When properly installed, Heatizon products provide efficient, and lasting radiant heat. For those installing our roof deicing, snow melting, or floor warming systems we have put together some tips to help you throughout the process.
12” ZMesh Heating Element is the ideal system for heating under hardwood floors. ZMesh can be installed directly under the hardwood flooring. Nails or staples to hold the hardwood covering may be driven directly through the ZMesh as long as the nails or staples do not come in contact with any other metal object.
Allow the Hardwood to acclimate to the humidity level by bringing in the Hardwood several weeks before installation. This will minimize dimensional changes due to moisture. Install the ZMeah Heating Element to the subfloor and run a continuous continuity check to make sure the Zmesh is not damaged or shorting to something conductive. Let the System run for 2 to 3 days before nailing or stapling the Hardwood to the subfloor. It is very important to check with the manufacturer of the Hardwood before installing.
As Seen in – Deseret Morning News
By: James Carpenter
Steve Love, a Salt Lake resident, is the owner of Hidden springs Ranch, a multi million dollar adventure resort located high in the hills east of Nephi in central Utah. His lodge was built from the ground up, using the finest materials available, including wood floors, tile and beautiful stone areas.
To bring comfort to the floors, Love installed an in-floor radiant heating system. “I wanted a heating system that would provide my guests with the most comfortable available, but that wasn’t too complex and didn’t require a lot of maintenance,” Love says.
By Steven D. Bench
Managing Member
Heatizon Systems
When people associated with the radiant heating industry use the
words “ZMesh”, “Golden Mesh”, “Z Mesh”, or just plain “Mesh” they are referring to a
durable line of low voltage line electric products made by Heatizon Systems and used for
Radiant Roof Snow Melt and De-icing, Radiant Floor Warming and Radiant Heating.
Designed to be installed on and under sub-floors and on sub-roofs, ZMesh provides a
nice uniform heat and it is plenty robust to satisfy the demands of discriminating radiant
heat, radiant roof deicing, and radiant floor warming customers. In addition,
Heatizon Systems products are manufactured in Murray Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, and are marketed across the United States and Canada.
By: Steve Smith
(Description of Heatizon Systems’ RPA Showcase Award Winning Project at the
Rothman Residence and Park City, UT)
You can count on two things when your home is located 8,500 feet or more above sea level in the Wasatch Mountains: snow and more snow.
To handle the snow loads on the roof of one 5,000-sq. ft., three-level home, electric radiant manufacturer Heatizon used a bronze mesh product called ZMesh, as well as its Tuff Cable embedded in a heat sink. The ZMesh is protected by a sandwich of ice and water shield, with composition asphalt shingle on the surface. The panel system allows for worry-free nailing. The ZMesh is energized by a step-down transformer, which produces a low voltage current that does not seek ground. The roof deicing system compromises approximately 520 sq. ft.
Meanwhile, a snow melting system using a low voltage resistance cable called Tuff Cable was embedded in the concrete in the window wells to prevent damage to the windows and interior finishes. There is approximately 400 sq. ft. of snowmelt in the window wells.
By Steven Bench
I received a telephone call this morning from a prospective customer wanting to
understand the difference between Heat Trace, Heat Tape, and GutterMelt. After
explaining the differences to him it occurred to me that perhaps others are confused so I
decided to write this article.
Heat Trace and Heat Tape are generic terms for a family of electric heating cables that
are designed to keep pipes from freezing, maintain the temperature of the contents of
pipes and melt snow and ice off of roofs and in drains, rain gutters and downspouts.
Some of the products in this family are designed to be installed inside of pipes and others
are designed to be wrapped around the outside of pipes, valves, and instrumentation.
Obviously the Heat Trace and Heat Tape products designed for rain gutters, downspouts
and on roofs are designed to be exposed to the elements including the rays from the sun.
Within the family of electric heating cables referred to as “Heat Trace” or “Heat Tape”
are Constant Wattage cables and Self Regulating cables. As you might have already
concluded Constant Wattage cables always put out approximately the same watts per
linear foot regardless of the temperature of their surroundings. The wattage output
per linear foot of Self Regulating cables on the other hand, varies dramatically as the
temperature surrounding the cable changes. As a matter of fact the wattage output of a
length of Self Regulating cable may vary as the temperature surrounding the cable varies
along its length.
The various brands of Constant Wattage Heat Trace or Heat Tape cables come in many
different quality levels and price points and are generally fixed in length. Design
longevity, temperature tolerance, and wattage output all dramatically affect quality and
price. Within the Constant Wattage segment of Heat Trace or Heat Tape, prices range
from less than a dollar to several dollars per foot, and life expectancy ranges from a year
or two to 10 or more years. The wattage output of Constant Wattage cables varies from a
few watts per foot up to 50 plus watts per foot.
