I’m putting in a tile kitchen floor and am strongly considering installing an under floor warming system to keep the winter chill away. Do you know of any reviews of different products? Has anyone used the step warmfloor system? Thanks in advance.
Bleu
There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
Replies
Never step warmfloor, but have installed watts radiant - suntouch and warm wire.
I'm familiar with it now so biased.
Watts has an alarm you hook up to the mat during installation. If you damage the circuit in the matt/wire it beeps. Good insurance.
What do you think these systems typically add to the height of the finished floor? I was thinking it would add 1/8" to 3/16".
Of the products you've installed, which do you think is the best?There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
Sorry for delayed reply.
Working.
Watt's radiant 'suntouch' adds no more than 1/4. 'Warm wire' seems to add a little more due to the tracks you use to spread out the wire, and its thickness.
'Warmwire' I like because it's more configurable--meaning you buy the spool in any length, then can spread it out over the floor in varying spacing--closer hotter, further cooler. And it can be spread out across the floor in any type of shape.
'Suntouch' has fixed spacing, and can only be laid out in varying "L" patterns, by cutting the plastic mat that the wire is housed in. If you have a square room, and layout, or "L" shape, it's quick.
Best,
Pat
Thanks Pat. I am going back and forth trying to decide if it's worth the extra money and hassle to install a floor warming system. If I went with suntouch it would cost me about $900 additional. I don't want to do all the work of tearing out a layer of luan, installing hardi and tile then regret for twenty years I didn't keep my feet warm. Do you have this system in your house?There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
Yes I do have it in our kitchen.
Our place is a drafty 30's bungalow and we try to heat with wood. There's an old electric forced air monster that can triple electric bills if used much... The kitchen was always very cold.
I put 120v warmwire spaced 2.5" OC over 1/4" hardi and 12x12 slate tiles on top--about 200sf.
We run the radiant on their programable thermostat (which has improved--I found when I put it in a bath for a client about 3 mos ago) which runs a 'hot' morning and evening program. Floor is up b4 we are @ 75 or 80 degs then shuts down during the day and back up at night.
It costs another 15 or 20 bucks on the electric bill but we noticed the room is comfortably warm all the time now. I'd say it h eats that room, certainly. All that stone mass.
And when you step on it in your sockfeet............ahhhhhhh.
I highly rec. it. Especially if the room is already cold.
Oh, yeah... look into warmwire vs. the suntouch, or another mat. The bigger the installation, the less the warmwire cost.
Our 200sf kitchen, warmwire materials were 4-500$ IIRC.
I'll check out the warmwire. Do you remember how much it added to the floor height? The suntouch looks like it'll add about 1/8".There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
Warmwire is a hair taller than suntouch. You'll use a coiled strap with all these tabs on it, either nailed or spray adhesive to the floor to run the wire back and forth on. They add some height.
Count on about 1/4" max.
The cables themselves seem beefier than suntouch mat.
Pat
Did you buy it direct? Where do you think has the best price?There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
I have a Florida Tile account locally. They've got it--they only sell to cont. here tho.
I would call Watts Radiant directly and ask for local distributor. See where it goes from there.
Suntouch floor mat can be had anywhere, but the warmwire, it seems, comes from the tile dist.
Pat
We're getting ready to build in UP Michigan in the next 3 to 6 months, and the boss (wife) and I are considering radiant floor throughout the first floor. The wife's concern is that a warm floor in the kitchen might make the kitchen too warm when we're cooking a large meal. Any thoughts? How about carpet with radiant floor heating? I know carpeting would effectively be insulation over the slab, but who doesn't like carpeting? :-) Thanks...
The reason I mention stepwarmfloor is that they use a different technology. The others all use an electric blanket type of approach--heating wires connected to 110 or 220 and a thermostat. The step warmfloor uses low voltage with two wires connected by carbon imbedded plastic. When the floor is cold the carbon reacts, using low voltage, and creates heat. This system does not require a thermostat. you can even nail through it without damaging it. Very interesting question about cooking a large meal and having the floor add more heat to the room. I'll ask the rep when they call me in the next day or so.
