Radiant heat / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

...heaters, cook stoves, hair dryers or even your toaster. Read more here about why you should heat your house with electricity. More efficient than an electric fireplace or any source of electric heat would be an electric heat pump, as a heat pump is 3 times more efficient than other heat sources. We love heat pumps, but...

...heating systems for homes to replace outdated radiator networks. Understanding hydronic radiant heating People often confuse the terms radiant heating and hydronic heating, but they are not synonymous. While hydronic heating involves water as the heat-transfer medium, radiant heating refers to heating surfaces to the p...

...heating on occupied areas to avoid wasting energy. Choose the right model: If insulation is an issue, consider heaters with ceramic elements or thermal mass for better heat retention. Why choose a convection heater? Convection heaters may use more electricity than heat pumps or radiant heaters in certain scenarios, bu...

...heated by those solar panels in winter, when the sun's angle is lower, will be fed into the floor heating radiant system, which will reduce the energy demand on the heater coil. Conversely and cleverly, in summer if the heat isn't needed in the house, the heat is diverted to an air/water heat exchanger for heating the ...

...heating, electrically-heated mats are sometimes installed below the tiles in bathroom floors for added comfort. What you don’t see a lot of, are floors heated with air. Electric wire radiant floor heating © Ecohome How to make air-heated floors work: Since the first forced-air heating systems were introd...

...radiant heat, specifically floors. Walls and ceilings can equally be heated and cooled, it is just much less common. Studies seem to show that there isn't a lot of energy savings reported in homes with heated floors, despite the fact that, in theory, there should be. Radiant floor heat temperatures © Uponor  With hea...

...heat and cool a home. We built a cathedral ceiling using a single pitched shed-style roof. Starting from the top, the roof itself is through-fastened metal installed over 1x4 strapping. The strapping is placed on top of an ice and water shield fabric over .5” plywood sheathing. Beneath the sheathing are manufactured tr...

...heat loss. Contrary to common beliefs, heat does not rise. Warm air rises, but heat goes everywhere. You need only pick up a hot coffee in a ceramic mug to answer this question for yourself. Does all the heat come out the top? Is it cold on the bottom? Absolutely not. Heat radiates from all sides, including the bottom....

...heat throughout the house. Now you know about how to install your own hydronic tubing for hydronic heat. Find more about efficient home design in the Ecohome Building Guide and on these pages:  Installing electric floor heating systems Build your own DIY solar air heater for free heat Heat pump water heaters ...

...heating degree days per year (Fahrenheit degree-days, base 65°F); there isn’t all that much sunlight in the winter, and Quebec—let alone northern Quebec—isn’t the first place that comes to mind with cutting-edge building design. But in Saguenay, located 130 miles north of Quebec City, Alain Hamel has created what just ...

...heat pump which will serve as an air conditioner. In effect this will prevent the home from overheating during consecutive sunny days in winter, while producing hot water essentially for free. Heat extracted from indoor air will be transferred to the existing hot water tank, allowing excess daytime heat to be used for ...