The Solution for Heating Your: Home / Office / Studio / Warehouse
The Problem
Heating your home with forced air is like heating your home with a hair dryer. Commonly people think that heat rises. Actually it is hot air that rises. Even with filters and regular duct cleaning, traditional HVAC systems blow and circulate dust, dander and allergens throughout your house day and night. And for those who care about the environment there is the guilt of setting the thermostat at a comfortable temperature.
Cost
The rising cost of home energy affects everyone. The relentless upward creep of monthly utility bills reflects increasing strain on global energy resources, as demand for energy begins to outpace supply, and as prices begin to reflect more accurately the true costs associated with their extraction. For North America, the age of unlimited, cheap energy is rapidly coming to an end.
How Energy Is Used in Homes (2005)
Source: US Energy Information Administration, Residential. Energy Consumption Survey 2005.
Health and Comfort
Although home heating makes up the majority of home energy cost, standard heating systems are associated with both waste and discomfort. You get used to living with hot air and cold feet. Many people experience significant health problems due to drafts, dryness, dust and allergens blowing from the heat vents.
Energy: Unequal burden on the poor
The burden of rising energy cost does not fall evenly on all sectors of society. It weighs much more heavily on low-income groups. For people living on social security, the cost of home energy can reach 25% of their income. “Energy poverty” is a recognized cause of homelessness in the United States. Studies have also shown that “chronic poverty is directly tied to ecological degradation… environmental quality must be built on a base of economic security.”
Inefficiency and the Environment
On average, over 40 percent of the energy used in a home goes towards space heating. Inefficient home heating systems cause environmental harm both by wasting precious resources and by further contributing to the poverty of low-income groups. Central heating is wasteful, losing up to 25% of their energy in the ductwork.
The heating cost trade-off
In home heating systems, there is a trade-off between what it costs to install a heating system, and what it costs to operate it. At one end of the spectrum, electric baseboard heating is the cheapest system to install, but its high energy consumption makes it the most costly to operate. At the other extreme, a geothermal heat pump in the most economical to operate, but is extremely expensive to install. The low cost of installation commonly motivates landlords to install electric baseboard heat, burdening their tenants with utility bills that they can ill afford. Conventional home heating systems fail to deliver both affordable installation and economical operation. This failure has adverse economic, social and environmental consequences.
So what is the Solution?
It is Ducoterra’s Radiant Heating Ceiling Panels. They are a simple, proven technology using infrared heat to directly heat people and objects in a room. Just like sunshine, they heat you directly, without heating the air itself. By directly heating the people and objects in a room, without heating the air, you are more comfortable at a lower air temperature.
The Comfort Factor
Clean
Healthy
High Comfort
High Efficiency
Low Cost
With forced hot air systems, the air is heated first by either a furnace or a heat pump, and blown under pressure through ducts into the house. In addition to being noisy, up to 25% of the heat can be lost in the ducts, before hot air even reaches the living space. When it does arrive, hot air rises, resulting in hot ceilings and cold floors. This uneven heating is uncomfortable, and also wasteful, since more heat leaves the room through the hot ceiling. Forced hot air also carries dust, dander and allergens throughout the home day and night, which can cause respiratory illness.
The Efficiency Factor
Why is Radiant Heat more efficient?
With Radiant Heat, people are more comfortable than with hot air, and generally set the thermostat set 3-6 degrees (F) lower than they would set it with hot air heating. This means lower heat losses through the walls, windows and ceiling.
Radiant ceiling panels can also bring a cold room up to a comfortable level within only 5 or 6 minutes of being turned on. If you wish, you can turn them off when you vacate a room, as you would turn off the lights. Adopting a “vacancy setback” habit is a way to achieve even higher efficiency in home heating. This in turn means significant energy savings, and a lower utility bill for you.
The Cost Factor
What is the RCP cost advantage?
RCP technology has the lowest total cost of ownership of all home heating systems. Conventional systems are characterized by a tradeoff between installation cost and operating cost. At one extreme, a geothermal heat pump is very inexpensive to operate, but extremely costly to install. At the other extreme, electric baseboard heat is very cheap to install, but wasteful of energy and expensive to operate.
Installation Cost
Operating Costs
Only RCPs are both inexpensive to install and inexpensive to operate, making them the lowest total cost of ownership of all home heating systems. Putting these figures together with the expected service life for each technology, the annual total cost of ownership of RCPs is lower than any other technology.