Category Archives: Radiant Heat News

Radiant Heat News

Clear Driveways All Winter Long with Heated Driveways

Snow Melting Systems go to Work so you Don’t Have to

What if every time you looked out your front frosted window panes from January through April you saw pristine, sparkling pavement glistening in the sun where once only snow and ice piled up in perplexing amounts? That is the blissful reality for those who have a heated driveway. Putting a heated driveway to work for you, pulls the work load off your weary shoulders and places it squarely on the radiant snow melting system. Snow can be cleared as it falls instead of accumulating in frustrating amounts while you visit grandma over Christmas or take a tropical vacation mid-February to escape the doldrums of winter.

Heated concrete driveway for mountain lodge

The best news is that installing driveway heating requires minimal effort or upfront cost to make having a heated driveway a reality. In order to ensure a clear driveway all winter long you can add a fully automated snow melting system before your driveway is poured or laid. If you have an existing driveway, don’t feel left out in the cold, you too can enjoy a heated driveway. Driveway heating can be placed in your current asphalt or concrete driveway, making a retrofit a great home improvement project.

Snow shoveling can become a distant memory and you can enjoy clear driveways all winter long with the addition of a heated driveway to your home plans. The snow melting systems are automated so the system efficiently works when a snowstorm hits, whether you’re at work, in bed, or on vacation.

Radiant Heat News

Driveway Heating Technology Stands the Test of Time

Heated Driveway Equipped with Automated Snow Sensors Proven to Last

Being the first to test out an unknown product can be scary, especially if we’ve invested a lot of time and money. Driveway heating technology isn’t new but people often wonder if the radiant snow melting systems are built to last and stand the test of winter over and over again. Year after year homeowners enjoy the benefits of snow melting systems. What has their use over time told us? That heated driveways are meant to last and to improve the value of your home.

Heated driveway in Denver
An electric heated driveway in action.

If you are just coming upon the savvy heated driveway scene, you are in luck. The technology has been tested and proven time and again with many happy snow-free customers. Installing a heated driveway system right now is not only a smart move for your property it is also fully automated and hands-free. You can sit inside your warm home, reading a good book with a blanket on your lap and watch with contentment as the snow falls outside, knowing you’ll never have to pick up a shovel. You can reserve your snow clothes for fun outdoor recreation like cross-country skiing or snowmobiling instead of clearing snow from your driveway.

With the help of a snow melting system control unit you can install a heated driveway and never worry about it. A wall-mounted control unit uses smart technology to detect precipitation and outside temperatures, thereby turning your system on and off when, and only when, it is needed. The heated driveway system controller is easy-to-use and consists of a timer and digital operator interface with manual override capability. Even the ancient Romans used principals similar to radiant heat and humans have only perfected since then. Driveway heating has been around for a long time and will be around for a long time to come.

Radiant Heat News

Why Should You Use Electric Radiant Floor Heat?

If you’re going to invest in a new heating solution, you are also going to do your homework before that investment. Why should you use electric radiant floor heat versus more traditional home heating methods? Radiant floor heating works like the sun and warms the objects around it, not just the air, creating a more comforting and effective heat. This method of electric radiant floor heat is also more efficient since it can radiate heat to objects rather than cold air.

Electric radiant floor heating systems evenly distribute radiant heat throughout the floor area and gently warms the objects like furniture and curtains surrounding it. This type of system doesn’t use any blowing warmed air which cuts down on dust too. Your overall environment is healthier with less potential allergens floating around your breathing space.

Radiant floor heating has another big advantage because it distributes heat in the most dramatically efficient direction; from the bottom to the top. Heat naturally rises, and radiant floor heating systems capitalize on this simple principle. Plus it spreads the heat evenly across your flooring surface, eliminating cold pockets that just never seem to get heated. Forced air systems simply can’t compete with efficiency, heating potential, comfort, and cleanliness.

Radiant Heat News

How Does a Snow Sensor Work with a Heated Driveway?

Driveway Heating is 100 Percent Automated

If you think installing a snow melting system sounds complicated, think again. Radiant driveway heating is easier than ever to achieve. Not only are the heated driveway systems more affordable than ever, but snowmelt systems can be installed at any stage of construction. Even if you are already living in your home, you can still enjoy a heated driveway. A snow melting system can be retrofitted into both concrete and asphalt driveways. And these systems utilize a smart snow sensor which activates the system only when needed, making them fully automated and keeping your driveway clear of snow and ice ‘round the clock.

