Project Highlights

• 22,000-square-foot home uses radiant heating to maximize comfort and energy efficiency, while reducing allergens
• Uponor snow melt system keeps walkways, driveways and other exterior areas clear of ice and snow during the winter months
• Project earns an honorable mention award in the Uponor Dream Home Competition

 Background

Home builder Sally Russell is an impassioned advocate of radiant floor heating. So it was no surprise when she specified radiant as the primary heating source, rather than a conventional forced-air system, in one of her most recent projects: a 22,000 square-foot, custom home on three acres in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. Russell favors radiant not only because it is more energy-efficient, but also because it provides a healthier, cleaner environment with more consistent room temperatures.

As you might expect, the structure has many rooms with high ceilings and numerous windows, making it easy for heat to escape. A conventional forced-air system would also have created a large temperature gap between the floor and those tall ceilings. A radiant system, however, quickly and evenly disperses the heat where it is needed most – at floor level, the better to warm people and surrounding objects. Cold-air drafts are eliminated; temperatures remain steady throughout each heating zone. The payoff? Thermostats need not be set so high to achieve a desired comfort level, which is why radiant heat is more fuel-efficient than forced-air.

“Sally has been known to turn down projects where prospective clients insist on having forced-air over radiant,” says installer Daniel Bertolini, whose company, Aero Heating and Cooling of Harrison Township, Mich., installed the radiant system. “She wants a heating and cooling system that makes every inch of the homes she designs and builds as comfortable as possible.”