What is Radiant Floor Heating?

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.