Step up your energy efficiency with flooring options that will lead your business to savings on future energy bills.

Heat rises — it’s both a simple fact and common knowledge. Based on this sweet tidbit, when it comes to heating a building it only makes sense to start from the ground up. Heating and cooling costs add up quickly so when it comes to saving opportunities, an energy-efficient floor could be a huge benefit to your business.

On today’s How To, we’re going to look at how we can save energy and costs with radiant flooring.

What is radiant flooring?

Also known as underfloor heating, radiant flooring is a clever form of heating and cooling that offers thermal comfort by using radiation, conduction and convection. Basically, indoor thermal comfort is achieved when the floor radiates more than 50 per cent of the heat in a space.

Three types of radiant floor heat

According to Department of Energy, there are three types of radiant flooring:

  • Radiant air floors (air is the medium to carry the heat)
  • Electric radiant floors (electricity based)
  • Hydronic radiant floors (hot water or fluids are carried through pipes)

While this is commonly done these days by having fluid pipes, mats or electrical cables put into the floor — this form of heating has been practiced since forever. Actually. Apparently, archeological digs found that folks in Asia and the Aleutian islands of Alaska used to heat their dwellings with this concept.

Let’s talk energy-efficient perks to radiant flooring

More efficient than both air and baseboard heating, radiant flooring has a lot of sweet advantages.

If you opt for a fluid-based radiant flooring system (hydronic), this will benefit your energy bill as it consumes little electricity. For those who suffer from allergies, this heating system is ideal because unlike air heating systems, it doesn’t distribute or circulate allergens.

The best part about this method of heating is that many systems allow you to combine energy sources — meaning these systems can be designed to work with solar and other energy sources, according to Concrete Thinker.

If you go the electrical mat route, this can be strategically cost affective if you aim to use it during off-peak times. Otherwise, the most energy-efficient form of radiant flooring would definitely be the hydronic option.

Radiant flooring can also be achieved using concrete (by embedding tubing in it to produce even heat).  This is less common than the water and electrical options.

You can also use this system on your walls!

This type of heating is ideal for office buildings, small business and retail spaces. If you’re renovating a building — whether it’s your home or office, a look into radiant flooring can be great ground for an energy-efficient future.

Consider the incentives and rebates.

 

 

Image credit: Scott & Justine Larsen