“We have decided to migrate and have got visa too, but I am concerned about the winters in California. Putting on enough clothing suffices to keep us warm in here, even if we do not use heater, since the temperatures never fall below the freezing point; but in there, mere clothing will not work and we will have to think about installing some system to keep our indoors sufficiently warm. After that we might not have to put on too much clothing,” my wife went on.
“I have been surfing the internet and have come to know that they have efficient cost effective solutions to this problem. We are fortunate that we are migrating when the Western world is developing a better solution to this problem.”
“Really?” she looked at me intently.
“Yes, in days gone by, they used to force hot air inside the rooms in order to keep them warm. That was an important development at that time, but the restless problem solving human mind has reached a better conclusion now.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“We have always avoided using heater since we have got kids to take care of, not to mention the electric ones. I wonder what better solution one can come up with.” The difficulty of the task had scepticism.
“They call it radiant floor heating.”
“Sounds interesting. They now target floors instead of air, I presume,” she surmised.
“Yes, instead of warming the air with electric or gas heaters, or pushing warms air indoors, they heat the floors up and the air inside automatically warms up. Since hot air tends to rise, the air near the hot floor gets warms and rises upwards to make space for the comparatively cold one to take its turn.” I explained.
“But how do they warm the floor up. I do not think that they put burners on beneath the surface to cook the tiles up!”
“Not at all,” I laughed. “There are two ways in which this is accomplished: electric floor heating and the water-based one, both being types of radiant floor heating. The former uses electricity to heat up the wiring installed beneath the floor, while the latter runs hot water through the network of pipes already spread throughout the lower layer. Water-based heating is obviously cost effective. We already know that the consumption of electricity to generate heat costs much higher than utilizing gas or coal.”
“Sounds fantastic. What is the temperature of the water that runs beneath the floor? My cousin in Canada told me that the air wafted inside burns at 65 Celsius, and I don’t think that one can sit before any such opening.”
“Your concern might be valid in that case, but the water traversing the pipes below requires only 30 Celsius to warm the rooms up. Moreover, even if we switch the system off, one can enjoy the warmth for prolonged periods of time.”
“Wonderful!” my wife exclaimed. “That solves many problems at the same time. Most important for us is the absence of danger for our kids. We used gas heater last year and I hope you might remember how we rescued our daughter when she brushed her sweater against the burning wires.”
“You need not remind me of any such incident. Let us bury the unhappiness in oblivion and be prepared for the brightness ahead. Humanity, striving for the best, has already prepared the ground.”