Radiant panels use electromagnetic waves to directly warm the occupants of a room, unlike conventional heating systems that heat the air. They can be powered by solar, gas, or electricity and are ideal for outdoor spaces. Radiant floor heating uses both airflow and radiant heat.
Radiant panels are panels that can be used in the walls or ceiling of a structure, whether residential or commercial, to provide heat to a room. A range of options are available, from solar powered panels to gas or electric powered panels, to panels that use hot water to provide their heat. What makes them unique is the distribution of heat in the space occupied by the panel.
Conventional heating systems, such as a central furnace, heat the air. This air is then circulated to heat a space. Such systems are affected by airflow and the location of the intakes. For example, the vents of a conventional oven are ideally placed at floor level so that the hot air they bring into the room travels upwards, transmitting heat to the surrounding air as it rises, and the heat will be distributed evenly. . A system that uses a central furnace also requires fans to circulate the heated air.
Systems that use liquid boilers and pipes to distribute heat also work on similar principles. While such systems, which heat liquid at a central location and circulate it through pipes to heat a structure, do not use active means of air circulation such as fans, they rely on the air movement created by heating it to uniformly heat a room. For this reason, the portion of the system that extends into a space to receive heat transfer is always close to the floor. This way, as it heats the surrounding air, warm air will rise and new, cooler air will enter to be heated.
Radiant heating panels, by contrast, warm the occupants of a space in the same way that the sun warms a person on a cold day. Although the surrounding air is quite cold, direct exposure to sunlight can still make a person feel hot. This is the effect of radiant heat – actually electromagnetic waves like those that light is made of – transmitting energy to the things they come in contact with. In the case of a person, this energy is experienced as heat.
The radiant panels create electromagnetic waves similar to sunlight but invisible to the human eye. They transmit energy directly, just like the sun does, so their position in a space is less important. Radiant panels can be placed on a wall or ceiling and will also warm the occupants of a room, regardless.
Radiant panels don’t use the surrounding air to transmit heat to the occupants of a space, so they are ideal for outdoor spaces. Through the use of radiant heat, the occupants of a space around the panel can be warmed to a comfortable temperature that is much higher than that of the surrounding air. Radiant panels heat occupants directly, like the sun or a campfire, and therefore can warm people without heating the air.
The biggest drawback to radiant heating panels is that they heat up within the line of sight. This means that, like the sun or a fire, the part of a person closest to the panel will be the hottest. If there is an object such as a chair in the gap, standing between the chair and the heater will allow a person to be significantly warmer than standing with the chair between the person and the panel.
Radiant floor heating sounds similar to radiant heating panels for walls or ceilings, but there are differences. While both use radiant heat, radiant floor heating is more closely related to the boiler and piping system than radiant wall and ceiling panels. The underfloor heating system continues to rely on airflow, in addition to radiant heat, to evenly heat a space.
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