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Listed below are articles and user notes containing useful information about radiant floor heat, suntouch heating systems and electric warming systems.

SunTouch WarmWire Looks at the History of Radiant Floor Heat

Although electric floor heating systems are a very modern technology, floor heating has a rich and fascinating history. Before Roman times, in floor heating was rare. Fireplaces were most often used to warm homes, even though they could produce smoke and even cause fires. The Romans, however, did use underfloor heating. The wealthy used the technology to heat their homes, and eventually public buildings in the colder parts of the Empire were equipped with underfloor heat as well. These systems were comprised of ducts under the floor, which received steam or hot air from nearby fires in order to heat a room. The technology was also used in the famous Roman baths.

The original Roman floor heating hypocausts required a lot of work, since someone always had to be stoking the fire and caring for it. In these early times before electricity, too, floor heating was not always very effective. The rooms closest to the fire were often warmer than those further away from the heat source, as some warmth was lost as the steam traveled under the floors. The system eventually disappeared.

However, in Korea, floor heating, also known as ondol, was popular for centuries and continues to be so today. First developed in the Koguryo (37 B.C-A.D. 668) period, ondol has been credited with creating traditions such as the removal of shoes and sleeping on the floor, which are prevalent customs in Korea. Ondol consisted of a fireplace or stove below floor level and smoke passages. As the stove was used, the excess heat would travel through the passages, warming the floors and home. Although more Western systems of heating became popular in Korea in the twentieth century, modern developers returned to the ondol system and even today, one can request traditional ondol rooms when traveling in Korea.

Ondol eventually had a profound impact on the West. In the early 1900s, famous US architect Frank Lloyd Wright was in Japan, where he was involved in the Imperial Hotel project. During his stay in Japan, Wright was invited to visit a Japanese nobleman. The man’s home had a traditional Korean ondol room. The comfort of being heated from the floor up made a big impression on Wright, who decided that the ondol was an excellent heating system. The architect began using ondol in his buildings, eventually inventing radiant floor heating that used hot water in pipes rather than hot air in flues.

Today, thanks to this rich tradition, SunTouch WarmWire is able to offer radiant floor heat systems, which offer the same advantages that Wright found in the ondol. However, the SunTouch WarmWire electric floor warming system offers even greater comfort and savings. Today, there is no need to install radiant heating when building a property. Easy-to-install electric systems can be installed under existing floors as well.