Radiant Floor Heating Can Save You Money

7 March 2007

If you’re building a new home or remodeling your existing one, including the floors, you might look into radiant floor heating. It can save you money since it’s more efficient than traditional home heating (i.e. baseboards and vents that always seem to leave cold spots).

With radiant heating, the warmth seeps up through the floor instead of coming from the walls or ceiling. Since heat rises, it’s more practical to heat from below–and more efficient too. You can feel just as warm and cozy while the thermostat is actually set to a lower temperature. Naturally this results in less spent on energy bills. In some cases (i.e. newer construction with good insulation), floor heating can replace your regular heating system completely.

Aside from money issues, another perk of radiant heating is that it’s virtually invisible. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand baseboard heaters (it always seems like they’re on the wall you’d most like to put your entertainment center against…). And floor/ceiling vents aren’t all that attractive either. Nor can you put furniture on top of them, or you’ll block the heat (and create a fire hazard). There’s something to be said for an invisible heating system that lies beneath the floor.

One downside of radiant heating is that you can’t really install it after you’ve already installed your floor (unless you’re willing to lay laminate, tile, etc. over your existing flooring). This is because the system is designed to go under your floor, between the sub-floor and the top material. But if you’re remodeling and putting in a new floor anyway, radiant heating can definitely be a smart choice.

Check out Warmup for more information. They have a section that answers questions about floor heating, and they also have a blog post that explains more on the benefits of radiant heating.

**This is a sponsored post.