What a great idea! Thanks for sharing the "tutorial". Enjoy your beautiful island!

How much electricty does it take to run?

tks,

L.

Are you asking how much are electric bill has gone up?

Hard to tell but we don't except to even notice. When we added a heated floor in one bath last year we didn't notice a change in the bill. Now we just added a heated floor in another bath and just turned on the island.

No, I'm asking how much wattage, amperage etc. does it use.

I was hoping you might have one of those KillaWatt measuring devices that give a read out of power consumed. Trying to work out the cost from the bill is almost impossible since all electrical statements are complex interplays of delivery costs, assorted fees and power used. There's often no easily discernable change in the bill for something like this.

I was just curious, so no biggie. BTW, your pictures and explanation were very clear and nformative. Thank you!

You could also (on another matter) simply take the white plastic cover off the thermostat and spray paint it black with something like Krylon paint for plastic. A teeny bit of touch up around the fixed edges of the base done with an rtist brush (and a little puddle of the paint sprayed into a plastic cup) and it would disappear entirely. If you can put on eyeliner, you could do the touch-up work. If you thought it might disappear too much, you could choose another very dark, but not black.

I was wondering after I posted about long it might take my ten indoor cats (and two bunnies) to discover the heated counter. I think it would result in all of them fighting over room on it. Talk about having the problem of cats on the counter!

L.

2 amps!

Thanks for the idea of painting it. Once the stools are here and in place I think it won't be so noticable.

The cat has been sneaking up there at night before the heat was even turned on!

debrak, that's very cool. Stone counters can be such cold things. I don't remember my old tile counter being so cold, but I didn't stroke it like I do the quartz.

liriodendron, 10 indoor cats! You are my new hero!

Oh yes, my cats would find that warm counter and declare it their own Club Med. I have a heating pad that I sometimes put on my lap while reading or watching tv on cold evenings. One of my cats discovered this earthly delight and now she curls up on it even if it isn't plugged in. Cats!

this is awesome! Do you have interim pictures of the flexible edge trim and the thinset? Also, what are the metal bars for and are they recessed into the wood or just laid over them plywood?
thanks!

The bars are recessed. Basically DH laid the metal bars and the filled in with plywood pieces. Extra support was needed because we wanted so much empty space under for leg room. FYI the post supports 600 lbs. The thinset does add some weight. What we did for support was more than what was OK'd by our granite place. We just wanted to be sure.

The flexible trim was from HD or Lowes. Not sure what the exact material is but its paintable if you don't want white.

It seems I don't have any photos with the thinset down. DH just filled it in and used a long straight edge to run it over the top to keep it level.

Could you put a thermometer on the counter when it's on to see how much actual rise that the 2 amp gives to the stone. And if you're in a scientific bent, do a time study with how long it takes to get to that temperature and how long it takes to cool off. It's a bit of work, so I understand if you don't want to. But it appeals to the geek in all of us to know the actual data.

I'll have to think about that... What kind of thermometer do you use on granite?

I will take the opportunity in this post to say a big THANK YOU to my wonderful DH! He did all the research and all the actual work to accomplish this.

Well, an instant read IR thermometer gun would be the best choice, but not everyone is geeky enough to have one of those. I'm thinking one of those stick in the ear types would work if you have one. Or even just an old fashioned mercury "shake down" one could measure the rise if you were able to get it low enough.

Here is a link that might be useful: IR thermometer

No IR gun and no mercury thermometer. Digital meat thermometer? I can see how low it goes. I've never actually used it for anything.

I do have a digital mouth thermometer. The way it works I would have to take the temp at different times as it won't work continuously.

Thoughts?

Cool idea !!

Would this also work to help keep food warm if you had a buffet setup on it ? I'm sure it wouldn't keep the food "hot". But at least warm ... so it wouldn't cool off quite so quickly. Thinking hot appetizers at a party, that kind of thing.

If I can find something that works without spending more than a few dollars I'll do this test and post the results. If someone has thermometer strips or something small like that and wants to mail it to me to use, I promise to mail it back. While this sounds interesting I really don't want to spend more than a few bucks on it.

Muskokascp we must start a "hot" island club! Just like the ABB club here. I would love to see pics of your island and hear how you heated yours.

angela, there was a post a few years back. Someone just had their first party with the new granite. They commented on how they noticed the food cooled down quickly. This is one of reasons for doing this other than pure comfort.

We also used electric under floor heating. Our island is really large and we didn't heat all of it. I have some in progress pictures that I can post later this weekend. It doesn't get warm enough to keep food warm per se but food may not cool off as fast.

I love that. It's so cold here today and if my island granite was heated I'd still be lingering there over my coffee. Your stone is really pretty too!

what was the source of your chrome leg?

what was the source of your chrome leg?

debrak said:"DH tells me that Thermosoft has a new product that would have made this even easier."

what exactly did he have in mind?

I'm not sure where we got the leg. It was on line and about $100. It came in a few different finishes. It supports 600 lbs.

Apparently Thermosoft has a new floor heating element this is easier to use. Sorry I'm not able to be more specific. Go to www.thermosoft.com.

this has always been one of my back-of-the-mind concerns. Cold to touch!

We laid tile in my MB before in-floor heating was remotely reasonable. Within 2 years, it was. In the meanwhile, my MB floor is just plain COLD. Colder than normal, which tells me from underneath the crawlspace I got trouble. Or at least fallen insulation. I envy everyone who has this type of heat. Really. Envy. The rest of my construction site? nahhh. this? Yes.

Very clever and I love it. Since I haven't afforded my future soapstone counters yet, I'm thinking....

This a good opportunity for an update on how things are working.

From 4:30 am to 10:00 pm the temp is set at 82 degrees. During the night I think it goes down to 73. Our family starts waking up shortly after 5 am. A little disagreement in the family about if the granite is warm enough by 5:30 am. DD and I think it should start warming up at 4:00 am. Really it is just fine. As the day goes on it does seem warmer on the edges.

If we did again I would want the coils closer to the edge. While the element is supposed to radiate heat 3" on each side it is slightly cooler on the edges. Our concern was how thick the counter would be.

Since the DW is broken right now I do find I can put some slightly wet dishes on the island and they do tend to dry quicker. It was helpful when I had dough rising.

No one says "wow your granite is warm". No one even notices unless they touch the perimeter granite.

We love it. Its just comfortable. I told DH you realize that I will never live anywhere without heated granite on the island or anywhere there is seating. He said yeah he is hooked too.

The electric bill has gone up $20 per month compared to last year BUT last year our winter here was extremely mild. This year we have been below 30 for 2 weeks now.

We installed heated flooring in our master bath and I love it so much! It was just awful before, so cold in that room and the floor with travertine on it now is like walking on ice when the floor heat is off and we aren't even in a cold climate, but cool enough.

We noticed it helps to keep the bathroom and the bedroom much warmer and so I was thinking it might even be helping to keep your whole kitchen feeling warmer. We don't have to have the heat on as high (though it's never been up high) in the bedroom because of the floor. We've been able to turn it down actually from formerly normal setting. We have not noticed one bit of increase in our heating bill at all.

How are you sir?

good job and looking nice.

i have a quick question for you. Where did you buy that counter top round support? i am doing something similar but i cannot find that round column support anywhere.

Thank you so much.