Boilers & Radiant Heating

We Sell and Install the following brands: Buderus, Raypak, Triangle Tube, Munchkin and Dunkirk.
We Use the following manufacture’s components in our installations: Honeywell, Grundfos, Taco, Bell & Gossett, Wilo, Oventrop, Caleffi, Watts, Amtrol, Superstor and Megastor.

We service All makes and models.

Boilers

A boiler is the heating plant used to create hot water or steam for hydronic baseboard, radiant heat or steam radiator heating systems. Also, boilers can be set up to heat your hot water for showers or any domestic use. In Colorado we have all types of applications for boilers, steam, hot water or in-floor radiant.

As with many other heating and cooling products there has been substantial technological improvement in boilers. The most notable is the modulating boiler. Put simply, the modulating boiler uses only the amount of fuel to achieve the desired temperature of the house depending on the outside temperature. If the temperature is 40 degrees the boiler may only call for a little fuel to create the desired result. If the temperature drops to 5 degrees the boiler will call for more fuel and heat up hotter. Think of it as cruise control – you don’t need to press on the gas pedal the same amount on a flat stretch of road as you need going up in the mountains. Consequently, you get better mileage on the flats compared to in the mountains.

Boiler efficiencies have also improved with AFUEs of ranging from 84% up to 96%. You can see that with this level of increased efficiency, the opportunity to save a lot of energy is even greater. The average 25 year old boiler is likely around 65% efficient.

An added advantage of a boiler system is you a heat your domestic hot water and eliminate the need for a separate hot water system. By attaching a ‘sidearm” (water tank) to the boiler system you will be able to heat water with a system that is much more efficient than a regular water tank. Further, the tank can be smaller and offers a virtually limitless supply of hot water because of the higher recovery rate of a sidearm setup.

Radiant Heating

What is radiant heating?

It is important to have a clear understanding of how radiant heating works as well as how it differs from other forms of heating.

Conduction is how heat moves through solid materials, or from one solid material to another when the two are in contact. If you stand barefooted on a cool basement floor slab, heat transfers from your feet to the floor by conduction.

Convection is how heat moves between a solid surface and a fluid. The fluid may be either a liquid or a gas. Hot water flowing through a pipe transfers heat to the inside wall of the pipe by convection. Likewise, air flowing across the heat exchanger inside a furnace absorbs heat from the hot metal surfaces.

Radiant heat transfer occurs when infrared light leaves the surface of an object and travels to the surface(s) of other cooler objects. Unlike conduction and convection, radiant heat transfer does not require a fluid or solid material between the two objects transferring heating. It only requires a space between the two objects. The radiant energy only becomes sensible heat when absorbed by a surface.

The radiant heat emitted by the relatively low temperature heat emitters used in hydronic heating is technically described as infrared electromagnetic radiation. It’s simply light that the human eye can’t see. However, other than the fact that it’s invisible, infrared light behaves just like visible light. It travels in straight lines at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), and can be partially reflected by polished metallic surfaces. Unlike warm air, radiant energy travels equally well in any direction. Up, down or sideways, direction simply doesn’t matter. This characteristic allows a heated ceiling to deliver radiant heat to the room below. The radiant heat emitted by a warm floor, wall or ceiling is a completely natural phenomenon that’s literally as old as the universe itself. A surface warmed by sunlight gives off infrared radiation just like one warmed by embedded tubing. The latter simply uses a different heat source and transport system to deliver heat to the surface. Most low temperature radiant heat panels emit less than 1/10 the radiant flux of bright sunlight, and all of it is infrared as opposed to ultraviolet light. Even the human body gives off infrared radiation to cooler surrounding surfaces.

Benefits of Radiant Floor Heating Systems

Radiant heating systems are considered by many as the ultimate form of comfort heating. In addition to the advantages of hydronic heating in general, warm floors provide benefits that virtually no other system can match. Any one of these benefits can become the “hot button” that convinces a discriminating customer to install a radiant heat system. Here’s a summary of these key benefits.

Thermal Comfort: Structures equipped with radiant heat systems have interior environments that are highly favorable to human comfort. Unlike many systems that directly heat the air, radiant floor heating gently warms the surfaces of objects in the room as well as the air itself. The warm surfaces significantly reduce the rate of heat loss from the occupants, allowing most to feel comfortable at room temperatures 3 to 5 deg. F. lower than with other methods of heating.

The air temperature at floor level is slightly higher than the average room temperature. This significantly reduces the rate of heat loss from the feet and legs. Several feet above the floor, the air temperature begins to decrease. Most people tend to feel more alert with slightly lower air temperatures at head level. The lowest air temperatures in the room typically occur just below the ceiling. The result is reduced heat loss through the ceiling insulation and hence lower heating costs.

Not Visible: Most people realize that just about every occupied building in North America needs a heating system. However, few enjoy looking at the heat emitters that are a necessary part of that system. The fact that such heat emitters often restrict furniture placement further adds to their invasiveness. With a radiant heat system, the floor surface is the heat emitter. There’s no need to compromise the aesthetics of the space or restrict furniture placement. It’s a system that gives your clients a building interior that’s as thermally luxurious as it is aesthetically elegant.

Quiet system: One of the strengths of a radiant heating system is its ability to deliver heat without delivering noise. A properly designed radiant heat system is the epitome of silence. The gas or oil burner on the boiler is often the only component that makes any detectable noise, and it’s usually located in the mechanical room away from the occupied spaces.

Clean system:One of the biggest complaints associated with forced air heating is its tendency to distribute dust, odors and germs throughout a house. In contrast to whole house air movement, radiant flooring heating creates very gentle (imperceptible) room air circulation. Many people who suffer from allergies have found that radiant heat doesn’t aggravate the symptoms the way a forced air system often does.

Durable system: A concrete slab type radiant floor heating system is nearly as indestructible as the slab itself. It’s the ideal way to heat garage facilities, industrial buildings, recreation rooms, basements or other buildings with high interior traffic. You must always insulate the concrete slab from the earth.

Radiant Baseboard System

Similar to radiant heat, this system uses hot water heated by a boiler to heat a space by a combination of radiation and convection.

Distribution

Hot water heated by boiler and piped to "fin-tube" baseboard units mounted along walls. The fins increase the surface area of heat dissipation making the unit more efficient. Air is distributed by convection as air rises and is heated by the baseboard unit.

Advantages

• Energy efficient
• Quiet
• Close temperature control