Radiant Heat in Floor advice, brands, etc

11 years ago

Moving forward with bathroom gut remodel. We want to include radiant heat in floor. It's not common in our area, so I like to have an idea of direction, not just depend on contractor.

Our contractor is good, but seems to have a single local vendor, with limited stock, from whom he buys materials. I'd like to understand full range of options.

Our bathroom is big, approximately 250 sq/ft, plus a 20 sq/ft steam shower. I'd like radiant heat under full bathroom and shower.

We only have electric in the house.

The existing tile floor and subfloor will be totally removed (due to flood damage) and rebuilt. 24 x 24 Porcelain tile will be used. The whole space is over a deep crawl space, almost an unfinished basement.

Are there particular brands/ applications I should consider? Any BTDT advice? Are there features (besides on-of) that we should consider?

Thanks!

Comments (11)

deedles
11 years ago
We ordered a Suntouch mat... I think that's what it's called. Haven't installed it yet but was impressed by the info on the website. Lots of installation videos and the price was reasonable.

Here is a link that might be useful: heat mat
Annie Deighnaugh
11 years ago
Our electrician took care of the whole thing for us and all I asked for was 2 connections so if one goes bad, we don't have to rip up the tile...we can just switch to the other one.
cat_mom
11 years ago
We used NuHeat. Our tile guy likes their mats, and DH was very impressed with them when he'd made some calls to get floor heat info from a few companies. Stupidly, didn't even think of installing two sensors/connections until we'd read someone's post about doing just that, after we completed our bathrooms and floor heat. (insert head slap here!)
badgergal
11 years ago
We also have NuHeat. We installed it 2 years ago and love it. Have had no problems whatsoever.
dedtired
11 years ago
NuHeat here, too. I've had it for two years and love it. It stays on around the clock, October through April.

Another nice thing about heated floors beyond warm tootsies is that when you wash it, it dries in an instant.
Annie Deighnaugh
11 years ago
Now that you mention it, ours is nuheat too....i recall the name from the controls which seem to be reasonably easy to operate....but I keep the instructions with the controls just in case. Nice to be able to set the on/off times so the floor is warm when we're in there.
francoise47
11 years ago
We installed Nuheat mats in both our bathrooms last summer.
So far we are happy. But our electric bill did go up noticeably
in the winter months when we had them on.

If it matters to you, ask your electrician to show you the options
for the kinds of wall switches (some are programable) offered by Nuheat.
treasuretheday
11 years ago
We have Nuheat as well and installed 2 sensors after reading that suggestion on this board. We used their Harmony thermostat, which my husband considered to be better than the other option, although I don't recall why.

We're having another custom Nuheat mat installed in our son's/guest bath now.
panchoandlefty
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you!

2 sensors sounds brilliant.
weedyacres
11 years ago
Warming Systems in 5 rooms for us.
Intoodeep
11 years ago
We used suntouch warmwire which is specifically rated to be allowed in showers. Ours goes on the whole bathroom floor including the shower & shower bench. I love it. 2 sensors here too.