Electric radiant floor heating
MichaelNYC
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I have a powder room that is 7′ x 5′. The hot water system radiator is located right next to the toilet and can easily burn someone who gets too close. My question: can an electric radiant floor heating system (under tile) take the place of the radiator — can I have the radiator removed and will the radiant system be enough to keep the room around 64 degrees?
Thanks.
Michael
Replies
Michael,
The answer is: maybe.
If the 7x5 is inside of to inside of wall, and you install a mat that is, say 4x6 NuHeat matt for instance, which will provide 288 watts of heat. If this is not a slab on grade without insulation, you will get about 880 btu/hr, which works out to around 25 btuh/ft2. That is kind of on the light side for heating. Depending on exposed wall, windows, insulation and climate, that may be enough, it may not.
Generally electric under-floor heating is intended to only warm up the floor and increase the comfort level in a room that is already sufficiently heated. I'm sure that something powerful enough to actually heat the room could be installed, but you'd need something better than the standard mats.
You could replace the radiator with a baseboard unit or some such. Combined with under-floor heating a smaller baseboard unit would probably keep things comfortable. But you should have a knowledgeable heating person evaluate the setup first.
OK, confused2 got bit by the bug.