SunTouch Mats Blog

Oh do you hear that? No? That’s right. Of the many benefits of floor warming mats, their quiet operation is one of my favorite things about them. Don’t get me wrong, being able to show off my slate floors without having to cover them up with rugs (to keep my feet warm), along with the energy I save are all right up there on the list of reasons that I love my floor warming mats.

However, I just love the peace and quiet they bring. No more noisy forced air systems, no more slamming doors with pressure increases as the forced air kicks in. Instead, I have peace and serenity all day long. There’s nothing like curling up with a book and not be startled half to death as the door slams behind you. If you’ve currently in a home with a forced air system, you know exactly what I’m referring to. If your home has a forced air heating system, you may think that there is no way to install radiant heating without tearing everthing up at considerable expense. You’d be wrong.

Something that often surprises people is to learn that today’s systems can be easily retrofitted to fit almost every application. Furthermore, they are very inexpensive, and will save you a lot of money on heating and electricity bills. To find out how you can benefit from floor warming mats, contact the knowledgeable staff at Suntouch.

No more big fuzzy slippers to keep my feet warm in the coldest winter months! I don’t need them because I won’t be faced with the prospect of walking across cold tile or hardwood floors this winter. No, we didn’t install carpet in the bathroom and kitchen, but we did install floor warming mats in our bathrooms and kitchen. If you’ve never experienced the warmth and comfort of heated floors, you’re definitely missing out on one of the finer things in life.

A comparison of floor warming mats to forced air is a car that has heated seats and a forced air heater/furnace. The forced air in a car can dry you out and can become uncomfortable and is difficult to dial in because of the heat loss due to its air delivery. A heated seat will provide you with quick results and will remain warm long after it is reduced or turned completely off. The heated seat actually warms your body and the car seat, not the air. Forced air will over time will inefficiently heat objects but with the negative side effects of dry air, dust and pollen.

The silent operation of floor warming mats also provides an environment free from drafts or flying dust particles. This is yet another reason why these systems are becoming so popular. Home owners are searching for ways in which they can create a more comfortable, efficient, and healthier atmosphere in their homes. Floor warming mats helps accomplish each of those goals.

Bottom line: New floor warming mats can help cut your heating costs, while increasing your level of comfort. Why? Because evenly distributed heat in your floors will allow you to turn down your thermostat two to four degrees. This can reduce energy costs by 10-40% and can be verified with your local utility company. This setback to your thermostat can happen because floor warming mats heat from the ground up, delivering the heat through objects rather than the air. This makes the lowest three feet of your home the most comfortable where a forced air system loses its heat to the ceiling and is required to heat from the top down. Delivering heat by air also makes it easy to escape and increase your overall heat loss.

A good analogy for radiant floor heating to forced air is a car that has heated seats and a forced air heater/furnace. The forced air in a car can dry you out and can become uncomfortable and is difficult to dial in because of the heat loss due to its air delivery. A heated seat will provide you with quick results and will remain warm long after it is reduced or turned completely off. The heated seat actually warms your body and the car seat, not the air. Forced air will over time will inefficiently heat objects but with the negative side effects of dry air, dust and pollen.

Ready for a bold statement? You will not regret having warm tile in your home. Floor warming systems are a distinguishing feature to any home and provide much needed heat to tile floors. Suntouch electric radiant heating mats by Watts Radiant are designed to gently heat tile and stone floors in bathrooms, kitchens, entry ways and sunrooms. Suntouch systems are very cost-effective solutions for smaller spaces (1-5 rooms) because they are easy to install and have a very low start-up cost. An electric digital thermostat is all that is required to operate an under tile heating system by Suntouch and costs only about $100-$200.

You need only to take a quick look and you’ll see how Suntouch floor mats offer many advantages over a warm-water system. Floor buildup is kept to minimum and there are no structural weight loads to consider, common challenges to a traditional hot water radiant heating system. SunTouch mats are installed directly onto concrete board or the subfloor just prior to setting the tile or stone. Suntouch customers benefit from a faster installation of which most DIY homeowners can tackle. If you are not up for the task, most tile setters already have experience with Suntouch floor warming systems and can easily add this to their installation.

All winter long, you’ve probably been stunned by increasingly expensive energy bills. New technology in radiant heating can help you cut electricity costs. Now Suntouch heating systems offer you a choice of a thermostat that is controlled by a floor sensor. This allows you to measure floor temperature and control the actual temperature in a specific room.

Suntouch radiant heating can be used and controlled as a primary source of heat or used as a supplemental heating source to add comfort to your living spaces. When a radiant heating system is turned on, energy is forced through a conductive material to create resistance or heat. For most areas an electric line-voltage system is used. These systems use a special thermostat that has an integrated breaker for safety right at the power source. They are available in 110 or 220 voltage. Low-voltage systems use the same voltages and consume the same amount of power as line-voltage products. The main difference is the use of a step-down transformer which reduces the voltage supplied to the heating materials. Due to their safe low-voltage current (8-30v) products can be nailed and stapled down to secure the product to the floor and are therefore useful for installation under hardwood and carpet.

To find out about how radiant floor heating works and how it can dramatically change your home’s comfort levels, simply contact Suntouch.

You don’t have to worry that it’ll be an impossible task, even if you’ve ever tried to update, or install a new heating system in an older home and you’re well aware of how difficult this can be. A lot of older homes that were once heated by wood burning stoves don’t have heating and air conditioning ducts with which to deliver the heat to the different rooms of the house.

