Radiant forecast for 2012: affordability, integration

and controls

BY MARK HUDOBA

Although hydronic radiant systems have been around since Roman times, radiant has remained in a small, niche market, a “luxury” item reserved mainly for the upper classes. However, with the onset of sustainable building requirements for commercial structures, demand for energy-efficient homes and new technologies making radiant easier and more affordable for the masses, radiant is making a new name for itself in the building sector.

In 2012, I predict that radiant will start to gain ground, not by replacing alternative heating and cooling systems, but by integrating with them. In the commercial market, radiant will be considered in more applications that are also using traditional HVAC systems but can benefit from the energy efficiency of adding radiant as a complementary system. Residentially, radiant will also become more accessible to the masses with the availability of new products that make it faster, easier and more affordable to install in a home. In both markets, system controls will provide the “brains” that integrate the different components to operate as a single, optimized, energy-efficient, radiant-based HVAC system.

Accessibility and affordability

With the introduction of new radiant packages that offer a complete radiant mechanical room in one preassembled, easy-to-install appliance, manufacturers are seeing the gap in the market and answering with a product that can make radiant more accessible and affordable for the masses.

As the housing crunch continues to challenge the building market, many installers have seen an increase in remodel and retrofit projects. These radiant appliances make it very easy to install radiant in a basement or addition. The process is simple: Hang the panel on a wall and hook up the electrical and the radiant tubing. It removes the guesswork and increases the system success rate.

In addition, manufacturers have also created products to address the other key part of the system installation — the tubing installation. New knobbed mat products dramatically simplify the tubing installation. The installer simply places the network of mats on the slab or subfloor and then “walks” the tubing in between the knobs. The combination of the mechanical room appliance coupled with the knobbed mat tubing products allows contractors to install a basement remodel that may have previously taken a week in less than one day.

On the commercial side, prefabricated radiant tubing mats are another innovative product, making it faster and easier to install radiant systems in large-scale applications. By simply rolling out the prefabricated mats at the jobsite, many commercial installers are seeing their install times decrease by nearly 80 percent. That significant time savings, coupled with the energy efficiency of radiant heating and cooling systems, makes it easier for commercial engineers to justify radiant as part of a value-engineered project.

Systems Integration

Renewable energy, such as geothermal and solar, will continue to be strong in 2012. This is particularly true as energy costs continue to climb and a mix of federal and local tax incentives and rebates on renewable systems make them more affordable to a greater number of consumers.

Radiant can play a big part in enabling a geothermal or solar system to run more efficiently and maximize energy savings. For example, high-efficiency geothermal heat pumps operate more efficiently at lower water temperatures. Because radiant floor heating systems require lower water temperatures than radiators or forced-air systems, the radiant floor heating system enables the heat pump to operate more efficiently.

Radiant systems can also use a passive design in commercial applications, which enables them to store unused heat or cooling during off-peak hours and then use it at peak hours to maximize energy efficiency. While traditional HVAC systems will continue to play an important role in commercial building projects, radiant will definitely see an increase as a valuable system to integrate energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.

In both residential and commercial applications, radiant and air heating and cooling, ventilation, humidification, dehumidification and renewable-energy products will be integrated into a single, synergistic system.

Integrated controls

Integrating radiant with renewable and traditional HVAC systems also brings the necessity of integrated control systems. The new wave of integrated radiant controls will continue to see a strong presence in the marketplace. These control packages make it easier to increase system efficiency and optimize comfort by integrating heating, cooling, ventilation and humidification into a single system.

For example, one problem integrated controls solve is simultaneous heating and cooling that can occur when one control system is used for heating and another is used for cooling. An integrated control package is a “smart” system that will routinely perform two-way communication throughout the network to send as well as to receive information so that systems are not working against each other.

Some of these integrated control systems also allow remote access to the system via the Internet. This option gives incredible control for greater energy efficiency and monitoring. There are even electronic notification options that permit a service contractor to monitor and manage the system online and troubleshoot remotely.

While radiant will be a relatively small share of the total HVAC market in 2012, with new technologies making it faster and simpler to install, it will start to become a more popular option. And as more and more people have the opportunity to experience the incredible comfort and efficiency of radiant — two of its most valuable selling points — its presence will expand in the market.

Mark Hudoba is the senior product manager for heating and cooling at Uponor North America.