Bleu There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
Another reason i was intrigued by stepwarmfloor is the other brands all use 110 or 220 voltage. Stepwarmfloor is low voltage. i have heater coils on my roof to melt the snow from the edges and I see a noticable difference in my heating bill in the winter when those are turned on,.There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
DrugCzar,
You need to explain things to your wife..
Explain to her that her feet are the furthest away from her heart and thus they will always be coldest. Infloor radiant heat warms the feet first and make the rest of the body feel very comfortable because of it.. Thus the rest of the house is comfortable at a cooler temp.
If you haven't built yet I'd have the whole house use infloor radiant heat.. I can't begin to explain to you just how comfortable in floor radiant heat is compared to forced air..
My grandparents had in floor heat back in the late 1940's and That house was so comfortable to live in compared to the same sized house my dad had with forced air heat..
I've put it in my new house and aside from saving on the heating bills dramatically I can walk around barefoot all winter and still feel plenty warm when the temps are set around 67. It's kind of wierd looking out at the deep snow and I'm in my T shirt and barefoot but nice and comfortable..
>> Explain to her that her feet are the furthest away from her heart and thus they will always be coldest.Nice... Nice... That explanation will get me bonus points with her as well. Please don't mind if I plagiarize your words as mine! :-)
DrugCzar,
I plagerized them as well, enjoy!
We've had Step Warmfloors in both bathrooms for the last couple of years. We replaced gas/forced air with it because the branch that heated the bathrooms was not done well and that whole section of house was cold. By cutting the load in half, we hoped to improve the heating in the bedrooms. It did. The old rooms are warmer, though still not as warm as I'd hoped, and the bathrooms are the most comfortable rooms in the house. The tile installer put a mud bed over the thermoplastic. This worked well on the install over wooden subfloor, not so well over concrete. For the wood floor install the electrician had stapled down the thermoplastic, for the concrete he didn't and it floated to the top of the mud bed. My lesson? Anchor it when you install it. This was the first install of this for my contractor and electrician, and I think for the tile guy even though he said he knew what he was doing.
The downside? It uses low voltage, which means that you have this big honking transformer that you need to find a place for. The transformer buzzes and it gets HOT, so you want to put it somewhere the noise won't bother you but that it is safe from contact with flammables. Plus, I'm not an electrician, but I'd think if you put it in a tiny cabinet that it might not last as long. The product does use a thermostat, but it is built into the transformer and you can buy another for extra money if you don't like the factory presets. We end up turning off the breaker in the spring and turning it back on when it gets cold for good. Electric use is pretty good - I think we are net close to zero because the forced air fan doesn't have to run as much heating the whole house.
Thanks. This may seem like a dumb question .....but.....What would you compare the buzzing sound to, volume-wise? Is it a constant buzzing? If put under the sink, would it be audible?
BleuThere are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin
It is not a constant buzzing, only when there is a power request from the warmfloor, then it will seem constant for several minutes. I don't notice ours unless I go in the closet where it is located, or in the deep of the night. It does get a bit louder each year, as I didn't notice it the first year at all.
Personally, I wouldn't consider putting electrical stuff under the sink, I'd put it in a different cabinet.
I would definitely make room in your budget for a warming system.
We have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of floor warming systems we have installed over the past year.
We install a lot of custom tile work and have seen the number go from 10% to better than 50%. Homeowners are making room in the budget for what was considered a luxury and is now considered almost standard.
Most every client that has opted out of a system has regretted it after a few months.
We mainly use the Warmly Yours line voltage system for 2 reasons. We belong to a buying group that they are also in(we get back a % for each system bought); and the open mesh mat system they use allows me to pour self leveling directly over the isntall which decreases my installation time.
Haven't had any problems with any of the installs, only compliments.
sully
I'm going to go for it. I'm not sure about warmly yours. i'll check into it. So far warm wires looks good for my budget and quality of the product.There are more old drunkards than old doctors. Ben Franklin