Hot Water Baseboard Systems vs Other Radiant Heating Sytems

Hello Easy Plumbing Knowledge team, in the previous posts we have learned more about how hot water baseboard systems work and the positive and negative aspects of having such a system.

Today, however, we will focus on comparing radiant heating systems with other radiant heating systems.

As we covered on previous posts, hot water baseboard systems work by having water that is pumped from a central boiler into pipes that go through the baseboards at the bottom of the wall and that then help radiate heat to each room.

In contrast to hot water baseboard systems, electric baseboards heaters use an electric resistance heating unit as the heat source instead of a hot water baseboard. The downside to this method is that is much more expensive and inefficient.

What about radiators? This heating system that radiates heat is more efficient than electric baseboards but occupy much more space than hot water baseboard systems.

The next system we want to compare is the radiant floor heating system. We have talked a lot about this system in several posts. But doing a small review, this system uses the entire floor as a huge radiator of heat. The floor can be heated using pipes that carry water or by electric resistance cables. Hydronic, that is, the radiant floor system that uses hot water are more energy efficient than one that uses electric cables.

A next radiant heating system that we can compare is infrared heaters. These heaters use electricity or gas. They are also a more portable solution and do not work as a whole house solution. Nonetheless, these systems can be quite useful.

The next system that we will cover is the gold old firewood or pellet based radiant heating stoves. This systems, however require much more work from the homeowner.