Off Grid Radiant Floor Heating

Radiant heat applications use warm water 100 140 o f to heat your floor as opposed to baseboard heaters and radiators that use much hotter water 160 190 o f.

Off grid radiant floor heating. Radiant floor heat systems use solar power to heat water which is then pumped through your home s floor. Radiant floors transfer heat directly to furniture and feet in a room via infrared radiation and continue to heat by convection as the warmed air rises. The final method hydronic floor heating uses the same basic principles of traditional radiator heating. Use separate dc circulating pumps and control each by a thermostat for its zone rather than zone valves.

Electric radiant floor heating works well in a small space but as you can imagine becomes prohibitively expensive when used throughout an entire house unless you re generating most of your power off the grid. You can use solar heated water to heat your home off grid. Floor heating by hot water circulation requires power to circulate water. Again this would work on cold days that had sun that can heat the solar tubes before a pump pushes the air inside.

According to the doe energy saver website radiant floor heat is more efficient than either baseboard heating or forced air since no heat is lost through ducts. The system has a heated concrete floor in the lower level with four zones one for each bedroom and one for the bathroom and two hydronic baseboard registers upstairs. This system provides amazingly warm and comfy floors in the bedrooms. Air to air radiant heat in a similar manner to the previous idea on radiant heat a system could collect cooler air from outside and pass it through a solar heat collector that would heat the air before being piped into your home.

Radiant heat means using a heat source in the floors or walls to radiate heat outwards through the air as opposed to a forced air system which blows warm air through a series of vents. Here is how it works. The system heats a concrete floor in the lower level with four zones one for each bedroom and one for the bathroom and includes two hydronic baseboard registers upstairs. Use of 1 2 inch or larger floor pipes allows a lower power pump.

The radiant source can be electric elements but the amount of power to run such a system was prohibitive for us off the grid so we opted for a hydronic or water system. Radiant floor heating is a great option for a new cabin whether on or off grid.