Radiant Floor Heating Provides Tippy-Toe Comfort
Your better half got up in the dead of the night and straightaway those cold toes are invading your territory with the persistence of a heat-seeking missile. Good for you, the new house will have radiant floor heat - a sure remedy for encounters with cold feet at 2 a.m. or a midwinter chill that gets to your bone marrow.
Under-floor heat has been employed since the Roman Empire when it was in its peak in public constructions and the villas of the well-heeled. Hot air was circulated under tile or brick, providing a radiant heat - energy that transferred heat through the flooring and on to cooler furniture like Roman recumbant chairs, statues, marble-topped desks and frosty centurions.
With the advent of resilient PEX piping to the United States in the 80’s, application has taken off as more products have been introduced for the construction industry - among those have been hydro systems to furnish radiant floor heat. Unlike forced-air furnaces, up-to-date hydronic floor systems utilizing PEX plumbing products supply more uniform warmth to a room, are less drying, more cost-effective and a whole lot quieter than older furnaces or metal steam pipes.
PEX tubing is made of cross-linked polyethylene, which generates these high tech tubes strength, chemical resistance, high mobility, a cost-efficient installment profile and bigger temperature adaptability. This polyethylene piping can be used with water as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit in heat systems.
There are disparate ways of setting up radiant floor heating. Many use electric line voltage schemes, but easy-to-use PEX tubing products have made hydronic under-floor heating fashionable with both home constructors and house owners. Because the tube is so flexible, its coils can be used in a continual length, getting rid of the need for multiple joints and fittings.
Several radiant floor heating schemes utilize oxygen-barrier PEX radiant hosing utilized in gypsum concrete. Others integrate low-mass underlay - wood panels with sunken niches for flexible tubing.
Each remodeling or new-construction design is better fit by one method or another, so investigate your hydronic floor heat choices fully. Do your due dilligence!
