ease of installation. Some cables must be embedded in a separate layer of concrete or mortar, whereas other systems can simply be installed in the thinset. Most cable systems can only be installed under tile. However, on other radiant heaters, if the cable is embedded in mortar or concrete, any flooring can be installed on top of the concrete.

Radiant Heaters Tip: When heating smaller areas with a radiant heater, it is nearly impossible to beat the simplicity and price of an electric cable heating system.

Many homeowners love the look of tile, wood, or floating woods but dread stepping out of their soothing shower onto cold tile, especially during those frigid winter months. And many love tile or wood in their kitchens and living areas but worry about their little ones playing and pitter-pattering on cold floors. That’s why so many are opting for radiant floor heating systems to warm up their floors.

The installation of radiant floor heating is not new: heated floors have been installed under bathroom and kitchen tile in the United States for the past decade or so and the warming products continue to gain popularity. Many in the kitchen and bath industry expect radiant floors to continue to play a big role among homeowners who crave comfort features.

Evenly distributed radiant heat in your floors will allow you to turn down your thermostat two to four degrees. This can reduce energy costs by 10-40%. This setback to your thermostat can happen because a radiant floor heats from the ground up and delivers the heat through objects not air. This makes the lowest three feet of your home the most comfortable where a forced air system loses its heat to the ceiling and is required to heat from the top down. Delivering heat by air also makes it easy to escape and increase your overall heat loss.

Radiant Floor Heating Tip: Discuss your options for a radiant floor heating system with the staff at Warmzone.com.