Generally, hot water radiant is best suited for spaces of 500 square feet or more, or where hot water is already used as a heat source. Hydronic (water-based) radiant floor systems are used in larger areas or for an entire home or building. Maintenance costs fall sharply.Īnd with today’s litigious society, snowmelts don’t cost money they save it! The cost of the system is more than returned with one avoided lawsuit.
These chemicals kill landscaping, increase building cleanup as they are tracked inside, and can degrade concrete and asphalt. Facility maintenance costs are reduced because ice-melting chemicals aren’t required. Icy surfaces are no longer a concern and maintenance-free. Usually, building codes provide exact measurements for this. PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) or EPDM synthetic rubber radiant tubing should have at least two inches of concrete over the top of the tubing.
The designer must consider the influence of local weather, insulation, pipe spacing, pipe diameter and circuit length. You can activate snowmelting zones when the weather report calls for freezing precipitation, or simply wait for the microprocessor control to do the job.įor a snowmelt system, the designer specifies tubing embedded in outdoor or garage slabs. This entails moving a heated water/antifreeze solution from a heat exchanger attached to your space heating boiler or dedicated heat source underground to cold surfaces outside. The home or building owner should be encouraged to ask the radiant designer to add one or more snowmelting zones onto the heating system. While considering, or recommending, a radiant heat system, look at the floor plan carefully to see if there might be a door, a sidewalk or a garage entrance that faces north or is exposed to ice and snow buildup. Radiant heat has perhaps pushed the use of thin slabs faster than any other force. The most likely uses of decorative concrete inside a structure are for on-grade, high-mass slabs and finished basements, although today, due in great part to your selling efforts and the unique aesthetics of decorative concrete, there’s growing interest in suspended, thin-slab and lightweight concrete applications. Let’s take a look at the unique compatibility of radiant heat with those artfully crafted concrete surfaces that you know so well. The use of decorative concrete is moving fast both indoors and out. Because radiant floors offer more comfort at lower thermostat settings, most people find that they’re comfortable at lower room temperatures. Whether hydronic or electric, radiant floor heat costs less to operate than any other form of heat. The floor becomes the warmest surface in a room, not the coldest.” Surprisingly, those surfaces most uncomfortable without radiant heat - concrete, stone and tile - become the most comfortable with radiant because they transfer the heat so well. “The radiant heat from a floor will warm everything in a building, giving every surface an inviting sensation that can be felt. “Without question, warm floors are the most comfortable form of heat,” says Jim Lemen, HVAC/R markets manager, Vanguard Piping Systems. The surface of the floor then gently emits energy that moves gracefully to all the objects in the room, making them - and your customer’s feet - cozy warm. Indoors, radiant floor heating works by using water-filled tubes or electric heating elements to warm the mass of a floor. “For commercial applications, especially those deemed critical areas, such as hospital and senior housing entry areas, helicopter pads and delivery ramps, radiant heat performs a valuable, perhaps lifesaving function.” “The key function of a snowmelt system is to keep walkways, driveways, and other areas dry and clear,” says Kolyn Marshall, system designer, Watts Radiant. As you know all too well, snowmelt chemicals, solutions, salts, blades, scrapers and blowers can quickly take the finish off your best work. There are few differences between the two heating techniques, and both can be used to heat low- or high-mass concrete surfaces to melt ice and snow, keeping surfaces safe and clear of icy accumulations.įor decorative concrete surfaces - especially those that are stamped with a pattern - snowmelt technology works like a champ and preserves surface treatments intact. Snowmelt technology is, essentially, radiant heat applied to outdoor surfaces.
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