Radiant vs Baseboard efficiency

Saggs

Just wondering, all things being equal. Is radiant staple up more efficient than baseboard elements in the same situation. I have people asking me this all the time and I know it is when installed in a slab. In the best case staple-up scenario would the radiant be more efficient? Thanks

Mark Eatherton1

What do you consider efficiency?

Are you sure your not confusing comfort with efficiency? Are you wanting to expose bare fin tube in a joist bay to heat the floor as opposed to stapling tubing to the bottom of the floor? Is the tube plastic or rubber?

SO many questions..SO little time:-)

ME

ALH_3

Efficiency vs. Performance

The comparison between methods of heat delivery has more to do with how quickly the heat is transferred from the fluid to the living space. Staple-up radiant works much like baseboard elements in the joist bay. To my mind that makes the staple-up lag behind the baseboard heaters once the thermostat has called.

Concrete will out-perform staple up. Extruded plates will out-perform concrete.

As far as efficiency is concerned, you're trying to run the lowest fluid temperature possible to take advantage of modulation and condensation to make your boiler more efficient. Any energy that makes it out the boiler exhaust is lost. The rest is being delivered to the heated space.

-Andrew