Water radiant heat comes from your boiler and circulates through tubes that run beneath your floor or in the walls or ceiling of a room. It can be installed under your walkway or driveway to make sure these areas don’t ice up during the chilly Bozeman, MT winters. It can even be installed in a swimming pool or spa. Water radiant heating, also known as hydronic radiant heating, is the most popular type of radiant heating for floors.
The tubes can be installed via a “wet” installation, which means that they’re embedded in concrete or gypsum. They can also be installed on the top of the subfloor. In a “dry” installation, the tubes are installed in air spaces found beneath the floor. “Dry” installations are becoming more and more popular because they’re less expensive and quicker to install than “wet” floors.
The one drawback is that the temperature of the water needs to be higher because the air around the tubes also needs to be heated. Some plumbers also install water radiant heating tubes between the subfloor joists or between two layers of the subfloor. The installations are more effective if the tubes are insulated or paired with diffusers.
Benefits of Radiant Water Heat
The benefits of water radiant heating are many. They include:
- Cost effectiveness
- Energy efficiency
- Hypoallergenic
- Temperature consistency
- Quiet operation
Surrounded by the majestic Rocky Mountains and famous for its collection of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils on display at the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT is a wonderful place to live and work. Water radiant heating can make life even better by saving you money on your utility bills. Once installed, water radiant heating is amazingly cost effective. It costs about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour to run a water radiant heating system. This is about one-sixth of what it would cost to operate a space heater.
Another advantage of this type of heating is that it is energy efficient because there is no ductwork, which invariably leaks heat. People with allergies benefit from water radiant heat because there is no forced air to spread allergens in a room. Because the warm air produced by the system rises up from the floor, it heats a room evenly. One more quality that really attracts people to water radiant heat is that it is quiet. There is no roar of blowing air or sound of a system cycling on and off. It requires no unsightly vents or radiators.
Call Mountain Valley to Learn More
Because its warm water is provided by the boiler, water radiant heat can be powered by a variety of fuels, including gas and electricity. It does not need to be installed in every room of the house. If you only want it installed in one or two rooms, our skilled plumbers can do it. To find out if water radiant heating is right for you, get in touch with our team at Mountain Valley Plumbing and Heating today.