Electric Radiant Heat

[gpcollen1]

Just in the process of planning some renovations an thought that Electric Radiant heat would be better than the baseboards I currently have. The house is heated with wood and now pellets on occasion. Electric heat only really comes on in September/October prior to wood burning season and then again in the spring after the fires are out. Anyone have any recent experience? I have been looking at the Nuheat products for under a floating floor and/or tile.

(broken link removed to http://www.nuheat.com/products/electric-floor-heat.html)

Doing 3 connected Rooms; Kitchen @ 100 sq ft, Den @ 175 and adjacent to the Den @ 125. I was going to use the Cable System instead of standard or custom mats. I am assuming the cable system is cheaper as well as a bit more versatile in that I am not exactly sure what is going where at this point.

I still need to ask an electrician friend of a friend to see what he thinks...

Thoughts??

 

[Highbeam]

Efficiency will be the same as whatever other electric heat you have so you won't save money but, I have been in living room heated with the electric under tile and the tiles were very comfortable. It is silent heat and very nice. The comfort benefits are the same as people that tout the underfloor hydronic radiant heat but no water/boiler/pumps etc. If you're going to heat with electric the systems seem to be a nice way to go.

 

[gpcollen1]

Efficiency will be the same as whatever other electric heat you have so you won't save money but, I have been in living room heated with the electric under tile and the tiles were very comfortable. It is silent heat and very nice. The comfort benefits are the same as people that tout the underfloor hydronic radiant heat but no water/boiler/pumps etc. If you're going to heat with electric the systems seem to be a nice way to go.

Thanks - agreed. By better I should have said, out of sight, no noise at all, no worrying about planning the room and where the baseboards will go.....

 

[pen]

I installed it in my bath that I renovated a few years ago and love it. In my neck of the woods it wouldn't take the place of primary heat source if the fire were to go out and it were installed in other areas.

I installed in in my bath and love it, but for the cost, if I weren't running it full time I wouldn't put it elsewhere. Which is why I am glad I tried in in the bath first as I was originally planning on using it in my kitchen also but am going to pass now.

I used a suntouch floor warming mat from www.homedepot.com

pen

 

[fbelec]

hey ct
the stuff is not cheap. baseboards are. especially when it breaks down. the wire type is very small wire and if it is nicked on install it's not a easy find. i had a highend bathroom job. i installed power for the wires in the mud job floor. the tile guy nicked the wire in three places. to find it the company recommended the use of a what we call in the trade as a megger. cheapest megger meter i know of is 1500 dollars so it was hard to find anyone that had it. next way in using one of those flur camera that measure heat. any way you get what i'm saying. be careful on the install. on this job we had to dig up 3 spot on her 33,000 dollar floor. she was not happy and repair was hard to do.

wishing you luck
frank

btw the floor was nice to walk on when it was on. the t stat has built in gfi and programing for off and on times and temp sensor built into the floor so to not overheat the floor.

 

[gpcollen1]

Thanks. i am installing it myself so i will be careful. Nuheat has a small tool the sell with kit that you use to ensure the wires are fine. I will probably use that every 10 minutes. I think that it won't be as expensive as I think if I go with the Wire kit instead of the mats or custom mats. I am still waiting for a call back on pricing.

 

[fbelec]

the different companys out there sell that tool. all it is, is a continuity tester. you can use a meter with a continuity checker and alarm. it will be a certain resistance. if all of a sudden i goes to more resistance the wire got broken. if it gets shorted the alarm will go off. well worth running thru the whole install so that if something happens you know right where to look.