5 Ways In-floor heating can save the Planet

13 Dec 5 Ways In-floor heating can save the Planet

Our Mother Earth is warming up and we have 2 degrees to get it right. In floor heating or radiant floor heating is one way to slow that warming and wrap your home in warmth. Here are five ways in floor heating can help us save our planet.

In-floor heating solves our Cold Canadian Basement Problem

In the 1960’s the basement rumpus room was invented. It was the Canadian dream. It was to be this amazing space that families could gather and play. Unfortunately, those six walls of the basement were hard to heat and made for a space that guzzles energy. In floor heating or hydronic heating has a science behind as to why it is more efficient and here is the equation –

• To deliver 500,000 BTU/hr energy: heating by Air requires 14 HP
  •  heating by water requires 1.4 HP.

Boom – in floor or hydronic heating will save the average home owner about $500 a year. And that is so good for our planet.  Confused about the difference between electric and hydronic heating check our blog Hydronic floor heating vs electric floor heating

Building smaller and creating usable space will save our planet

In order to deal with the uncomfortable space of the basement home owners have built bigger. The basement is still there and still eating up those energy costs. Building smaller homes will create a softer carbon footprint. In floor heating works by embedding pex pipping in the concrete floor. Creating a warm basement is about 800 square feet of great real estate. It was always there – just really uncomfortable to use. See our blog of the benefits of building in infloor heating for your resale Five reasons you need heated floors in your house – resale, luxury, therapy, environmentally friendly and cost effective.

Wrap your tub in warmth and watch your hot water bills drop

It takes about 48 feet of pex pipe to surround your tub. This transfer of heat means that your tub is warmed by the in floor heating system. The hot water tanks of the home amounts to nearly 20% of the home’s energy costs. Part of the problem with hot water heaters ( tank or tankless) is they lose efficiency over time due to water scale build up. Pex piping surrounding the tub will cost about $22 plus install – that design will take the pressure off of the water heater system of the home. Building homes with smaller water heaters tanks is good for the planet. For more information about bath renovations see our blog Dreaming of a new bathroom? Create ‘Bare Foot’ living in your bathroom renovation with Heated Floors

Read This Consumer Report

 

Capture the coolness from the basement floor and feel the planet give a big sigh.

The pex pipe that is embedded in your basement floor or your basement wall will be cooled by the Mother Earth during the summer. There are energy savings in using this coolness to cool the rest of your home. RadiantLink is connected to the furnace and the furnace is connected to the rest of the home. This connection means you can take some of that natural cooling from the basement and enjoy it upstairs for very little. The small details are very important to slowing that 2 degrees.

A warm garage and your man/women cave

Most garages are warmed with electric or gas overhead heaters. Warming the air is an energy hog – moving to an in floor heating system for a heated floor will deliver the results of a warm garage and give the planet a chance. You deserve a better design and the planet deserves it too. Who said climate change was hard – we got this one.  See our Do-It-Yourself project blog on inwall heating Do It Yourself Project – In-Wall Hydronic Radiant Heating