Can Radient Floors Cool

Radiant cooling from a slab can be delivered to a space from the floor or ceiling.

Can radient floors cool. Radiant cooling is certainly efficient and can be comfortable but humidity must be controlled to keep cooling surfaces above dew point air movement is still required. Radiant cooling the only negative for radiant floor heating is that it s not so easy to use for cooling. In arid climates the cool floor can be used to supplement or replace standardducted air systems. The floor temperature is held at 68 o f 20 o c by using either a small cooling machine chiller connected to the floor tubing or thesteady 55 o f 13 o c temperature of the ground by means of an earthloop.

Since i have cold feet even summer radiant floor cooling is out. But mackay writes that he is building in climate zone 6a where humidity ranges between 20 and 35. Similarly water can accumulate on flooring cooled by a radiant floor cooling system. The reason is that heating is ideally delivered from the ground up.

Radiant heat provides warmth from the floor up throughout the room without any cold spots or stuffiness in the area being heated. Radiant floor heating systems are unobtrusive because the plastic tubing that distributes hot water around the house is buried in or under the floor. Since radiant heating systems tend to be in the floor the obvious choice would be to use the same piping for circulating cooled water. While this makes sense in some cases delivering cooling from the ceiling has several advantages.

For all practical purposes you must move air to cool and dehumidify. When the floor is cooled it is often referred to as radiant floor cooling. With a conventional forced air heating system the same ducts that deliver hot air through. Most home owners are familiar with the advantage of radiant floor heating versus centralized forced air heat but most home owners including builders have no idea that radiant floor cooling is possible and can be very cost effective for those building a home with hydronic heat.

In areas with high summer humidity water vapor can condense on cold water lines. Radiant floor tubing can also be used to cool a house but presently it is onlyappropriate for dry climates.