Is Underfloor Heating a Healthy Alternative to Conventional Heating?
You are only as healthy as your home, and unfortunately that means the way we heat our homes can actually have a large effect on our health. Keeping a clean and warm environment is important to stay healthy, especially among those who suffer from chronic diseases or for risk groups like young children. The way we clean our homes is easy to change, but heating it is another matter entirely.
Conventional heating through radiators often seems like the only choice to heat your home, yet an alternative – underfloor heating has become more popular in recent years. Supporters claim that underfloor heating is better than conventional heating not just because it is energy-efficient but also because it also has a range of health benefits over radiator-style heating. Is this all just marketing hype, or is underfloor heating really a healthy alternative to conventional heating?
We’re here to find out.
1. Asthma Sufferers
300 million people worldwide suffer from Asthma worldwide, and that number is skyrocketing in the developed world. While no one is certain on the exact cause of asthma, one way to help prevent attacks and aid the general health of an asthma sufferer is to prevent them from breathing in particles or allergens. While this usually entails making sure you have a clean, dust-free home, there are ways that a change in heating can be beneficial for sufferers.
Conventional heating creates pockets of extreme heat in a room, meaning the rising heat then pushes air around and causes airflow. This airflow is likely to unsettle dust mites, allergens and other trigger factors of asthma – making the air unhealthy. However because underfloor heating warms a room evenly, air does not move around as much and the quantity of airborne dust mites can be reduced by as much as 80%.
2. Hypoallergenic living spaces
If are homes are not healthy, then the likelihood is that our bodies also will not be healthy. Due to this many people (especially parents) dedicate themselves to making their homes as clean as possible through a small fortune on vacuuming and disinfectant. However there are alternative ways to help keep your house clean and healthy, and changing your heating system is one of them.
A key factor that helps underfloor heating create hypoallergenic living spaces is that it tackles the traditional breeding ground for allergens and other particles. Conventional heating systems do not heat the floor but do heat the rest of the room, creating a mild and sometimes even damp layer of air on the ground that can cause serious problems by creating the perfect environment for bacteria and allergens. By raising the base temperature of your floor, underfloor heating destroys that environment and makes your house cleaner as well as healthier.
3. Burns prevention
To effectively heat a room, a radiator must burn off massive amounts of heat at a high temperature. While this may seem like a statement of the obvious, an unwarranted side effect of the design of radiators is that they are a health hazard. If you live in a house with small children or the elderly, radiators can be a huge problem as they are prone to burning people who unwittingly touch them. If you have a child with wandering eyes or an elderly person at risk of falls then perhaps underfloor heating is a safer and healthier option for you.
About the Author
This guest post is written by Jim, a healthcare advocate, nutritionist and environmentalist. He is also freelance writer representing UFH1, the leading provider of underfloor heating systems in the UK.
