The Different Ways That You Can Heat You're In-Floor Heating System

The different ways that you can heat you’re in-floor heating system.

In floor heating is one of the most efficient ways to heat your home; the thermal mass allows your floors once they are warm to radiate heat for hours, long after the actual system has turned itself off. Radiant heat also heats an entire space evenly with heat originating from the entire floor instead where ever the ducts appear from the floor wall. Because radiant heat is produced at the floor level it is always rising by you the homeowner towards the ceiling. This means that the room is always the same temperature and that is feels comfortable.

To feed water to this system there are many different ways that you can create the hot water that is needed to run the system, here is a brief list;

• Hot water tanks. The standard hot water tank can be used to create enough hot water for small to medium sized area for heating. It is not very efficient but it will do the job. You can also use more than one tank if you think that you require more capacity. Hot water tanks can be powered by electricity, propane, natural gas, furnace oil or even solar.

• Geothermal. New geothermal heating systems will create hot water by ground source heat. This is a very efficient way to heat your floor especially if you have no access to natural gas. It is a more expensive option but you will see the savings over the long run. Geothermal systems are powered by electricity and require no fossil fuels.

• Flash boilers. Flash boilers are probably the most efficient water heaters out there, especially if they are powered by natural gas. They can also be powered by propane and electricity. A flash boiler does what the name says it does, it boils water to your desired temperature only when you require it. There are no storage tanks to hold warmed water; it is created when the system calls for it.

• Boilers. The traditional boiler is still used for large in-floor areas; it works well as it is able to create large volumes of water in short amounts of time to feed the system. They can be powered by natural gas, propane or electricity.

• Air to air heat pumps. Air to air heat pumps work by removing the heat from the air outside and transforming it into useable heat inside the home. Newer heat pumps can take heat from the air well below zero. This can be used to heat water that will fuel the in-floor heating system.

Whatever way you decide to power you’re in-floor system you are bound to be happy at the lower heating costs you will endure throughout the long winter months.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.