I went to a session at Bikram’s Yoga on Saturday morning with my daughter. She, an old hand, had told me how much she enjoyed hot yoga, so I thought I would try it out.
The jury is still out for me on the experience. The studio was lovely and the teacher very helpful; I enjoyed it, but I did have to push myself to finish each posture (and failed!) so we’ll see how I feel in a day or so ( stiff and sore is acceptable, excruciating pain is not). I was a bright pink lady at the end, schvitzing like I never had before and SO ready for that nice cool shower.
The yoga studio is hot. Not just warm, but hot. I lay down on my mat to begin, knowing that heat rises, so I should be comfortable at the lowest point in the room. But alas, the floor was the source of the heat! It felt warm to the touch.
And by that circuitous route, I bring us to the point of this post — radiant floor heat.
We will have it in the laneway house — and it’s being installed right now.
The tankless water heater will be pumping warm water through red pipes embedded in the concrete floor to heat the lower floor. Naturally, the pipes come first, laying on the styrofoam insulation:
Even in the garage (to the far right).
Even under the stairs, where the storage space will be.
Each room will be programmable. Very comfy. We will keep our bedroom cool at night, the bathroom toasty.
Upstairs, the heat from downtstairs will rise to warm it, but there will also be a baseboard grill at the floor level of the kitchen peninsula.
The Lady Who Lives Down the Lane 
Congratulations on your home construction progressing so quickly. I haven’t tried Bikram yet but I love the feel of warm floors and it’s what we wanted for heating our new house when we started in the design process. The only thing is, that nearly every builder or mechanical person we speak to says it will make our house too hot, even if it’s only on the main floor. I’m curious to know whether you’ve heard the same thing or not. (Our house is quite a bit bigger too at 1170 sf and has 8″ thick walls.)
It seems that when you’re dealing with small spaces there aren’t a lot of options. We certainly don’t want the space hogging electric baseboards on the main floor but if we went with radiant we would use the baseboards upstairs. The only other option that looks like it will make sense is an air to air heat pump.
I’ve been shocked at how costly the radiant heating estimates have been and we’re still awaiting word on how much for the heat pump system will cost but I wonder what sort of guidance you’ve been given.
Thanks so much!
We didn’t consider any other kinds of heating except the hot water radiant heat. When we first met with our designer/builder, we said we wanted warm floors in our bathroom and bedroom (on the lower floor) and we wanted a tankless system. They said fine, that’s what they recommend. And ta-dah! it is happening right now! Once the hoses are all installed the system will be inspected, then the slab will be poured. We will be able to control the heat in each room (i.e. keeping the bathroom toasty and the bedroom cool). No one said anything about it being too hot. In the upstairs, we will have a baseboard heater — hot water hoses hidden behind a grill in our kitchen peninsula.
Nice! We’ve met other folks who have been really clear on that too but after reviewing the quotes we started to ask questions. Mind you, our “pie in the sky” version had us using a Dakin air to water heat pump and they really only start to make economic sense when you have multiple thousands of square feet to heat. It’s way too pricey for our little place but even still our quotes seem really high.
I can’t recall if I read how you’re insulating your house. That might be a piece of it too.
We looked at the hot water baseboards too but they’re also quite pricey to install. A few of the more energy efficient builders up here have told us of homes that have radiant on the main and electric baseboards that never get turned on so that’s why we’re thinking of going that route. I don’t love all the EMF of that kind of heat but if we never use them it shouldn’t be a problem.
Since you are using the hot water baseboard I just have to ask though – are you doing any special EMF shielding? What about the BC Hydro meter? Are you doing anything to protect yourself from it?