Your partner got up in the dead of the night and right away those frozen toes are occupying your territory with the persistence of a heat-seeking missile. Good for you, the new house will be sporting radiant floor heat - a sure remedy for confrontations with frozen feet at 2 a.m. or a midwinter chill that gets hold of your bone marrow.
Under-floor heating has been used since the Roman Empire when it was in its heyday in state-supported constructions and the villas of the affluent. Hot air was dispersed below tile or brick, offering a radiant heat - energy that channeled heat through the flooring and on to colder furniture like Roman reclining chairs, statues, marble-topped desks and frosty centurions.
With the advent of resilient PEX piping to the United States in the 1980s, application has taken off as more products have been developed for the construction industry - among which have been water systems to furnish radiant floor heat. Unlike forced-air furnaces, up-to-date hydro floor systems employing PEX plumbing products furnish more homogenous warmth to a room, are less drying, more effective and a whole lot quieter than past furnaces or metal steam pipes.
PEX tubing is constructed of cross-linked polyethylene, which grants these space-age tubes endurance, chemical resistance, superior mobility, a streamlined installment profile and larger temperature adaptability. This polyethylene piping can be exposed to water as hot as 200° Fahrenheit in heating systems.
There are different ways of installing radiant floor heat. Many use electric line voltage schemes, but easy-to-use PEX piping products have made hydronic under-floor heating fashionable with both home constructors and house owners. Because the tubing is so resilient, its rolls can be employed in a uninterrupted distance, eradicating the need for multiple junctions and fittings.
Some radiant floor heat systems use oxygen-barrier PEX radiant tubing employed in gypsum concrete. Others integrate low-mass underlayment - wood boards with sunken niches for flexible pipe.
Every reconstruction or new-construction project is well suited by one method or another, so look into your hydronic floor heat options fully. Do your preparation!
