Products and Services

Are You Interested in $aving Energy Costs and Helping
the Environment

RADIANT COMFORT is primarily a RADIANT FLOOR HEATING and GEO-THERMAL (or Ground Source Heat Pump) Heating and Cooling, Design and Installation Contractor. We have thirty (30) years experience in the Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Industry. We believe that combining Geo-Thermal and Radiant Heat is by far the most energy efficient and most comfortable way to heat and cool a building. This combination can slash energy bills by as much as 75% of a conventional system. We are one of the few companies that understand and specialize in this.

We are trained by The Radiant Panel Association (RPA) and The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) in the design and installation of Radiant Heating Systems and Ground Source Heat Pumps.

Radiant Heating  |   Comfort  |   GeoThermal Heating & Cooling  |   Savings & Environment

Radiant Floor Heating Systems


Radiant Heating is a process by which energy leaves the surface of an object and travels to the surface of another (cooler) object in the form of electromagnetic waves"(Radiant Panel Association).

In other words, picture a beautiful sunny day
It's 65° outside and you are standing under a large tree. You may feel a bit chilly but as soon as you step into the sunlight, you feel warm again.

The air temperature is the same, but you feel warm because the sun's Radiant Heat Waves travel at the speed of light to warm you directly. All Radiant Heat Waves, including those from a Radiant Floor Heating System, travel at the speed of light.

A lot of people have heard the saying that "heat rises", however, that is not correct! Basic science says that, in fact, HEAT TRAVELS TO COLD and HOT AIR RISES (while cold air falls). Those are two separate rules, commonly misunderstood as one. Understanding the difference explains why in most homes it is warm and toasty, even HOT at the ceiling. Well, we don't live on the ceiling. Nature is always trying to balance itself out; that is important to keep in mind as you continue reading. An average home heated by Radiant Heat consumes 25 - 30% less energy than a conventional forced hot air system. To understand why, you have to remember the science lesson above.

First, because we are heating the body directly (and indirectly from walls and furnishings) you feel comfortable at a lower thermostat setting. Second, a home heating system must keep up with how much heat the home is losing to the outside, and this is always changing. This is called HEAT LOSS. If it is 70° outside and 70° inside, there is no heat loss because the temperature (nature) is balanced. The larger the difference from inside to outside, the more unbalanced it is, the more heat loss there is to balance. Of course there are other factors such as insulation. Ultimately, nature is going to keep trying to balance itself. So, if it is 67° at the ceiling inside (as with Radiant Heat) there is much less heat loss to the outside needing to be balanced, than if the ceiling is 95° inside (as with Forced Hot Air). More heat loss means more energy use to make up the difference. Radiant Floor Heating actually dates back to the days of the Romans. As early as 60 A.D., Roman buildings were equipped with crude, but effective, Radiant Floor Heating Systems. Radiant Heating has many advantages over other heating systems, especially forced air systems. Some of these advantages are: comfort, efficient, clean, healthy, has no drafts, no dust or pollen blowing around, is quiet and unseen and has the freedom to move furniture without the concern of blocking register grills or radiators. Read more about PEX tubing and installation methods


Click here to watch the Video: "Uponor Wirsbo: Radiant Floors - Comfort Heating"
note: this video is quite large (approximately 13 mins)

back to top

Comfort

What is Comfort, or in this case "Thermal Comfort"?

When truly comfortable, we should not be aware of how or where our bodies are losing heat or how and when our home is heated. The human body is a furnace (or boiler since we are mostly water). Our bodies are always producing heat and most of the time actually giving off excess heat. Comfort is established and maintained only as long as our bodies release the heat generated by metabolism at the same rate that it is produced (Balance).

On a warm day when you are exercising, your body is producing more heat than it can easily give off, and you feel hot. If you stand next to a large window on a cold winter day, your warm body will radiate heat to the cooler window surface, and you will feel a chill.

Notice that I said "your body will RADIATE Heat". Your body looses heat several ways. During light activity indoors, a typical person looses heat at a rate of about 400 BTUs/Hr, 25% through evaporation, 30% through convection, Conduction or direct contact with a cooler surface, and finally by RADIATION.

Radiation represents ALMOST HALF OF OUR BODY'S TOTAL HEAT OUTPUT. This is a key reason why Radiant Heat is the most comfortable heating system. Radiant Waves heating us directly and warming the surfaces around us directly make our bodies feel BALANCED AND COMFORTABLE. Because we are especially sensitive to our radiant surroundings (other surface Temperatures), this significantly improves comfort. This also typically allows Radiant Heating thermostats to be set at a lower setting.

back to top

GeoThermal Heating & Cooling
Radiant Heating is just the delivery system. Now we need to create the heat, this is typically done with a high efficiency boiler. Boilers have come a long way over the last 30 years. 75% to 80% efficiency was considered good years ago, but now we have 90% plus boilers. That means more than 90% of the energy put into the boiler (e.g. natural gas) is being used to deliver heat to the system. Most people would be very happy to get 90% efficiency; they may think that's the best they can expect from a boiler. That's getting close to 100% right; can't do better than 100% right? Wrong!

