The Importance Of Industrial and Manufacturing Industries

The Importance Of Industrial and Manufacturing Industries

Boilers Versus Radiant Heating: Why You Might Choose One Over The Other

by Todd Edwards

Commercial heating options are rather limited. This is because commercial heat has to be able to heat a very large space. Only certain heating options are able to produce that much heat. You may employ boilers or radiant heat to accomplish this task. Here are their similarities and differences, and why you may choose one over the other to heat your building.

Boilers

Boilers produce heat by boiling water and collecting the hot steam. The hot steam is blown into the ventilation system and circulated throughout the building. The bigger the building, the bigger the boiler, or the more boilers in operation. 

Boilers, as long as they have a continuous supply of water to their system via the connected plumbing, will produce heat. If there are plumbing problems, the boiler may not work. Boilers are also known to be quite temperamental, especially if they are older than ten years. You may have some expensive repair bills in the future.

On the upside, boilers are very effective at producing a lot of heat. Walk into any public school in fall or winter and you will feel the heavy warmth of a boiler at work. If a boiler can heat an entire public school the way that it does, you know that your own commercial building will be quite toasty when you need it to be. Additionally, because boilers use hot steam to produce heat, they create humid air that is better to have in winter months anyway. The humid air counteracts the dry air typical of winter months, producing a healthier environment for everyone in the building.

Boilers are also better for the environment. They produce no waste. They last a very long time because they are made of steel and cannot rust. They use water and steam to produce heat, ergo they require no oil, propane, or gas, and will not throw off the burnt refuse of the heating fuel. For all of these reasons, you might choose a boiler instead of a radiant floor heating system.

Radiant Heating Systems

Radiant heat used to mean that you had both a boiler at work and a radiator along a wall. While there are still some very old buildings that operate this way, newer buildings do not use wall radiators. In fact, newer radiant heating systems do not use a boiler either. Instead, they use heating coils that loop back and forth over a heating grid underneath your floor boards. This means that if you want to upgrade or convert to this type of heating system, all of the flooring in the building would have to be ripped up in order to install the system. 

However, radiant systems in the floor are protected by the flooring surface, regardless of the type of flooring used. This means that cold concrete, laminate, tile, wood, and even linoleum can lay over the top of the heating coils and grid and the system still works. In residential settings, this is installed most often in bathrooms. In a commercial setting, like your building, the effect is the same but the system is spread out over a larger floor area. 

Radiant floor systems operate on the scientific principle that heat rises. When the heat is already in the floor, the floor gets really warm. The heat at floor level rises up and continues to rise until it can escape or dissipate. That is why you can feel the heat still at head height even though the heat is right under your feet.

Radiant heating systems almost never require repairs. That is why they can be installed under concrete and several other types of flooring. The initial cost of installation, damages to the present floor, restoration of flooring may seem like a lot. In comparison to boilers and furnaces that require fuel, the heat produced without fuel by radiant floor systems and the virtual absence of repairs makes it worth the cost.

To learn more about these and other commercial heating options, check out sites like http://www.mercurytecinc.com.


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About Me

The Importance Of Industrial and Manufacturing Industries

My name is Donald Tate and in my blog you'll learn the importance of industrial and manufacturing industries in our country. These facilities make numerous products that we use every day and they're also responsible for creating many jobs. I became interested in industrial and manufacturing plants at a young age because my father worked at a plant downtown. One day he took me to the plant so I could see how the products were made. I thought that was the most interesting thing there ever was and I have been fascinated ever since. Because we depend so much on these industries, I have made it my mission in life to learn all I can about various industrial and manufacturing plants. I hope that after reading my blog, you'll also realize this important and necessary contribution to our society.