Q–I’m thinking about remodeling my kitchen and I have hot water heat in my house. Would it be less expensive in the long run to keep the radiator we have there or to switch to some sort of beneath-the-floor heating system for the kitchen?
BTafoya@aol.com
A–An under-the-floor radiant heating system is a wonderful way to heat a room, especially a kitchen, but it’s fairly costly (more about that later).
As with a radiator, floor systems offer radiant heat, a much more comfortable and constant heat than the on-off heat of a forced-air furnace.
Floor systems even offer a couple of advantages over radiators.
First, the heat emanates from the floor, rising up to blanket most of the room with warmth. “That means the room will feel more comfortable than if it were heated with a radiator in the corner,” says Jim DeMaria, associate technical director with the Hydronics Institute, a trade association for manufacturers of boilers and baseboard heaters.
Typically, radiators are located on the outside walls of a room so that they counter the cold air that seeps in from outdoors.
“Walls get cold in the wintertime and those walls will then chill the air and that chilled air will fall from the outside walls to the floor,” says DeMaria.
In a kitchen, however, outside walls usually are designated for sinks and countertops and cabinets, misplacing the radiator to an inside wall. As a result, heated floor systems are a truly efficient way to warm a kitchen.
Plus, the floor is warm, notes John Marley, an administrator with the Energy Wise Homes program run by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. “Step on a heated tile floor with bare feet and you’ll know what I mean.”
Heated floor systems work through tubing that runs in a serpentine fashion through a thin layer of concrete or gypsum. In existing homes, sometimes the tubing is attached to the underside of an existing floor.
Hot water from a boiler passes through the tubing. The heat from the tubing is then transferred to the concrete, gypsum or flooring, which acts as a conductor to spread the heat evenly through the room.
Now, let’s talk about costs, the downside of a heated floor system.
Even though you’re remodeling the kitchen, making it an appropriate time to install a floor system, the installation would still be expensive, especially versus keeping your existing radiator.
It costs between $3 to $5 a square foot to install a new system underneath a floor, according to Larry Drake, the executive director of the Radiant Panel Association, a trade group of manufacturers of floor, wall and ceiling panels for radiant heat.
For a 10-by-20-foot kitchen, that’s $600 to $1,000 minimum. If you install the system in concrete or gypsum, add another $1 to $1.50 per square foot.
That cost is likely to be even higher for an existing home, reaching several thousand dollars for a typical kitchen.
There could be some additional costs. For example, if you’re hooking the system to an existing boiler, you’ll probably need to add a heat exchanger to cool down the hot water from the boiler for the floor system. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to walk on the floor because it would be too hot,” says DeMaria. Most radiators have a water temperature of between 160 and 180 degrees. A radiant floor system only needs a water temperature of between 90 and 100 degrees.
Once the system is installed, the room will feel warmer than it did with the radiator, so you’ll be able to turn down the thermostat a bit. That could save you $20 or so a month on your natural gas bill, or maybe $180 for the heating season.
So to recoup your initial investment, you’d have to run the system for 15 years or so. Most energy efficiency experts say 10 years should be a goal as far as a payback on your initial investment.
On the other hand, you’ll be getting a much more comfortable kitchen. And when you remove the existing radiator, you’ll also be freeing up some wall space that might be used for cabinets.
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Got a question about home energy or home environmental issues? Write to Energy Q&A, Chicago Tribune, Your Place section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60611. Or you can e-mail energy qa@aol.com. Questions will be answered only through the column.