Aerial mount snow sensor

A major perk to using a Warmzone snowmelt system, is that once it is installed you won’t have to worry about turning it on or off – not to mention never having to shovel snow again. The snow sensor detects precipitation and temperature levels (usually set at 39° F.) to signal the master controller and activate the system when conditions warrant. This results in a streamlined, highly efficient heated driveway system. Your heated driveway works only when there is enough snow to warrant use, so you save operation costs while enjoying the value added benefits it provides to your property.

A heated driveway system is a convenient way to face winter head on. Using a fully automated system means never having to worry about whether or not it’s working or whether or not it is watching the weather report like you are. It senses the moisture, turns itself on and works while you sleep. You can wake up in the morning after a big storm and not hassle with your snow gear and snow plows. Just start your car and ease on to your snow-free heated driveway.

Radiant Heat News

Are Radiant Heated Floors All or Nothing?

Small Spaces Shine with Radiant Floor Heat

When you tackle a home improvement project you want it to be perfect. You want to get the biggest bang for your buck, the most sophisticated designs, and obviously incredibly efficient output. That is a natural feeling as you protect one of the largest investments you’ll make; your home. Piecing little projects together here and there can be frustrating and cost a bundle in the long run.

Installing radiant heat for heated bathroom floor

Radiant floor heating may sound like an intimidating home improvement on the surface, as many people worry that they have to do all the floors in their home or nothing at all. Electric radiant heated floors actually shine in small rooms and spaces. These efficient systems are designed to add extra warmth to tiled entry ways, colder bathrooms, or eternally cool basements.

Radiant floor heating is a great way to primarily heat your home as well and can easily be done in every room of your home, but underfloor heat is definitely not an all-or-nothing type of home heating. Small spaces benefit greatly from underfloor heat simply because radiant heat can produce much more efficient heat than traditional methods of heating. Using it to heat your entire home is a smart choice as well. Radiant heat technology is more sophisticated than ever and allows the heat to penetrate each surface of your room, from the ground to the ceiling. Radiant heat allows heat to rise naturally, rather than be forced through ducts in the ceiling. Considering radiant heated floors is a big deal, but doesn’t have to be an all or nothing deal. Pick and choose the system that is right for you and enjoy heated floors in part, or in your entire home for added warmth and efficiency.

Radiant Heat News

Which Season is Best to Install Radiant Floor Heat?

It’s Always Time for Underfloor Heat

We all think about the need for home heating during the winter but does that make the coldest season the ideal time to install radiant floor heat? Not necessarily as installing the heat means there is a small period when you are without heat as you finish the installation. It is the time when home heating is forefront on our minds, but any time of year is appropriate to install radiant floor heat.

If you consider purchasing underfloor heating during spring or summer, you may catch a supplier with excess inventory offering a discount or promotion. This is typically the slow time of year for these types of radiant heating systems so there may be a good deal out there for the taking. Radiant floor heat is a good investment no matter what time of year you install it, as this type of home heating is gaining in popularity.

The efficiency and affordability of underfloor heating is becoming a major selling point and more and more home are being built with radiant heated floors. Winter might be the time of year you think about and use underfloor heat but there are plenty of early spring morning or fall afternoons that you’ll be glad you had the foresight to install radiant floor heat. The radiant heat takes the nasty chill out of your floors, leaving them toasty to walk on.

Radiant Heat News

Can I have Driveway Heating with an Odd Shaped Driveway?

Custom Heated Driveways

The nice thing (or at least one of the nicest things) about driveway heating is that it is versatile and flexible enough to accommodate different shapes of driveways and sidewalks. Straight or curved, looped or choppy, driveway heat can be applied to almost any size or shape. Once the snow melting system is in place, whatever shape it may be, you are assured that snow melting will occur seamlessly and effortlessly all winter long.

Heated patio and sidewalks
Heated patio and sidewalk.

Having a driveway heating expert help you design your system is probably the best advice we can give. Someone with knowledge about the different types of cables and heating systems will be able to identify your unique needs pertaining to the driveway heating project you are hoping to accomplish. An expert can lay out the proper heating cable scenarios, estimate how much cable you’ll need and how installation should be done.

