The term radiant heat refers to any kind of heat that comes off a heated surface. You feel radiant heat coming from the metal of the sides of buildings during a hot day, or coming up from asphalt. But when it comes to home heating, radiant heating means a particular type of comfort system: hot water circulated from a boiler raises the temperature of pipes running through a subfloor, which in turn heats up the floorboards. These heated surfaces then send heat waves into the room. (You can also have radiant heating through room radiators or baseboard heaters.)
Why This Is a Great Way to Warm Up the Winters
Switching to radiant heating from standard forced-air systems such as furnaces is a major change, and is usually best done as part of new construction. But there are many reasons to consider it, because winters are better with radiant heating.
- Improved air quality – During the winter, your home will be closed up tight to keep as much heat as possible inside and the cold drafts out. But this creates a rise in the amount of contaminants trapped indoors—and unfortunately forced-air systems blow them all around and allow them to build-up in the ducts. Radiant heating is a cleaner heat to make your home more pleasant for allergy and asthma sufferers during the winter.
- Toasty feet! – This is harder to quantify, but radiant floor heating just feels so nice. You get a toasty warm sensation right under your feet, rather than having to wait for heated air to spread down from the ceiling. Wouldn’t you love to wake up to a warm floor each winter morning rather than a chilly one?
- Fewer repair hassles – Who wants to scramble to get repair technicians out to their house to fix a broken furnace or heat pump during a freezing cold day or night? There’s no complete guarantee that a radiant system won’t break down on you, but they are more durable and less malfunction prone than others systems. And they last longer as well.
- Save energy – You’ll have more money available for winter fun when your heating bills go down thanks to a radiant heating system. Radiant heaters warm up rooms faster and water is a more effective transference medium than air, making these systems all-around money savers.
Call Malek Heating & Cooling to find out more about radiant heating installation in Wilmette, IL.