Recently John Thiffault of Carriage Lane Homes was recognized by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for building homes that maximize health and efficiency. So what is it about Thiffault’s homes that set them apart from other homes, and make them safer and more efficient? Well, using floor warming mats to heat the home is the primary way he does this.

Health Benefits. Floor warming mats, which provide radiant heat, improve the air quality, this is especially important for anyone who suffers from either dust allergies or asthma. Floor heating provides ample heat alleviating a breeding ground for germs to multiply not to mention the added benefit of not having change filters or clean heat ducts.

Health experts also claim that floor heating via floor warming mats can help in eliminating dust mites that live in our homes, and since dust mites love a warm moist environment, towel heaters aid in maintaining a consistent room temperature and keep it moisture free. Furthermore, mold and mildew are also caused from excessive moisture especially in bathrooms with insufficient ventilation. By placing radiant heaters or a radiant heat towel rack in the bathroom you can combat the spread of germs for only pennies a day.

Efficiency. Radiant heaters are also on of the most efficient form of heat available. Significantly less operating time is required to maintain the desired warmth compared to furnaces and other methods of heating keeping operational costs to a minimum. High efficiency boilers or electric radiant floor systems makes radiant heat one of your most efficient ways to heat your home. Coupled with a well insulated home these systems can quickly warm your home and then shut down or wait idle for long periods of time before being called upon by the thermostat to operate.

I remember when my grandfather bought a new car that had heated seats — we all wondered why he’d bother with such a frivolous feature. That is, until the first time we got into that car on a cold winter’s night and instead of waiting until we were halfway to our destination for the car to heat up, freezing ourselves silly, he flipped a switch and — wow! The car seats heated up very quickly and we were all nice and toasty warm. No one questioned the wisdom of heated seats in Grandpa’s car after that.

Similar to a car with heated seats, floor warming mats provide your home with the same radiant heat. As opposed to forced air home heating systems, floor warming mats are an efficient and environmentally friendly way to heat your home, with the added benefits of quick results and long-lasting heat.

Floor warming mats, which produce evenly distributed radiant heat in your floors, will allow you to turn down your thermostat two to four degrees. This can reduce energy costs by as much as 40%. This setback to your thermostat is possible because a floor warming mats heat from the ground up, delivering heat through objects rather than the air. This makes the lowest three feet of your home the most comfortable, and evenly heats your area as the heat rises. As opposed to a forced air system which loses heat to the ceiling, heating your home from the top down. Delivering heat by air also allows heat to escape, which increase your overall heat loss.

Ready for a bold statement? You will not regret having warm tile in your home. Floor warming systems are a distinguishing feature to any home and provide much needed heat to tile floors. SunTouch ^® electric radiant heating mats by Watts Radiant are designed to gently heat tile and stone floors in bathrooms, kitchens, entry ways and sunrooms. SunTouch systems are very cost-effective solutions for smaller spaces (1-5 rooms) because they are easy to install and have a very low start-up cost. An electric digital thermostat is all that is required to operate an under tile heating system by SunTouch and costs only about $100-$200.

You need only to take a quick look and you’ll see how SunTouch floor mats offer many advantages over a warm-water system. Floor buildup is kept to minimum and there are no structural weight loads to consider, common challenges to a traditional hot water radiant heating system. SunTouch mats are installed directly onto concrete board or the sub-floor just prior to setting the tile or stone. SunTouch customers benefit from a faster installation of which most DIY homeowners can tackle. If you are not up for the task, most tile setters already have experience with SunTouch floor warming systems and can easily add this to their installation.

Whether you’re looking to reduce your electricity bill to reduce the strain on your pocketbook, or just concerned about energy usage in light of environmental issues, you can start with your heating systems. Heating our places is one of our greatest energy hogs. By taking a few steps, you can cut down the amount of electricity you use to heat your home. You’ll save money, as well as have a favorable impact on the environment.

Get heat where it’s needed. I remember a conversation I had with my grandpa a couple of years ago when he was complaining about his gas bill after a cold winter. What surprised me is that the money he and my grandma spent heating their home for the two of them was almost the same we spent heating our house for a full family. Why? Because many forced air systems are inefficient, and don’t provide a way to heat specific rooms, while bypassing rooms that are used less frequently. The ability to heat only the rooms you use could save you a lot of money during cold winter months. It doesn’t make sense to heat a guest bedroom that is used a few times a year. However, most forced air systems don’t give us a choice.

This problem can be easily solved, however, by utilizing radiant heat in the form of floor warming mats. Floor warming mats give you the ability to heat specific rooms, without heating other rooms that are used less frequently. Not only are floor warming mats extremely efficient, but the ability to heat only the rooms you use the most will help cut your heating bills, sometimes by as much as half.

The installation of electric floor heating is not new. In fact, heated floors have been installed under bathroom and kitchen tile in the United States for the past 10 years. These floor warming mats continue to gain popularity. Many in the kitchen and bath industry expect radiant floors to continue to play a big role among homeowners who crave comfort features.

Joan McCloskey, editorial marketing director for Better Homes and Gardens magazine, told home builders at the 2003 International Builders Show that the use of floor warming mats to heat bathroom tile is on the list of must-have comforts. “Our bathrooms set the mood for the day and homeowners want it light, comfortable, and cheerful,” she said. “Toys in this room and the master include heated floors, little refrigerators, steam showers with multiple shower heads, soaking tubs, towel warmers, fireplaces, and coffee nooks.”

