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Radiant Floor Heating Transforms A Cold Chicago Basement


radiant heat in a basement

This suburban Chicago basement was uncomfortably cold with inadequate heating vents providing little control over the room temperature. Resting on a cold concrete slab, the basement became an unused, unliveable room in the house. The homeowner, Heidi, decided to take matters into her own hands and turn the room into a liveable space for the whole family to enjoy time together.
To accomplish this, she installed an Environ II radiant floor heating system under her new free-floating laminate floor. When asked how she first learned about floor heating, Heidi responded “I lived in Germany where most houses have radiant floor heating, so I know all about warm floors.”

radiant heating in a basement floor
Before the flooring contractor installed the laminate wood, Heidi’s husband, Terry, first covered the entire basement floor with a layer of cork insulation . Then he laid out the Environ II radiant floor heating system right over it, all in one day! “Because the concrete slab acts as a heat sink, WarmlyYours recommended we install cork to maximize energy efficiency.” Terry added “Putting in the warm floor was much easier than I thought.”

Another important benefit that radiant floor heating adds to the basement is the reduction of moisture and mold. These moist conditions can trigger allergies and asthma. According to the American Society of Home Inspectors, “About 38% of homes have mold and fungus growth due to elevated moisture.” The drying effects of radiant floor heating reduce the moisture substantially creating a much healthier environment.

installing radiant heat under a basement floor
Once the Environ II system was operational and bringing supplemental warmth to the home heating system, the basement actually became too warm. Heidi says she plans to close most of the vents and simply let the radiant floor warming system do most of the work to keep the room nice and comfortable. As Heidi noted “Our kids are always running around barefoot in the basement now, it feels so much nicer.”

For more information about free-floating laminate or engineered wood floor heating, please visit:
https://www.warmlyyours.com/en-CA/products/floor-heating/carpet/

Victoria Hale
Marketing Communications



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Comments

This means that you and your housemates need to put great effort in remembering to lift and not drag furniture when moving them, use brooms with fine bristles and avoid doing any activities indoors that might cause scratches (no indoor hockey, please).

What a very nice blog that consist a very nice image. Thank you for sharing....

Does your electrical product create an electromagnetic field all over the floor surface and is the healthy for living beings: human and animal?

Figures my question about health concerns about your product would be censored!

Thanks for your comment, electric floor heating gives off a very minimal EMF, less than most modern household appliances.

For more information on electric floor heating and EMF please visit this page.
http://www.warmlyyours.com/faq/mostpopularsafety/

Wonderful concept. The first concern that comes to mind is termites and other pests. I checked the Enertia faq and it does not address this. Like previous posters,

It takes great care to maintain hardwood floors and knowledge on how to care for them the proper way.

this is a great way of conserving energy however i won't recommend it to homeowners with a tropical environment or very hot weather.

If it is affordable and not harmful why not. But if there is doubt on the product it much better to explain it further for a follow up on this blog.

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