Radiant Heating and Cooling
THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO DO IT FOR CENTURIES
Radiant heating and cooling has been used for centuries in Europe and has become the standard for high efficiency distribution. Abacus uses Uponor, formerly Wirsbo, who specializes in engineering and producing the radiant tubing, panels and accessories. We also adopt their radiant design specifications to ensure the radiant system will operate at the highest efficiency.
Radiant heating can be installed a number of ways; radiant ceilings and walls, embedded in concrete or gypcrete, in-floor panels or staple up under floor. The most efficient system once installed is the embedded radiant floor. Radiant floor can be served by a number of sources. The most efficient source is solar thermal energy but it will be less efficient in bad weather. When these conditions occur, a condensing modulating boiler is the most efficient source and a cast iron boiler or tank less water heater will work depending on the application.
Radiant cooling can only be embedded in concrete to function. The flooring won’t matter but the radiant cooling will work better left uncovered. Because of these considerations, radiant cooling is widely used for commercial and custom home applications. In Canada and Europe, builders/designers cannot get close to allowable energy consumption levels without radiant cooling and heating. Solar based/boiler backup absorption chilling, conventional high efficiency chillers or ground source water can serve the radiant cooling panel. Feel free to visit www.uponor-usa.com.
