RADIANT HEAT – GOOD OR BAD?
What is radiant heat? A heating system which uses hot water, steam pipes or electric resistance coils to heat the floors, walls or the ceilings of a room.
I wanted to share my thoughts about this kind of heating system.
All of us expirienced at one point or the other when water pipes broke. We call a plumber that opens a wall. After he does his work we are left with an open wall and mess of debris mixed with water. Not really pleasant, right? What about the mold that can start growing if walls or floors are not dried out well?
Now with radiant heat you can experienced exactly the same. Besides you might want to ask your HOA or property management additional questions before considering moving to a unit with radiant heat.
Is the water/steam boiler turned on all year long? A lot of buildings will turn it on for example on November 1st and turn it off on April 1st. What about if it is cold between April and November? What about if it is hot in February and you don’t even have a switch in your unit to regulate the heat?
I used to manage a building with radiant heat and believe me it was the biggest pain in the neck all winter long. Every winter I was waiting for warmer days when I can be over with calling people to repair the system. In that building we needed to shut off the heat in the whole building when a problem in one of the units arose.
Being from Europe I grew up on radiant heat and I saw my parents who needed to break new kitchen tiles to repair a broken heat pipe. Not pleasant at all. Not cheap. And according to doctors not very good for your feet if the raidiant heat is installed in your floors.
This is just my opinion based on the above mentioned experiences.