These thin electric floor warming mats have been very popular in bathrooms and kitchens for a long time. However, the installation of these systems under carpet and hardwood was not practical because they needed to be embedded in a layer of thin-set cement, which you normally don’t use when you install a new carpet or floating wood floor. As a result, very few people would opt for a heated floor under carpet or floating wood. However, now with the introduction of floor warming mats, you can get heated floors under carpets, hardwood, and other flooring without the need for cement under layers.

With the current housing market being so unpredictable, an increasing number of homeowners are opting to stay put in their homes, rather than buy a new home. They find that one way to make their current home a better fit for them is to remodel the kitchen or bathroom, or upgrade the home’s heating systems. While there isn’t a single heating system out there that is an ideal fit for every project, there is an ideal system for every project. SunTouch ^® can provide you with the right floor warming systems for your home, as well as consult with you on which systems would be the best fit for your project.

It’s stood the test of time. Not a lot of people realize that home heating systems that run underneath the floors are not exactly new inventions, but the truth is that this form of heating was first used by the Romans. Naturally, there have been some major improvements since the Romans first came up with the idea.

Hydronic under floor heating systems are some of the most popular forms of radiant floor warming systems that SunTouch can provide. These hydronic systems are ideal for remodeling and most new construction projects.

Is there anything worse the crawling out of a nice warm bed and then stepping onto ice cold bathroom tile? In my opinion, there aren’t many things worse than that. What a great way to get your day off to a rotten start. However, SunTouch^® floor warming mats provide a convenient solution to this age-old problem. Thanks to the technology behind these floor warming mats, you can have heated floors in every room of your home.

So, how do these floor warming mats work? Well, they draw upon the principles of radiant heat to provide a comfortable and efficient heating alternative for your home.
A good analogy for radiant floor heating to forced air is a car that has heated seats and a forced air heater/furnace. The forced air in a car can dry you out and can become uncomfortable and is difficult to dial in because of the heat loss due to its air delivery. A heated seat will provide you with quick results and will remain warm long after it is reduced or turned completely off. The heated seat actually warms your body and the car seat, not the air. Forced air will over time will inefficiently heat objects but with the negative side effects of dry air, dust and pollen.

If you’re remodeling, or building a new home, you should checkout the line of SunTouch floor warming mats.

Electric radiant heat is a growing trend that started in Europe and is now becoming well known in North America for its distinct benefits, and SunTouch ^® heating products are leading the way for this new type of heating. Instead of warming air and then circulating it throughout your home using ducts and vents, electric radiant heat is embedded under your floor and uses the entire floor to evenly distribute low-temperature heat.

Although SunTouch offers a variety of methods and technologies one can choose from, the benefits of radiant heat are the same. Electric radiant heat is a unique transfer of energy that naturally searches out colder objects to warm. Instead of rising like warm air, radiant heat starts by warming the coldest and closest objects from its source in any direction. Since floors are usually cold, radiant heating systems are commonly placed under them.

Electric radiant heat is available for many different applications, including bathrooms, kitchens, heated towel racks, and heated walls and ceilings.  To find the right radiant heating system for your home, contact the staff at SunTouch.  Their knowledgeable and friendly staff can help you find the system that matches your needs, along with your budget.

Many homeowners love the look of tile, wood, or floating woods but dread stepping out of their soothing shower onto cold tile, especially during those frigid winter months. And many love tile or wood in their kitchens and living areas but worry about their little ones playing and running around on cold floors. That’s why so many are opting to install floor warming mats to warm up their floors. The installation of floor warming mats is not new. In fact, floor warming mats have been installed under bathroom and kitchen tile in the United States for the past 10 years and these floor heating products continue to gain popularity. Many in the kitchen and bath industry expect heated floors to continue to play a big role among homeowners who crave comfort, and efficiency.  Efficiency because evenly distributed radiant heat in your floors will allow you to turn down your thermostat two to four degrees. This can reduce energy costs by 10-40%. This setback to your thermostat can happen because a radiant floor heats from the ground up and delivers the heat through objects not air. This makes the lowest three feet of your home the most comfortable where a forced air system loses its heat to the ceiling and is required to heat from the top down. Delivering heat by air also makes it easy to escape and increase your overall heat loss.

You don’t have to worry that it’ll be an impossible task, even if you’ve ever tried to update, or install a new heating system in an older home and you’re well aware of how difficult this can be. A lot of older homes that were once heated by wood burning stoves don’t have heating and air conditioning ducts with which to deliver the heat to the different rooms of the house.

Installing these ducts after the fact can not only be difficult, but is also very costly. However, there is a solution to adding heating to homes that have not been built for traditional forced air systems.This can be accomplished via floor warming mats, which are installed beneath your flooring.

Floor warming mats, as opposed to warm air systems (such as a forced air unit heaters), delivers the source of heat to the floor level, not the ceiling. Radiant heaters or radiant energy is the oldest form of heating used to provide comfort and is the basis for all heating systems. Radiant energy is totally pure radiation and is absorbed by an object without physical contact with the heat source or by heating the surrounding air, as is the case with convective, forced air systems.

Because floor warming mats can be installed under carpet, hard wood, tile, or other floor or wall surfaces they make adding heat to any room of the home very simple. Furthermore, radiant heaters offer more comfort than forced air heating by heating the atmosphere from the ground up. Since heat rises, the heat will be more evenly distributed, thereby providing a much more comfortable atmosphere.

Here’s the bottom line: radiant heaters are not only a comfortable, and cost effective heating solution, but they make installing heating in older homes much more easily, and can save you a lot of time and money.