10. Warmness from the tile floor

Many people love tile floor. It's beautiful, durable and easy to clean. However some hate it. Because tile surface is hard, cold, and slippery.

When my husband and I decided to put tile throughout the entire first floor open combined living room and kitchen, one of my friends said "It's going to be cold in winter." Although, the tile installer told us that "Tile floors are warmer than wood floors". He didn't explain the reason why. Later I though about what he meant and wanted to know why.

It was autumn and the tile installation was finished. Our tile floors were so beautiful and we loved it! Especially my husband, because of its durability and ease of cleaning. We didn't notice much cold in following winter. Rather, I felt the mysterious change of warmness.

Our house upstairs had been slightly warmer than downstairs. Warm air moved up through the stairwell to second floor, since the thermostat is on the first floor. After the tile installation was finished, I would come half way down each morning, and feel a sudden soft warmness touch my skin. "Is that the warm air?" I thought. I felt like the warm air stayed on the first floor. Then I thought, "It can't be", I was in denial. Warm air moves up, and stays there, right? According to my friend, tile floor downstairs is supposed to be cooler.

Tile floors are well known for feeling cool on bare feet. Its cooler than wooden floors at the same room temperature. Tile moves heat faster than wood and is a good heat conductor, tile floor takes heat rapidly from skin. Wood is more of an insulator and tile is more of a radiator. Of course wood takes heat away from skin, but the difference felt has to do with speed. Carpeting is a better heat insulator than wood. It impedes the flow of heat and feels comparatively warm to bare feet. That is the reason why tile floors feel cold. On the opposite side, since it transfers well, it makes an excellent choice for in-floor radiant heat systems of one type or another.

The mysterious warmness that I felt wasn't from the air movement and had nothing to do with touching the floor. Then I thought about fires. I love bonfires. And watching the dancing flames in my fireplace makes me relaxed and warm, especially in cold conditions. The heat comes out from the flames, and not from circulating air. It's radiant heat. So I concluded that the mysterious warmness must be radiating from the tile floors, but we had no heat piping system, so where did the hear actually come from?

As I said, we have tile floor in down stairs and wood floor in up stairs. Our down stairs was warmer in winter, because of the radiant heat from tile floor. Our dogs love heated tile by sunlight. Over night, tile floor release accumulated heat absorbed by the suns infrared eneregy. That's why I felt warmness first thing in the morning.

However, the phenomenon changed and got better after Gaina was coated inside. Gaina contains ceramic beads as the insulator and adjusts to surrounding temperature. Even if you touch it, it doesn't feel cold like tile. So through out our house, we have same comfortable temperature.

9. Radiant insulation and accumulated heat

When searching for a dream house, it's good to remember that there is no perfect one. My husband and I didn't get everything we wanted. One concern was the west side of the house faces an open space. Sure we have a nice view of the sky and roofs. But during the summer, sunlight hits the west facing windows and my tiny office gets really hot, becoming nothing but a storage room.

We are living over the 45th parallel north. At this northerly latitude the shortest winter daylight is less than 9 hours, longest summer daylight is close to 16 hours. So my office gets long hours of direct sunlight in the summer.

Generally strong sunlight was coming through the windows heating the curtains and blinds. This became another heat source inside the room. Also the floor and walls were able to hoard heat throughout the day, elevating the room temperature to an unbearable level. I thought it would be better to entirely cover each window from the outside. One important point for cooling the room and saving energy is sunlight doesn't hit curtains, blinds, floor or walls. Which means that my office would be dark during the day making it difficult work in.

When my husband and I were thinking about how to block and unblock sunlight, one of our friends introduced us to Roll Shutters. These fit our needs exactly. At that time I didn't have much insulation knowledge, even though I was thinking about ideas for controlling the temperature without using air conditioning. We put Aluminum Shutters outside my office windows and Solar Shades on our south facing living room windows. When they are rolled down, to my amazement, immediately the inside cools down.

My office is cooler, but dark during the hottest times of summer. Even so it is much more comfortable. Then I thought about the outside of our house. If sunlight makes that much heat, what's going on with the roof and walls outside?

Roof Temperature Difference

Aluminum reflects 97% of solar heat. There are different types of roofs that reflect less than aluminum. Since Radiant barriers don't reflect 100%, the sunlight that isn't reflected penetrates the roof and outside walls and heats up the interior living space. Some may think insulation is supposed to prevent heat. But, insulation stores most of the heat, and releases it little by little. Heat moves from higher to colder temperatures. When the sun goes down and the outside air cools, insulation continuously releases absorbed heat into the room. Insulation is like a sweater. So the house is wearing winter clothes all year round. Winter heat moves the opposite direction, escaping to the outside.

Summer heat causes a huge load on air conditioning, costing more money and energy for cooling heated walls and ceilings. One solution is adding thicker insulation. It would slow down the conduction of heat, and pay for itself after many years. There are different types of insulation materials ranging in price, and better to look for a heat barrier with it.

We chose Gaina because it is a thin material, easy for us to apply. We used it inside on the walls and ceilings. Gaina can also be applied on the exterior of the house as a radiant reflection barrier. So in the future, we would like to put Gaina on the outside of our house since the interior application is working so great.

Now I have my office room back in summer. And enjoying beautiful summer sunsets, without using air conditioning.