Radiant heated driveways can span an entire driveway or just tire paths in cases where the driveway is long and winding, making the costs a bigger issue. Regardless of where your heated driveway needs to run, Warmzone can aid you in making informed decisions about which type of radiant snow melting system would suit you best and how to tackle the installation. Heating cables that lie coiled beneath your driveway add convenience, value, and efficiency to your home.

Radiant Heat News

Fever Dreams and In Floor Heating

Radiant Floor Heating Offers Heat Around the Clock

This time of year there are epic bugs going around being shared from shopping cart to door handles to school libraries back to your front door, making us all susceptible to getting sick. Fevers offer that awful feeling of being a million degrees then swinging to the other side of the spectrum in chilled shakes. One thing I’ve always felt happy about when I have a fever accompanied by the aches and pains associated with that pleasant buggy feeling, is that radiant floor heating is never too hot or too cold when I’m sick. In floor heating just always feels good.

Radiant heated floors provide consistent warmth and comfort around the clock. No matter what time of day or night you find yourself wandering zombie like to and from bed, your feet will be taken care of with appropriate levels of heat. (Or, you can program the system so that it only heats just before you get up in the morning and then shuts off in the evening when you go to bed.) Even in your haziest fever dreams you’ll be able to get to the bathroom or kitchen in relative comfort. Radiant floor heat is especially nice for the times you are chilled to the bone and can’t seem to get warm enough, no matter how many layers you’ve piled on. No one will judge you if you lay right down on the warmest spot of your radiant heated floor and soak in the power of radiant heat. The beauty about radiant heat is that is spreads around to make contact with everything in its path. In floor heat is consistent and affordable and luxurious even in the fog of your deepest fevers.

Radiant Heat News

How Much Space Do ECO-heaters Require?

Minimal Space Requirements, Maximum Heating

ECO-Heaters are compact thin electric panel heaters that mount on the wall and safely emit heat. One benefit of ECO-heaters is that they are mounted on the wall, saving valuable floor real estate. The heater dimensions are 23¼ x 23¼ x ⅜-inches and weighs approximately 15 pounds. Each heater package contains one 400 watt electric panel heater, mounting kit, installation instructions and Styrofoam packaging that also serves as a convenient mounting template.

ECO-heater panel heater

ECO-heaters are designed to be mounted approximately 6-8 inches above the floor, giving the heat a chance (and plenty of space) to rise and sufficiently heat a smaller space. Ideal for bathrooms, kitchens, even offices, the ECO-heater is an efficient method of heating a room. There is a ¾-inch gap between the heater and the wall allowing cold air to be drawn behind the heating panel. The gap is small enough to allow the cold air to heat quickly and rise from the gap at the top of the heating panel of the ECO-heater. Cool air cycles into the gap behind the heater as well and natural circulation of heated air cycles continually. This natural convection takes away the need for a fan, which increases the heater’s efficiency and decreases the need for more space devoted to this compact wall mounted heater. You can find them for less than $130, making them an affordable and compact way to heat any chilly space.

Radiant Heat News

Tired of Shoveling, Plowing and Salting Snow?

Installing a Heated Driveway Makes Winter Easier to Bear

Are you among the millions out there thinking snow blows? Snow is a drag, a burden, a hazard, and a load many of us have to bear. Even though snow totally blows and every time you shovel your driveway you die a little inside, you may not know there is an affordable alternative to back-breaking snow removal – radiant heat.

A heated driveway is a snow removal treat well within reach. Driveway heating makes winter so much easier to bear, because instead of spending time and energy clearing your driveway, the fully-automated snow removal system does it for you.

Driveway heating is not a new invention but it is a new possibility for the average homeowner. Once deemed something only the uppity-ups could afford, driveway heating is showing up in new and not-so-new neighborhoods all over where the snow can be found in abundance. Radiant snow melting is accomplished by installing heat cable just beneath the surface of your driveway, connecting it to a power source, and installing a smart snow sensor that automatically detects when the system needs to power on. As long as there is snow and ice accumulating around it, the heated driveway stays clear and safe from the burden and hazards of piles of snow.