Heating Your Master Bath

For those of you who just recently moved from the North, it's difficult to understand when Floridians say, it's cold in Orlando during the winter! Seeing photos of people jogging in "O Town" wearing stocking caps and gloves when it's 55 degrees sounds like a skit from "Saturday Night Live". Wait a few years and perhaps your tune will change too.

For the moment, let's agree that it can get cold in Central Florida during the winter. The homes here are built differently. There is a concrete slab under your feet with carpet or a hard surface material like stone or tile. The master bathrooms in Custom Homes are much larger and many times the showers are doorless. Being wet and standing naked on a stone floor can get down right chilly!

The heating systems are different too. We use air-air heat pumps with emergency back up heating strips that only kick in on the coldest days. 

Perhaps, we've all become just a bunch of whimps but if you can afford it, why be uncomfortable?

Over the past 30 plus years, I've tried many types of systems to heat master baths. From heat lamps to wall mounted space heaters but none have really been effective at heating master baths. 

In the past few years they have developed a heating system that warms the floor that is ideal for master bathrooms in Orlando. It's inexpensive, cost effective to operate and can be installed under the solid surface materials that we install on top of our concrete slabs.

It warms the floor and since heat rises, warms bath occupants as the heat travels to the ceiling. It's amazingly effective at warming master bathrooms. A radient floor heating system doesn't replace the central heating system it's a supplement.  It can even be installed under the tile in the walk in shower!

We installed a radiant floor heating system in our home when it was built in 2001. Frankly, it's one of my wife Ellen's favorite features! 

If you have a cat or dog they will love you for it! No need to look for our cat Angel on a cold winter day. He's sprawled out in the master bath soaking up the heat from the warm tile floor. The only time he moves is to turn over and warm the other side.

If heating a master bathroom in your Custom Home is something that interests you a radiant floor heating system is the way to go. Below, is a link to a product we used in our home and others we've built.

http://www.emersonindustrial.com/en-us/egselectricalgroup/products/heating-cables/residential-heating-cables/residential-floor-warming/Pages/default.aspx

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCq8GEluaRg&feature=youtube_gdata_player