There are several different ways to put radiant heating into the floor. It is not about the money, it's about the comfort. Although these systems are more expensive to install than forced air systems, people who have lived in a radiant house seldom build their next home without radiant. Radiant heating also incorporates the mass of the floor like a battery of stored energy. The heat is kept lower spatially, generally where the people are, and you can usually keep the room temperature lower and "feel" warmer because the heat is literally everywhere. Most of the heat is traveling via conduction and radiation and not convection (hot air rising). You are heating the floor, which heats the objects in the room thus heating the space. With a radiant floor, there is more consistency in the heating because the "hot air" is not rising. There are going to be warm spots and cold spots AND it will be warmest at the ceiling. If you are heating a room with forced air there is generally not a consistent temperature in that room. Heat travels through convection, conduction, or radiation. We have always learned that heat rises right? Well, yes and no. The reasons for this are very easy to understand. Radiant is becoming more popular every year because it is typically about 30% more efficient as a delivery method when compared to forced air. Most people are familiar with forced air heating and cooling systems. Geothermal systems are available in forced air or hydronic units, making them quite versatile for either a conventional forced air, ducted system or for use in a radiant floor heating system with forced air for cooling. From my research these systems have the most consistent ROI of any of the systems we deal with. I have had instances where, based on the fuels available, my clients may come in at 3 years, but that is rare. But when we talk about the return on this investment (ROI) we are generally in the range of 5-10 years. This turns into real money every year coming back to the buyer we are talking thousands of dollars! The cost of a fully installed geothermal system can be $12,000 - $15,000 higher than a conventional heating and cooling system (vertical well systems will be higher, and it always depends on the size of the house). Why invest in geothermal? A geothermal system will save 50-75% of the heating bill per year (varies by utility rates), and in cooling it will be in the range of a 30-50% decrease in cooling costs. ![]() ![]() Yes, I said it the geothermal systems essentially use solar energy in conjunction with electricity to heat the house. Conventional geothermal is using latent heat stored in the crust of the Earth from the sun. Now to clarify, I am not talking about active geothermal (often called geothermic) heating systems, like they have in Iceland and other areas where there is thermal activity right near the surface of the Earth's crust. The crust of the earth maintains the average temperature of that location annually, usually between 42 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems that geothermal systems are the first building block that people are using with their sustainable houses.Īt this point you may be thinking, "What is a geothermal heating system?" Geothermal heating systems use stored heat from the earth's crust in conjunction with heat pump technology to move and amplify heat instead of making heat. I am going to focus on what is the most prevalent "alternative" system for homes: geothermal and radiant heating systems. ![]() The debate includes technologies like radiant floor heating, geothermal, photovoltaic (solar electric) and hydronic solar water heating systems (solar thermal), wind turbine technology, methane accumulators for septic systems and other biomass based energy collectors, etc. The answer to this question may be influenced by utility cost, natural resource availability, whether the building is new or preexisting, and the quality of the construction. There has been a lot of debate about which "sustainable" products are the best "value". How Geothermal and Radiant Heat can Save Money and be More Comfortable by Pete Frank
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