Are you one of those people who wears their thickest wool socks all winter long because you can’t bear the thought of stepping even a tiptoe onto the freezing cold floor in the morning? Toss those socks in the garbage—or save them for your outside adventures—and opt for heated floors instead! After all, when you live in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, it should be an essential. Heat your floor from the ground up.
What was once seen as a special splurge in one or two rooms of the house is becoming a highly efficient way to heat the entire home. We once saw electric radiant floor heating that was custom-fitted to one room. Now, hot-water systems have taken over, with their cost-effective ability to heat the whole house. Radiant floor heating consists of small pipes that are installed underneath your floor. Water is heated by a gas or electric boiler or hot water solar panels, and then the heated water is pumped through the pipes where it radiates through your floors. Hello warm floors, warm home, and happy people!
If you’re thinking this seems like an inefficient, costly option, that’s not the case. Radiant heated floors not only increase comfort with warm, even heat, they also decrease monthly costs between 10% and 30%. If you compare it to a forced-air system, it takes less energy for in-floor heating to achieve the same results. Because heat is concentrated at the lower half of the room where we feel it most, people often set temperatures lower than they would with a forced-air system. You don’t have to worry about heat rising and then dropping as it cools, making sure your head is warm but your toes are freezing. Heat will still rise with in-floor heating, but it will do so evenly with the cold air staying at the ceiling. And with a zoned system, you can concentrate higher heat in specific areas of your home—for instance, those with higher foot traffic, like bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.
Many people find the contained in-floor heating option much more aesthetically pleasing than forced-air systems. Not only are they more efficient, they’re quiet. They don’t spread any dust and allergens throughout your home, either. You can say goodbye to drafty rooms, too!
Questions? Call Finken at 877-346-5367. Consider us your in-floor heating specialists here to address any of your unique heated flooring repairs or installs!