Floor Heating Systems Reviews

Radiant Under Floor Heating, Electric, Hydronic And Other Floor Heating Systems

Floor heating systems make use of either electrical cables or heated water piping to heat a home from the floor up - literally, along with offering a very convenient snow and ice melt, along with a roof & gutter de-icing solution for homeowners.

The heat conductors run underneath the floor. The floor becomes heated evenly, the heat rises up through the floor through your feet and through the objects in the room. Some of the most popular brands are Nuheat, Infloor, Suntouch, Ouelet Thermat, WarmlyYours, etc.

Your body radiates the warmth (culminating with that which comes off of your head), the heated objects radiate the warmth, and slowly but surely the heat rises up and out of the house.

The floors in a house with a basic in floor heating system in the form of a central heating during winter, will always be a couple of degrees warmer than the ceiling when the heating source is turned on.

This means that in electric radiant in-floor heating systems, as compared to the ever-present forced-air vent systems most Americans are familiar with and use today, have numerous advantages based on which it is considered the best floor heating available today to homeowners:

• Less costly, energy bill-wise (radiant heat is cheaper to maintain than constantly forced heat, and you don‘t have to turn up the thermostat as high to get the same result)
   
• Easy to install electric in floor heating system for your home
   
• Cleaner (no recycled filthy air)
   
• More aesthetically appealing (no more vents to have to look at)
   
• Silent and invisible
   
• Greater comfort (you want to warm your feet first, not warm your head while your feet stay cold)

If you want to have radiant floor heating systems put into your home, here are various options and installation types for you to select from

• Electric under floor heating or hydronic radiant heating. The electric floor heating system uses electrical coils, hydronic uses plastic coiled heated water carrying tubes. The electrical radiant floor heating systems are better for isolated room or small area heating. Hydronic systems are better for whole-house heating.
   
• Infloorboard™. A thermal mass flooring system made of a dense composite board covered with aluminum for spreading heat quickly and evenly. Intended to be installed on top of a sub-floor application or over-top a moisture-sealed concrete slab as in in floor heating. Also called Snow Melt Infloorboard.
   
• InfloorBoard II™. Designed for fast and effective installation of PEX tubing in essentially every application. Constructed of a green treated material. Approved for installation over-top concrete slabs
   
• Radiant Trak. Plates get installed between the joist spaces on the underside of the sub-floor. Designed to give an installation alternative to slab, gypcrete, Infloorboard, and Warmboard. Most often found in retro-fit applications.
   
• Concrete floor heating. Embedded tubing in a concrete slab.
   
• Therma-Floor. Aka “Gypcrete”. Directly installed on top of the sub-floor. Tubing is stapled to the sub-floor, then 1-1/4” to 1-1/2” of Therma-Floor is overlaid to provide thermal mass.
   
• Warmboard. For new construction projects. It gets istalled and the tubing is laid prior to other construction so that there is no need to design the system around interior walls. Begins with a strong, stiff 1-1/8" thick, 4' x 8' sheet of tongue and groove, weather-resistant plywood. A modular pattern of channels then gets cut into the top surface of the board. Finally, a thick sheet of aluminum gets stamped and permanently bonded in place, matching the channel pattern.

Should You Install Floor Heating Systems Yourself?

It depends. If all you’re doing is laying down radiant floor heating mats under laminate and engineered wood or other flooring types, all you’re doing is unrolling them, cutting them to size, hooking them up, and then laying down the flooring over-top them. The mats are very thin, so they aren’t going to push up the size of your flooring forcing you to adjust. However, these mats become trickier to lay down if they are of the hydronic type.

Using a programmable floor sensing thermostat which is temperature sensing, you can easily warm up your floor with this radiant floor heating system. The heating 7-day programmable thermostat is a great choice for many homeowners.

The piping sticks up more than electrical wires, of course. What is typically done is to lay down concrete and then cover that over with wooden or some other type of flooring material. In addition, with any hydronic system, you’ll be required to have considerable skill to correctly size, install, and connect your heat source (wood burning boiler, etc) to the piping systems.

Keep in mind that your house may not be sufficiently set up to handle the electrical system. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you should not try to mess with your electrical wiring. If you’re not simply laying down electrical mats and plugging them in, you probably should contact professional installers for your in floor heating system, unless you possess considerable amateur handyman skills for a DIY floor heating installation.

Floor Heating Review Main Categories

Radiant Floor Heating - Radiant floor heating systems are the answer to many problems that have long existed with the usual, forced-air heating system found in most American homes today.

Under Floor Heating - Under floor heating (UFH) involves installing a heating system of either hot water piping or electrical wiring in the home that causes heat to rise up from the floor instead of being forced into rooms from wall radiators and then rising up to dissipate through higher windows and the ceiling.

Electric Under Floor Heating -So why the need for an electric under floor heating? We all want to have a home that is warm in the winter. There are many different kinds of heating systems for your home, all with advantages as well as drawbacks. Having a furnace heater, even when they are brand new, have problems.

Hydronic Floor Heating - Hydronic floor heating is one of the two types of radiant in floor heating. The other kind uses electrical cables beneath the floor’s surface for conducting the electricity that produces heat. Hydronic in floor heating uses hot water flowing through the same place, instead of electrical cables.

Solar Floor Heating - Solar floor heating can be used to warm floors through out the house but it can also be used in spaces that are prone to water spillage and high moisture such as bathrooms and kitchens.

Concrete Floor Heating - Concrete floors are being used more today for the durability they provide as well as the ease of installing them. However, depending on where you live they can be extremely cold on your feet. The solution to this dilemma is to install heating in your concrete flooring.

Laminate Floor Heating - When it comes to laminate floor heating, you need to first see what flooring to have in your home before you consider installing your under floor heating. Even if you have laminate flooring put in place, there are options for you to have floor heating.

Tile Floor Heating - Tile floor heating systems heat go underneath your floor tiles of any make. Tile floor heating systems heat your home from the floor-up, creating radiant heat that is more comfortable, more efficient, more economical, and cleaner than the usual forced-air ventilation system.

Wood Floor Heating - Wood floor heating involves putting electrical cables or hydronic heated water piping beneath your floors’ surfaces to provide the heating for your house in the colder months of the year. Wood floor heating systems create radiant heat.

Bathroom Floor Heating - There are a number of different types of bathroom floor heating available. Some advantages of the newer types out there are things such as their ease in use, in addition their friendliness on the environment.

Garage Floor Heating - One of the largest reasons for people to use garage floor heating has to do with them having a high heating bill. Read this article to learn how to install it on your own.