Radiant-Floor Heating: When It Does—and Doesn’t—Make Sense - EBN: 11:1

Radiant-Floor Heating: When It Does—and Doesn’t—Make Sense - EBN: 11:1 A great overview and details of a complex topic

Feature from Environmental Building News Radiant-Floor Heating: When It Does—and Doesn’t—Make Sense PEX tubing has been secured in place before pouring a lightweight gypsum concrete radiant-floor slab. Radiant-floor heat provides a high level of comfort. During judging of the Northeast Green Building Design Competition last spring, I was struck by the number of residential entries with really stellar passive solar design and super-high-performance building envelopes. Clearly, I thought as I began reviewing the features, we’ve come a long way in high-performance residential green building since my first experience with passive solar in the mid-1970s. But something also seemed odd. A majority of these entries had sophisticated radiant-floor heating systems. After going to all the effort and expense to superinsulate the envelopes of these houses and provide passive solar desi...

Full article: http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2002/1/1/Ra...