Installing these ducts after the fact can not only be difficult, but is also very costly. However, there is a solution to adding heating to homes that have not been built for traditional forced air systems. This can be accomplished via floor warming mats, which are installed beneath your flooring.

Floor warming mats, as opposed to warm air systems (such as a forced air unit heaters), delivers the source of heat to the floor level, not the ceiling. Radiant heaters or radiant energy is the oldest form of heating used to provide comfort and is the basis for all heating systems. Radiant energy is totally pure radiation and is absorbed by an object without physical contact with the heat source or by heating the surrounding air, as is the case with convective, forced air systems.

Because floor warming mats can be installed under carpet, hard wood, tile, or other floor or wall surfaces they make adding heat to any room of the home very simple. Furthermore, radiant heaters offer more comfort than forced air heating by heating the atmosphere from the ground up. Since heat rises, the heat will be more evenly distributed, thereby providing a much more comfortable atmosphere.

Here’s the bottom line: radiant heaters are not only a comfortable, and cost effective heating solution, but they make installing heating in older homes much more easily, and can save you a lot of time and money.

Perhaps you weren’t aware of this, but the use of a bathroom can be responsible for a significant amount of your utility bills year-round. Bathroom heating is one such energy consideration because you want the heat quickly, but for only a short period of time. Therefore traditional forced air heating systems for a bathroom can be very inefficient, and waste a lot of energy. However, Suntouch provides a solution to this in their radiant heating products. Radiant heat can make you feel comfortably warm without having to heat all the air in the bathroom.

Suntouch radiant heating provides a unique transfer of energy that naturally searches out colder objects to warm. Instead of rising like warm air, radiant heat starts by warming the coldest and closest objects from its source. This is why radiant heating systems are generally placed under floors. If you have ever strolled barefoot along the beach on a sunny day and felt the warm sand underneath your feet, or held a warm mug, then you have felt radiant heat. Objects absorb radiant heat until they are the same temperature as the heat source, after which the heat slowly escapes to other areas that are colder, such as the air, etc.

Not only will radiant heat save you in heating costs in areas like your bathrooms–which only need heat for short periods of time–but they also increase the comfort level of these rooms because they keep concentrate the heat in the areas that are generally the coolest, such as tile floors, etc. Imagine being able to step out of the shower onto a warm floor this winter. These are only a few of the benefits of a radiant heating system. To find out the other benefits of radiant heat, contact Suntouch today.

Sometimes it takes more than a new coat of paint on the walls or rearranging the furniture to make a home feel cozier and more comfortable.  Convert your cold floors to warm living areas by installing Suntouch floor warming mats. More and more custom homes and remodeling projects include floor warming mats by Suntouch.

Warm floors make for comfortable social areas in homes and a desirable feature to any home. Originating heat in your home from the floors is the ideal method to warm your home rather than forcing hot air to the ceiling.  Suntouch is the largest and most recognized manufacturer of electric radiant floor warming products in the United States. Special attention has been made in these electric floor warming products by using a special braided twin wire design that registers nearly zero EMF when measured ½ inches above the wire! SunTouch mats were the first with this patented innovation!

Suntouch mats can be installed under almost every floor covering including tile, stone and even laminate flooring. Include SunTouch floor warming mats in your next home or remodeling project. The most popular area for SunTouch floor warming mats is in bathrooms, where you can replicate the sensation of sand warmed naturally by the sun.  Can you imagine a cozier feeling than that?

Whether you’re looking to reduce your electricity bill to reduce the strain on your pocketbook, or just concerned about energy usage in light of environmental issues, you can start with your heating systems. Heating our places is one of our greatest energy hogs. By taking a few steps, you can cut down the amount of electricity you use to heat your home. You’ll save money, as well as have a favorable impact on the environment.

Get heat where it’s needed. I remember a conversation I had with my grandpa a couple of years ago when he was complaining about his gas bill after a cold winter. What surprised me is that the money he and my grandma spent heating their home for the two of them was almost the same we spent heating our house for a full family. Why? Because many forced air systems are inefficient, and don’t provide a way to heat specific rooms, while bypassing rooms that are used less frequently. The ability to heat only the rooms you use could save you a lot of money during cold winter months. It doesn’t make sense to heat a guest bedroom that is used a few times a year. However, most forced air systems don’t give us a choice. So how to solve this dilemma?

The good news is that this problem can be easily solved, however, by utilizing radiant heat in the form of floor warming mats. Floor warming mats give you the ability to heat specific rooms, without heating other rooms that are used less frequently. Not only are floor warming mats extremely efficient, but the ability to heat only the rooms you use the most will help cut your heating bills, sometimes by as much as half.

Who hasn’t cringed in anticipation of having to step barefoot onto a floor in the middle of winter?  If not, you’re among the minority. However, with floor warming mats by Suntouch you can say goodbye to cold feet on your tile floor, as well as those yelps of “so cold!” you’ll hear from your spouse each morning. Floor warming mats do more than just keeping the floors in your home warm. It also helps in warming the entire house.

Maybe you’re wondering just how do they do that?  It’s so simple, you’ll laugh. Floor warming mats are heated mats that go beneath your tile, hardwood, or carpet. It is kind of like how an old hot water radiator worked when you were in school - for those of us who are old enough to remember those radiators in the classrooms, except these floor warming mats use electricity as a heat source, instead of water. Because of how flexible the flooring system is, it makes for many different options.

Not only is radiant floor heating warming mats very comfortable, but it’s economical and very energy efficient; they can dramatically reduce the need to run your forced air furnace. If you are searching for a way of keeping your floors warm in the winter and save money on your heating bills, consider taking a serious look at radiant heat flooring.