This is why we believe so strongly in Geo-Thermal or Ground Source Heat Pumps! Over 100% efficiency is expressed as Coefficient of Performance (COP). COP's of 4, 4.5 and even 5 are available with Ground Source Heat Pumps, that means for every dollar of energy you put in, you get 4-5 DOLLARS of HEAT OUT! That's 500%! It's not just heating though; Ground Source Heat Pumps are also Central Air Conditioning units. Would you like free domestic hot water? Ground Source Heat Pumps can do that too.

Geo-Thermal Heating has also been around since the days of the Romans. The ancient Romans used hot springs to heat baths and homes.

We have been using the terms Geo-Thermal and Ground Source Heat Pump interchangeably, both are correct. Geo-Thermal is defined as:"of, relating to, or utilizing the heat of the earth's interior; also: produced or permeated by such heat" (Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary). Lately, the term Geo-Thermal refers to power obtained by using heat from the Earth's interior. Most geothermal resources are in regions of active volcanism. Hot springs, geysers, pools of boiling mud, and fumaroles (vents of volcanic gases and heated groundwater) are the most easily exploited sources of such energy. For our purposes, Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) is more precise with regard to what we are describing here.


Click here to watch the Video: "GeoExchange Heating and Cooling Systems"

The Energy we are using is energy available in the Earth's Crust as stored Solar Energy. Earth is the ultimate Solar Collector; energy is constantly transferred to and from the Earth's Surface by Solar Radiation, rainfall, wind, etc. At depths of 5-6 feet or more the earth's temperature is stable enough to use as a heat exchanger all year. Now, taking what we now know about Radiant Heat, and the understanding that Heat moves to Cold, we add Ground Source Heat Pumps to create the heating and cooling.
The key thing to remember is that HEAT MOVES TO COLD.


A Ground Source Heat Pump uses the refrigeration cycle; the same technology as your refrigerator, freezer, or air conditioner, by basically moving heat to cold by compressing or concentrating the heat and then moving it to a cooler location. You refrigerator is not making cold. It becomes cold in the absence of the heat that is removed. The reason Ground Source Heat Pumps are so incredibly efficient is because of the stable ground temperatures below 5-6 feet. As an example, picture a summer day. It's 98° and sunny outside. Your central air conditioning system is working to remove unwanted or excess heat from your home interior by concentrating and compressing the heat and moving it to the outside air. This is called an Air (inside air) to Air (outside air) exchange. This sounds good because you want the home to be cool inside. The problem is that you are trying to get rid of the excess heat into hot air outside. There needs to be a temperature difference in order to transfer heat to cold. If the temperature is balanced there can be no exchange. The closer the temperature is to being balanced the harder it is to transfer heat. This is why the hotter it is outside the less efficient your system is.

Now, the same conditions with a Ground Source heat Pump are removing the unwanted excess heat from your home interior and moving it to 55° ground temperature. This is much more efficient! This is called air to ground, or air to water exchange because we use water in pipes in the ground.


Do you want free domestic hot water too? By using a DeSuperHeater, a Ground Source Heat Pump dumps some of the excess heat into a storage tank before it dumps the rest of the excess heat to the ground. In the Winter we simply reverse the refrigeration cycle and extract heat from the ground, concentrate and compress it and move it into your home. You are using free solar energy that is stored in the earth to heat your home and that is why it is so incredibly efficient. In the past, conventional Air to Air Heat Pumps have been used. The problem here is that when it gets cold outside the Air to Air Heat Pumps could not extract Heat from the Cold Air and relied on back up heat. This was typically electric resistance heat and became expensive to run in cold weather. As a result conventional air to air heat pumps have gotten somewhat of a bad reputation. Read More On Ground Source Heat Pumps

back to top

Saving Money & The Environment


Use of a Ground Source Heat Pump is good for you because it represents potential huge savings on your utility bills. Consider what our current energy costs are, how fast they are rising and how much your savings could be in the future as energy cost continue to rise over the years. Now also consider that Ground Source Heat Pumps use NO FOSSIL FUELS! By using a Ground Source Heat Pump you are saving money by conserving energy and you are not consuming any fossil fuels to heat your home. This greatly benefits the environment and, is why Ground Source Heat Pumps are considered to be "GREEN" energy source.