Carpet Heaters (High Ceilings)

Floor heating for high ceiling buildings such as Churches

Churches are great examples of buildings that get the most benefit from an efficient floor heating system. The architectural features and heating requirements of a typical church mean there are multiple advantages of the  Coldbuster carpet heaters floor heating system that makes it the most efficient heating system

1. High Ceilings

Churches typically have high ceilings and a large volume of air to heat. Considering air conditioning is a ‘convective’ heating system, it will attempt to heat all the air in the room. Consequently, much of the energy is wasted as hot air rises and heat is lost to the ceiling, rather than being focused at body height on the congregation.

With a radiant floor heating system like Coldbuster, the energy consumed goes mostly into heating the air space at the floor level. This is of particular benefit considering the congregation is mostly seated during a church service, their bodies being closer to the ground. The cut off thermostat is normally controlled by a floor sensor rather than a sensor mounted higher up, say on an air conditioning unit. A floor heating system means less energy is lost to into the air above head height. The Images below showing the red heating before the carpet is layed at St Andrews Church and the workmen on the right give the photo good perspective on how much heat can be lost to the ceiling.

2. Zoning

Every electric heater has a certain ‘power output’ that determines it’s ability to generate heat. Being an electric element under the floor finish, Coldbuster effectively takes this power output and spreads it out evenly across the area of the floor giving a much more efficient distribution of heat. The heating reaches those in the middle pews just the same as those at the front or rear pews. Consequently, this avoids the common situation where those sitting closest to an air conditioner feel too hot and those sitting further away, too cold.

By using multiple thermostat controls, separate zones of the floor (or rooms in a house) can have the heating turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ according to patronage and heating demand. Using the All Saints Church heating system photo and heating plan/diagram as an example (below), the entire system can be turned on for a busy Sunday service. Alternatively, during a mid-week service, only the middle two zones are turned on, effectively halving the running costs.

3.Quick response heating
Many churches choose carpet as their floor finish, as the alternative to the hard finish of tiles or the cold feel of timber.

Coldbuster carpet heating is a unique product with the advantage of being a 1.5mm thin element, giving it the ability to sit just below the carpet, but on top of the underlay. The element is thin enough not to be felt through the carpet and by sitting on top of the underlay, is insulated by the underlay from the cold subfloor below. The result? A direct delivery of heat into the room, usually 20-30m warm-up time, much faster than other thicker floor heating cable where installation usually requires it be set in a cement screed below the underlay. (this cable also uses more power as it needs to heat the cement first before heat is delivered into the carpet and the room.)

The Coldbuster carpet heaters are designed to be strong enough to withstand the combined weight of people seated in a church pew, even when its full! The Coldbuster element is also fully waterproof so it is safe for the church carpets to be steam cleaned.

In addition to these main advantages, Coldbuster is fully earthed, electrically safe and can be programmed to run automatically at different periods of the day, different days of the week. To get a quote for your carpet heating requirements, fax, email or upload a plan to Coldbuster today for a free, no-obligation quote.

Click here to find out more about our carpet heaters or watch the installation video below!