I’m finishing a small addition (two bedrooms & a bathroom) on my own house. I would like to put in Electric Radiant floor heating under wood & tile. I would also consider radiant wall heat if the units were compact or attractive. Who are good manufacturers for this type of heat? I am having a hard time finding them through web searches.
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Replies
I may be wrong but I don't think that radiant electric radiant heat is meant to be a main source of heat. It is only intended to keep things such as flooring warm.
The other thing is if the heating element goes bad you are stuck tearing up the floor or wall to repair/replace your heating.
I am interested in hearing more as I am no expert on this.
Jeb
you can get radiant floor heating , radiant wall heating , radiant ceiling heating and radiant cove heat
all are primary heat units
some are panels, some are grids, some are cove units..... they all work great and work best if you have good insualtion
be sure there is compatibility between your finish floor and the radiant heat specs if you use the floor heatMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike,Do you have any recommendations for manufacturers of these units?Jeb
one source is Graingers
i've installed the radiant panels on kitchen ceilings
and our house uses the radiant cove heaters as our backup heatMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike,I have a hundred yr old house of brick, no insulation as there is plaster directly to the brick. Any recommendations to making this more comfortable aside from furring out the walls and adding insulation?I'd hate to have to alter the old beautiful wood work if possible.
Minnesota ?
whoa !
well, given your parameters, i'd work on the
foundation ( floor )
windows , bet they're BIG , huh ? ( exterior storms , interior shades )
and attic
so, in the end, your main heat loss will be the walls ( and we are not going to do anything with those.... since i'd agree with you ... lot's of cost for diminished returns ) )
you might start by having a blower door test to determine where all your gross heat leaks are
then based on that set up a program to overcome your heat loss problems
what is your heat source now ?
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Forced air. And the previous homeowner did not have the ducting re done. It is old and huge. There is 2 layer of brick and it is solid. I was considering furring the walls enough to get the foil foam board and sheet rocking over. Insulating the basement. Insulating the attic better. etc...The idea of the blower door heat loss test is probably a good place to start.Thanks Jeb
Do you have suggestions for other manufacturers? I will look at Grainger to see what they have. I was considering Runtal Radiators, but it looks like all they do is hydronic(?) and not electric. We don't want to tap into our boiler, because it is cleaner/greener and much cheaper to use electric in our community.The addition is a compromised space for options. It has small dormers, lower headroom, and nooks to consider heating.
your local electric supply house ( the one that caters to the trade ) will have a lot of infoMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I live in Alaska on an island. Our local electric supply company and building supply company are very very very limited. We get supplies by internet a lot of the time and then barge or air ship them to us. Any names of companies would be helpful, even if they are in Rhode Island.
here's a site i just googled... their cove heaters are not as attractive as the ones we have ( don't know if they still make ours )
but if you poke around on the site , you'll get a good idea of the possibilities
http://www.electricheat.com/index.html
radiant heat is great as far as convenience and comfortMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I lived in a house with the cove units and it was great heat but being electric, you could cut wood on the meter. Didn't matter to me as it was free. It was instant warmth.
I have a cold corner in the kitchen and I will be tearing down the old house shortly. I plan on keeping a few of these units. There are many lengths of it from 2 footers up to about 12.