natural choices Heating and Power Options for Your Home
Want to reduce your utility bills? Find out how radiant floor heaters,
here’s an incredible variety of
The
neath the driveway, easily melting away snow and ice. Photo courtesy
of Watts Radiant.
ous ice and snow, an efficientwater heater or a system to ensure your family has power in the event of a weather emergency,there are many popular and
Radiant Floor Heating
Snow Melt
The same radiant technology used to heat floors is also used outside — in
ways, sidewalks, patios, carports and more — basically any- where there’s a concrete slab. Like radiant floors, they use hydronic (water) heating systems, melting ice and snow by circulating a
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to feel warmth and comfort throughout your home without air blowing into the room — or without looking at an unsightly radiator? Homeowners are discovering how radiant
room to room, even upstairs.
“As radiant flooring gets less expensive and there are more options and styles, it’s really exploding in popularity, even in places like Texas and Florida,” says Dan Chiles from Watts Radiant in Springfield, Mo. “It’s a dash of color. We encourage people to see it with a designer’s eye, because it’s getting so much
more sophisticated.”
“It takes about 30 BTUs per square foot, per hour, to heat the inside of a home,” says Chiles. “Outside, you need 300 BTUs per square foot, per hour. In urban and remote areas, it’s about safety, and it has definitely become a growth industry, especially with Baby Boomers.”
water) through tubing underneath. It’s about safety, to be sure, but it’s also about aesthetics for homeowners whose driveways are decorative or stamped concrete.
“You can’t get ice out from between those cracks, and you can’t shovel it,” says Chiles. “A snow melt system gets rid of ice safely, without the risk of cracking the surface.”
It’s also a more efficient way to heat an area, or even an entire home.
“It’s a whole different heating phi- losophy,” says Chiles. “You’re not trying to heat the room like in a typical forced air system, but the things in it, so it’s a much more efficient use of energy.”
Blue-Flame Space Heaters
Most have controls on the unit that are simple to oper- ate: Just push a button to ignite the pilot light (no matches needed), and the heater begins to instantly warm the room or area. They’re a good option when it doesn’t make sense to crank up a whole house heating system, or to add a lit- tle extra heating oomph to a room that doesn’t get quite as warm as the rest of the house.
Most of the new
Most new
ering that
“Radiant floor heating is a different heating philosophy.You’renot trying to heat the room like in a typical forced air system, but the things in it, so it’s a much more efficient use of energy.”
liance, all U.S. gas code groups and 49 states, as well as British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, allow the sale and installation of
“Homeowners throughout the United States are discov-
are exceeding consumer expectations.”
Finally, keep in mind that older
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