What is thermal comfort?
Thermal comfort – also called hygrothermal comfort – It is that situation in which we do not find any thermal discomfort. That is to say, when the environmental environment produces neither cold nor heat.
Specifically, it is the temperature that the human body perceives, not the one that can be measured with a thermometer. The thermometer would determine the ambient temperature in a space, while thermal comfort would be the arithmetic mean between the ambient temperature and the average temperature of the surfaces that surround the body, this being subjective and depending on various factors.
What factors does thermal comfort depend on?
Humidity: keeping the humidity in our house between 40 and 65 % is ideal, since the body can adapt perfectly to these circumstances. radiant heating does not dry out the environment, as much as its installation is recommended in hospitals, nursing homes, nurseries and other collective facilities.
Air speed: air currents directly affect our temperature. Maintaining an air speed between 0 and 2 m/s helps us to have greater comfort. Radiant heating, by its own heat emission, hardly produces air movements nor does it remove dust, and with it mites, bacteria or molds.
Average radiant temperature: this represents the heat emitted by the different elements of our house, that is, the envelope, and that directly affects the global temperature. Radiant heating, as it is integrated into the pavement, is distributed evenly throughout the house, providing an optimal heat flow for our comfort.
Conventional heating by convection or heat by radiation?
Convection heating: with radiators
It only heats the air in the room in question, and all the air in the room must be heated in order to reach the desired temperature again. Here a significant percentage of the air will move, causing a constant lifting of dust particles. These stick to the mucous membranes, which is a major disadvantage especially for allergy sufferers and asthmatics and speaks against the use of convection heating.
On the other hand, the heat by convection is not uniform since it emanates from specific points (radiators) in the room, leaving some areas colder than others.
Heating by heat radiation: underfloor heating
It offers a much more comfortable indoor climate than that generated by a convection heating system. It heats the interior walls and the objects that are inside the room, as well as the people. For this reason, the Cecather® system is efficient and consumes little energy since the air does not heat up, but the objects in a room.
Radiant heating does not develop air circulation and the air in the room does not dry out. In addition, mold, which is only generated due to condensation with air cooling, will not form. For this reason, this heating system is especially suitable for allergy sufferers and asthmatics. The infrared rays used in radiant heating are electromagnetic waves. The wavelength used in our heating is in a range of 2 to 50 µm, totally innocuous values.
Did you know that underfloor heating is the WHO recommended heating system? And here we settle the urban legend that says that underfloor heating causes varicose veins. Which is completely impossible since the regulations for thermal installations prohibit exceeding 29º of temperature on the surface of the pavement. What's more, it could even be said that a radiant floor system is more beneficial for those people with circulation problems since they are prone to cold feet.
