Radiant Heating Advice?

Pattie Hartley

October 31, 20060 found this helpful

I live in Wisconsin and we just built a workshop for my husband that we put radiant floor heat in his concrete (we did it all ourselves). This is all run by a normal thermostat like you would have in your house. We started out setting it at 65 degrees and just recently bumped it up to 72 degrees to see how well it worked. Our heatsource is an outside wood boiler that we also use to heat our home. For that we have a radiator that fits into the bottom of our normal furnace and distributes the heat using our normal duct work and furnace motor. This way we have a back up heatsource in case the fire would go out while we were gone. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

My suggestion is to contact a plumber or builder who has done this type of work and ask for information and addresses of people in your area who have this type of heating.These home owners should be able to tell the pros and cons of such a system.From what I have heard people who have this type of heating love it.

The gal from RPV

February 7, 20110 found this helpful

Radiant heat is great because the heat soaks into fabrics and furniture and makes everything warm and toasty.
On the down side, it takes a long time to heat up to desired temperature. Also If you have hard floors and non-fabric furniture the heat will dissipate rather quickly.

My mother has radiant heat and loves it, however her heating bill last month was over $800! That is heating a 3 story towne home for a single person. I might add the winter was very mild where she lives, California.