does radiant heat = a warm floor?

18 years ago

We live in a rental house with radiant heat and concrete floors. I don't know much about the specific setup of the radiant heating system since we are just renting.

I have noticed that the floors feel warm after I have turned up the heat (a few hours later of course) or after the outside temperature has dropped considerably. The temperature inside the house is always nice and even, more consistent that in any other house I have lived in.

However, once the temp has leveled off, the floors aren't "warm" anymore. At least I don't want to walk around without slippers on or at least a heavy sock. THey aren't cold, they just aren't really warm. Is this how it is with most radiant heating systems?

My uncle is considering using this kind of heat, but when I told him about this he was hesitant. I don't want to discourage him if what we have here is atypical of radiant heat.

Thank you for any info you can pass along!

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Comments (3)

dan_martyn
18 years ago
Radiant does = a warm floor with "Infloor Radiant". If you are renting, the landlord may have an override control limiting the water temp or heating output. Radiant infloor heat has proven to the most "Comfortable" type of heating. If you had forced air heating, the floors never get warm. I'm sure your Uncle would be very happy with infloor heat. Checkout the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Uponor (Formerly Wirsbo)
zl700
18 years ago
Good radiant designers will set up the system so that the water temp going to the floor varies with the outdoor temp and the demand of the indoor settings. In addition, they will set it up as constant, and now variable speed circulation. This will provide an even floor temp output with less highs and lows in temps as a standard t-stat would operate a on/off floor heat system.
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funnycide
18 years ago
do you know if the radiant heat in the floor is using hot water? I would assume it is since I think it would cost too much to heat a entire apartment with electric radiant.
If it hot water here is the problem. Radiant heated floors require a water temperature between say 115Â° and 140Â° depending on the installation method and the climate. Let's say for your apartment on the coldest day of the year the water temperature running thru the tubing needs to be 125Â° to keep your apartment warm. Typically a manual mixing valve is used to maintain the radiant water temperature. Let's say this mixing valve is set to 130Â°. On cold days the heat will run for a long time to heat the space and the floor will be nice and warm. Now let's say it is 45Â° outside, you still have 130Â° water but the heat only needs to run for 15 minutes to warm up the space. Then the heat will be off for 30 minutes or longer. During this time the floor temperature will drop and it won't be warm.
Now to minimize this problem with an existing installation you can adjust the mixing valve to provide just enough heat to maintain the space temperature during the coldest days. This will take a little trial and error.
The real solution is to install a electronic mixing valve that varies the supply temperature based on the outside air temp. This is what should be provided on a new installation.