ANOTHER OPTION FOR RADIANT HEATING
In-floor heat feels great on your feet, but installing it might not be practical. There’s another radiant heating option: PEX tubing that circulates hot water through walls or ceilings. The systems are similar to floor heat and offer most of the same advantages: draft-free heat, plus silent and even operation.
Quik Trak or other panels that secure the tubing can be installed directly on studs or with existing wall or ceiling materials. On walls, radiant heat tubing is typically installed on the bottom 4 ft. to reduce the risk of driving a picture nail into the tubing. Adding wainscoting lets you hide this addition. Ceilings are sometimes a more practical option, and you lose only an inch of ceiling height.
Installing radiant heating in walls and ceilings gives a few benefits over floor installations:
1. You don’t have to get under your flooring. Also, carpeting won’t affect the performance of the heating system as it can with floor-installed heating.
2. Without the worry of warping wood flooring, the supply-water temperature can increase by 20°F, improving efficiency over in-floor tubing by almost three times.
3. Tubing in radiant walls and ceilings has a much lower mass than tubing installed in concrete, so it responds to temperature changes faster. This makes the use of setback thermostats more efficient.
4. The energy from radiant walls and ceilings is directed at objects in the room. Both furniture and floors will be slightly above the air temperature. The floors won’t be as toasty as they would be with in-floor heat, but they’ll be much more comfortable than they would be with forced-air heating.