Combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP)—a technique that uses the exhaust heat from distributed generation (DG) prime movers to run an absorption chiller, a steam turbine chiller, or a desiccant dehumidifier—is a compelling idea with the potential to greatly advance DG markets worldwide. And on the other side of the coin, DG may help several heat-driven cooling technologies advance in the HVAC market as well. For utilities and end users, CCHP systems offer the potential to reduce electricity demand during demand and price peaks.

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Head to you favorite home improvement store, and lets do it!

As new parents, we all want what’s best for our babies. There are so many things to worry about, not the least of which are colds, allergies, sleeping through the night, and keeping their delicate skin soft and moisturized. So, you ask, what can I do to help with all of these dilemmas? The answer is a product that is little-known to the general public, called under carpet heating, which eliminates several problems with your traditional forced air heating systems that can result in all of these concerns and more.

Colds
Have you ever wondered why your children always have a cold or a runny nose? Your children spend most of their time very close to or on the floor. If you have ever laid down there with them, you may have noticed that it is much colder than a few feet higher, where we, as adults, are normally and may not notice as much. With traditional systems, heat is blown throughout the room, and it doesn’t even reach the floor, where your baby or toddler is. The reason being, heat rises, and before it can even reach the floor, it starts rising to the ceiling, leaving your babies considerably colder than the adults in the room. With electric radiant underfloor heating, you can completely eliminate this problem. The soothing heat radiates from under your carpet, gently warming your baby or toddler, keeping them more comfortable, warmer, and therefore healthier.

Allergies
Allergies are another concern with many parents. Once again, your traditional heating systems can be a culprit. Forced air systems are constantly circulating dust, dander, germs, bacteria, mold, mildew, and other environmental troublemakers. Even with the most expensive filters available, you are still circulating all of these potential allergens and contaminates around your home. By simply closing off your central heating vents and heating with electric radiant floor heating, you reduce these risks greatly. With nothing to circulate all of these allergens, everything just simply settles, and you can easily rid your home of these problems by simply dusting and vacuuming regularly.

Sleep
Another issue that we, as parents, wrestle with is getting our babies to sleep through the night. Research shows that when we are at an ideal body temperature, we sleep better. If your extremities are cold, inhibiting the free flow of blood, your sleep hormones fail to kick in, and restless insomnia prevails. Scientists also speculate that some sleep disorders may be caused by poor circulation and an inability to widen blood vessels in the hands and feet, which can be corrected with temperature regulation. With radiant heat, you have a quiet, soothing warmth that gently warms your baby throughout the night. The result being a restful, peaceful sleep throughout the night.

Humidity and Skin Care
An additional downfall to forced air heating that radiant heating does away with is the drying of the air and in return, your baby’s skin. Forced air actually burns the air while it is heating it, removing most of its moisture content, causing your baby’s skin to dry out and chafe. Radiant heat does not affect the moisture content of the air, saving you from having to buy a humidifier and applying lotions that can often times irritate your baby’s skin anyway.

In conclusion, I am not saying that radiant heat is the answer to all of your problems. However, radiant heat is just another weapon that we, as parents, can put in our arsenal to combat some of the problems that we have had to endure for centuries (i.e. colds, allergies, insomnia, and skin care).

About the Author:
Ingrid Weir is a member of an elite team of electric radiant floor heating professionals, Speedheat® US, which is an international company that originally invented electric radiant floor heating in 1984.
For more information, visit www.speedheat.us or email info@speedheat.us.