In most modern radiant-floor heating systems, warm water circulates through plastic tubing either embedded in a floor slab or attached to the underside of subflooring. Radiant-floor heating turns a floor into a large-area, low-temperature radiator. Frank Lloyd Wright piped hot water, rather than air, through the floors of many of his buildings in the 1930s-a practice that has become common in custom homes today. Early Korean buildings were similarly heated by channeling flue gases beneath floors before venting those gases up through chimneys. Radiant-floor heating has its origin in ancient Rome, where fires were built beneath the floors of villas. This article provides a quick overview of radiant-floor heating, reviews the benefits of this heat-delivery approach, and reviews when these systems do-and do not-make sense in homes and small commercial buildings. But is this really the best match for high-performance green homes? In the most energy-efficient buildings, the answer seems to be “no,” though radiant-floor heating can offer both comfort and IAQ benefits. I’ve long been a fan of the comfort delivered by radiant-floor heat, and strong arguments are often made about energy savings and indoor air quality advantages. After going to all the effort and expense to superinsulate the envelopes of these houses and provide passive solar design, did they still need $10,000 heating systems? And did those systems really make sense from a performance standpoint? I wasn’t sure, and decided to dig into these questions.
A majority of these entries had sophisticated radiant-floor heating systems. Clearly, I thought as I began reviewing the features, we’ve come a long way in high-performance residential green building since my first experience with passive solar in the mid-1970s. Radiant-Floor Heating: When It Does-and Doesn’t-Make Senseĭuring judging of the Northeast Green Building Design Competition last spring, I was struck by the number of residential entries with really stellar passive solar design and super-high-performance building envelopes. All rights reserved reprinted with permission. The following article was written for the Environmental Building News by Alex Wilson.
Even if you are just building a reasonably green home, bang for your buck is definitely something to consider, give me a ring if you would like to discuss your options. Alex makes some great points here, but the thing to keep in the back of your mind is that this is coming from the perspective that you are going green crazy on your house.
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