Radiant Heat: the Pros and Cons

A Primer on Radiant Heating

Radiant heat ... is it really going to save the world? I mean, I've been listening to all the Radiant PR people and they talk about it like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Pardon me for being a little bit more realistic.

I grew up on Long Island, NY, right near a town called Levittown. (you may have heard of it, thousands and thousands of identical post WW2 housing). The funny thing is ... every house in Levittown had radiant heat. The only thing I remember about it was ... everyone who lived there bitched about the heat. By now, it has all been replaced with something else. (they used copper pipe, the concrete would corrode it after 30yrs or so). Now they use PEX plastic ... which may or may not last any longer. Time will tell.

To be fair ... I will say, I have radiant scattered throughout my house and I love it. But, I really don't use it as for heating ... just to keep the tile nice and toasty.

The pros and cons ... Pros first...

1)Because of the huge surface area of heating element ( like ... the whole floor) you can use much cooler water (somewhere around 100deg or so). Boilers run the most efficiently at the lowest temperatures and ... those new super 98% efficient condensing gas boilers are ONLY efficient at low temperatures. Compared to a standard boilers 85% ... you can save a lot of fuel. Running your regular boiler at a lower temp will save fuel too, but not as significantly.

2) It's really nice and warm on your feet. And with a higher mean radiant temperature (the heat that radiates from all the surfaces of your house) you'll feel warmer in a slightly cooler house.

3)It's an even heat. The house stays at whatever temp you set it, not much fluctuation.

4)There are some really cool things you can do with radiant. Like, heating the tile walls in the shower... amazingly nice when you first get in. Hang on ...Let me digress a bit into "mean radiant temperature". All the surfaces around you radiate heat. You may barely notice it, but it's why a room with a lot of windows feels cold at night, even if the air is the same temperature. If more surfaces are warm, you feel warmer because of that radiation. And if everything is colder, you feel colder.