Radiant Heating near you

A forced-air system heats air at the furnace and pushes it through ducts, so rooms warm quickly but the heat arrives in bursts, and the air carries dust and fan noise with it. Radiators, baseboards and panels sit in the room and warm what they face while setting up a slow, gentle air movement. Natural Resources Canada describes radiant heat sources as warming solid bodies, such as people, in their line of sight without having to heat all the surrounding air.

The trade-offs cut both ways. Radiant systems are quiet and don't stir up dust, but they don't cool, so a house without ducts needs another answer for air conditioning, such as ductless heat pumps, and its fresh air has to come from an HRV or ERV rather than a furnace fan. Water-based systems also respond more slowly than forced air, which rewards steady thermostat settings over deep swings.

Natural Resources Canada describes air-to-water heat pumps as heating or cooling water for homes with hydronic distribution such as low-temperature radiators, radiant floors or fan coil units. They run most efficiently when heating water below 45 to 50°C, which makes floors and fan coils a better match, and NRCan advises care with high-temperature radiators that need water above 60°C, since that generally exceeds the limits of most residential heat pumps.

That doesn't rule out an older radiator house. A heat-loss calculation, ideally after insulation and air-sealing work, may show that the existing radiators can do the job with cooler water for most of the winter, with a few rooms upsized and a boiler kept for the coldest days. The controls then decide which source runs, and the outdoor unit needs a spot clear of drifting snow and roof runoff. Some units can also cool through fan coils, which radiators can't do.

Zoning lets parts of the house run at different temperatures. In a hydronic system, each zone's thermostat opens a zone valve or starts its own circulator, and NRCan notes that zone control can reduce energy use and that a heating contractor can advise on and install the equipment. Typical splits are floor by floor, a basement or addition on its own, and bedrooms kept cooler than living areas.

Balancing comes next: NRCan points out that simple manual valves on radiators can adjust the heat each room receives, much as dampers do in ductwork. Electric baseboards and panels are zoned by design, with a thermostat for each room or group of heaters. Many tiny hydronic zones can make a boiler cycle on and off too often, so a buffer tank or a modulating boiler is often part of a zoned design.

Hydronic work combines piping, heating equipment and, with a gas or oil boiler, fuel work. In Ontario the fuel side belongs to a fuels contractor registered with the TSSA; in Quebec, heating contractors hold a licence from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, and any gas work goes to a specialized contractor who is a CMMTQ member. Other provinces license the trades their own way.

Electric baseboards, radiant panels and their line-voltage thermostats run on household current, so they are installed by a licensed electrician, not a homeowner. In Ontario, the Electrical Safety Authority says a notification of work is filed before electrical work begins; in Quebec, the CMEQ says only an electrical contractor may carry out electrical work for others. Adding many heaters can also mean checking the panel's capacity.