RADIANT HEAT

Our heating story will be complicated....

• There is no heat in the kitchen now and the kitchen is located over an unheated space.
• The basement ceiling is already almost fully finished.
• The addition is over a garage, where the ceiling height is 7 1/2 feet, and it's uninsulated.
• We prefer radiant underfloor heat [hydronic not electric].
• Radiant heat costs more to install but saves about 30% on utility costs - which are increasing.

So to add heat to the house, we need to add heat to the following rooms and this is the preferred plan - albeit pre-construction....

FIRST FLOOR

• Kitchen [underfloor hydronic]
• Family room [underfloor hydronic]
• First floor bathroom [reuse radiator from sunroom]
• Mudroom [reuse radiator from sunroom]

SECOND FLOOR

• Bedroom #2 [relocate the existing dining room radiator]
• Master Bath & Closets [underfloor hyrdonic]
• Hall Bath [radiator or underfloor hyrdonic or hydronic towel bar]

ATTIC

• Attic [add in a new exterior wall heat pump or radiators or hydronic baseboard heat]
• Attic Bath [radiator or underfloor hyrdonic or hydronic towel bar]

We were wondering how to keep the kitchen and family room floors the same level as the dining room if we use underfloor radiant heat that is included in the subflooring --- but check out this great This Old House Video for the solution.

These products looks promising, and it are available for use under hardwood floors and some keep the added height below ¾ inch.

• Warmboard Radiant Subflooring
• Ultra-Fin Radiant Heating System
• Uponor's Quik Trak
• Viega's Climate Panel
• Rehau's Raupanel

Updates forthcoming.