Hold your hand over a cup of hot coffee and feel the warmth. A common conclusion is that heat rises. Logical maybe, but incorrect! "Hot air" rises but heat travels in any direction. That is why you can feel the heat of the cup when you place your hand to the side too. Radiant energy transfer is caused by a warm surface giving up its heat to a cooler surface. When there is a temperature difference between two surfaces, both surfaces will attempt to equalize.
Radiant energy from the sun travels through space without heating the vacuum of space itself. It only turns into heat when it contacts a cooler surface or object. Our comfort relies on radiant heat transfer just as it does on air temperature, yet the majority of heating and air-conditioning professionals think only in terms of air temperature.
The answer is no. Radiant ceiling heating does not work as well as radiant floor heating in that heat rises so having heat in the ceiling will not be as efficient as heating in the floor.
Radiant floor heating is an excellent choice for bathrooms. It creates more of a spa environment. They are cost efficient and have thermostat control.
Radiant heating heats objects instead of the air. It is better for heating something like a cold tile floor than for heating an entire house.
Yes, radiant floor heating is controlled by a thermostat. This is important as it makes sure the temperature never gets higher than you want it and that when it gets cold the heating goes on automatically.
Basically, radiant heating is used for heating the indoors and outdoors. If you've ever noticed when walking on a wood floor, it can be quite cold to bare feet. With radiant heating, the coils are installed below the floor, and allows heat to rise into the floor. This keeps the floor, and room a constant temperature. To create the kind of comfort indoors on the coldest days, that one enjoys when out on a sunny beach.
Radiant floor heat is considered by many to be better than central heat because it is much better for our environment. Another reason is that is cost less to heat your house using radiant floor heat than central heating.
The Energy government website has a very thorough article on what radiant heating systems are as well as their advantages. Garden Web has a page of customer reviews for various floor heating sytems.
Radiant floor heating will definitely provide additional warmth to a home. It can be very expensive but does ensure that your floors are warm and will also help to heat the rest of the house.
Some examples of brands of electric radiant floor heating are ThermoSoft, HeatTech and Speedheat. Advantages of using such systems are that they tend to have quiet operation and great comfort.
Efficiency has to do with the amount of work done and the energy it takes to do it. If you want to heat the great outdoors, or parts thereof, there is no more efficient way than radiant heating.
Radiant floor heating does not need to be repaired often. Perhaps you could repair it every few years or so. You should routinely get it checked though, just to make sure it is safe.
To explain how to wire radiant heat floor in few words its hard but here is link to detailed step by step how to install warmwire heating floor, http://www.flooringsupplyshop.com/blog/information-for-suntouch-radiant-floor-heating/suntouch-warmwire-installation-guidelines-part-1of2/ and here is a link to the video http://www.flooringsupplyshop.com/blog/how-to-videos/suntouch-how-to-videos/