For starters, radiant heating systems are quieter than a forced air system, the only source of noise you will tend to notice will be the pump and boiler, and if positioned with consideration this should not be an issue in itself.

Hydronic heat systems, particularly under floor heating, warms objects as much as it does the air, this means you don’t loose all the heat when you (or some inconsiderate so-and-so) opens a door or window and lets out all the ‘warm air’.

Heated floors feel great. When you crawl out of bed or leap out of the shower you just cant beat the feeling of a warm floor under your feet. Once you’ve experienced this advantage you’ll never, ever want to lose it!

Radiant heating systems are generally the most efficient way of heating your home, although this can vary from situation to situation and different installation and fuel types. Again the main reason for this is the way heat is dissipated and stored, rather than blown around a property.

Unlike warm air systems hydronic heat systems to not blow around dust or allergens in the home, for those with asthma, hayfever and other allergies this can be a real godsend, and could offer fantastic every day health benefits.

Hydronic heat systems are also flexible in the variety of heat sources that can be used to warm the water in the system from gas heaters and boilers, electric boilers, the increasingly popular wood boiler as well as solar and geothermal energy in hydronic pump systems.

Hydronic under floor heating doesn’t waste energy heating the air above your heads. Warmer air rises, so heating from the ground up makes perfect sense. It keeps you and your family cosy, but doesn’t heat the room above your heads so much.

As you can see there are many pros to the various hydronic heat systems available, and we’ll be looking at them all in the future.

Hydronic heat pumps are relatively uncommon at the time of writing, but have the potential to be one of the most efficient types of electrical central heating. They take advantage of the refrigeration cycle to extract heat from the earth or even water into and around a building.

Closed loop hydronic heat pump systems are probably the most widely recognised and take heat from the earth using large loops of pipe buried in the ground. These loops move heat from the earth to your home using water in the pipes to pump the warmth from the soil around the loop in your home, and then the cooled water returns to the pipes in the earth.

Hydronic heat pump systems that extract heat from water, for example from a lake, are less common and referred to as “open loop” systems as the system is open to the atmosphere.

Hydronic heat pumps are, perhaps unsurprisingly, best suited to well insulated, airtight homes. This is due to the heat they provide being of a relatively low temperature, meaning they simply cannot compensate for the heat loss of more inefficient homes. Put simply hydronic heat pumps are not currently capable of producing the high temperatures most radiators and convection heater require. In contrast, other heating methods, in particular radiant floors, are ideally suited for use with hydronic heat pumps.

We’ll be exploring various forms of hydronic heat systems in the near future.