Not all radiant heat has to come from the floors, although that is extremely nice when you can afford it. A cheaper option might be to go to http://www.radiantsystemsinc.com/ where they sell units that can be installed in any room in the house.
Right now it is the beginning of a very cold winter and already my skin is dry and scaling. My nose is rough on the top and feels like it is peeling. The backs of my hands are alright when I wake up but throughout the day, they become dryer and dryer.
I sit here typing this wishing we had designed and built our house ourself so that we could have installed a radiant floor heating system right from the beginning. We have had freezing temperatures outside now for about a week and the dry forced air heat that comes out of the vents are killing me. It's like I can see my skin growing older right before my eyes.
The forced air heating systems that are in most newer homes are awful during the winter. They are loud as they continuously pump the dry air into every room sucking out every bit of moisture. I have tried using a humidifier but it is useless as the unit is too small to make any kind of a difference.
When it gets this cold, and it will be this way for the next 3 months or so, the heating has to work overtime in any house. Dry hot heat may work to keep you warm but it is not pleasurable at all. With radiant floor heating throughout the house, like in the winter would be so much more pleasurable.
Radiant heat floors are something you can have installed throughout a house but it only really makes sense to do that as the house is being built. Whether you choose hydronic or electric radiant heat, it is something that is so much easier to put in while the house is being built.
The cost of radiant floor heat is such that it is too expensive and too much trouble to put it in every room of the house if your house has already been built. That is why most people, if they do choose to rip up their floors, will only do it for a room or two which is usually the master bathroom and perhaps the kitchen. I would also really like to have it in the basement where it is freezing and I think it would help a lot. The best electric fireplace inserts that we looked at as an alternative just won't do the job I don't think.
If we ever move homes, radiant heat is something that I have to remember to look into before we buy or build. My Grandma's house had Victorian radiators and I long for that type of silent, steady heat that is just there and you never know it. What I would give to have some sort of a radiant floor heating system in our house right now. With this bad economy, it is difficult to think that we will ever get our money back if we install it after the fact in our home now.
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