Self Regulating cables are generally cut to length in the field products and like Constant
Wattage cables they are available in many different quality levels and price points. Like
Constant Wattage cables, the quality and price of Self Regulating Heat Trace or Heat
is dictated by the design longevity, temperature tolerance, and wattage output. These
cables generally have wattage outputs ranging from 3 to 24 plus watts per foot in a
certain medium (air, ice, water, etc.) and at a certain temperature.
Given that multiple outputs and many different types of cables are available on the
market much is to be gained to contacting an expert in the field when determining which
cable will best satisfy the objectives of your project.
By Steven D. Bench, Heatizon Systems
California’s Building Energy Standards, Title 24, Part 6 allows for the use of electrical radiant floor warming and electrical radiant space heating products whenever said products meet the definition of “supplemental heating.”
So what exactly is “supplemental heating?” According to the Building Energy Standards for the state of California “supplemental heating” is heating which is: (a) not the primary space conditioning system (defined as that system used in energy compliance analysis); and, (b) installed in an area that is also directly served by the primary space conditioning system. Of course common sense and the Building Energy Standards require that the primary space conditioning system have sufficient capacity to condition the entire building or home.
In other words, anytime the primary space conditioning system does not have sufficient capacity to condition the entire building or home, and/or the primary space conditioning system does not directly serve the space where the electrical radiant floor-warming or electrical radiant space heating product is to be installed, then said products are not considered “supplemental heating” and they must be included in the energy performance analysis to comply with the Building Energy Standards. As a result, the energy use of electrical floor warming and space heating products installed in areas such as bathrooms, that do not have supply vents from the primary space conditioning system, must be included in the energy performance standards compliance analysis.
The fact is that electric resistance space conditioning is difficult to justify as the primary space heater in California. The reason for this is that California uses source energy as the measurement for efficiency. As a result, even though electric products generally have energy efficiencies of 99 percent or greater, the efficiency of electric radiant floor warming and space heating products are reduced by the inefficiency of generating and delivering the electricity to the point of consumption.
The good news is Californians can enjoy the comfort and cleanliness of electric radiant floor warming and space heating anytime they have a primary system that has sufficient capacity to condition the entire space and the space is directly served by the primary system.
As the cold months approach and temperatures drop, every home owner is faced with increasing power bills. It is costly to maintain warmth throughout your home if you are using a conventional furnace as your main heating source. Radiant heating offers many benefits and the decrease in your power bills is just the beginning!
Radiant heating products like ZMesh and Tuff Cable offer a clean, quiet alternative to traditional heating systems. That means no more cold floors, drafts, heat loss and no more cold or hot spots in a room.
Our radiant heat products can be installed in new construction or worked into any type of remodel or retrofit.
Using a low voltage electric radiant system, like Tuff Cable, means that 99% of your energy is used for heating and there are no moving parts or service required. Tuff Cable and ZMesh can be installed in any size room and each room, or zone, is operated by a thermostat that you can program. Just set it and forget it! Heatizon systems are self-regulating – you set the temperature for each zone and you never have to worry – and that means smaller power bills, since you are not heating rooms you are not using.
ZMesh and Tuff Cable are both made from recycled materials in the United States of America. They also come with a 25 year warranty, are 100% efficient and can be controlled by thermostat or sensor. You can cover them with virtually any type of floor covering – hardwood, stone, tile, laminate, linoleum or vinyl. Just imagine the feeling of getting out of bed stepping on warm floors!
Summer brings with it a multitude of outside chores of home remodeling projects, whether it be landscaping your yard, pouring a new cement patio, re-shingling the roof or repainting the home. What many Utah homeowners don’t realize is that summer is the perfect time to install a snow-melt radiant heating system.
According to Steve Love, sales manager for Heatizon, snow-melt and interior floor heating systems have been around for about 25 years and are becoming more and more popular in and outside of Utah. Heatizon manufactures a complete line of low-voltage radiant heating products.
“Imagine snow and ice automatically melting from your driveway and sidewalks. Or your tile and hardwood floors being comfortably warm to your bare feet,” Love explains. Unlike forced air systems, radiant heat, which is installed underneath flooring, warms objects, not just the air. It’s a much more comfortable and even heat.
Heatizon’s radiant heat systems use one of two products that can be installed in new construction or retrofitted to existing applications. The Tuff Cable, a copper element, is used in snowmelting systems for driveways or sidewalks. In an existing system, technicians cut thin, inch-deep channels that are 6 inches apart into the pavement, which is where the cable is laid and then closed with a sealant. For new driveways or walkways, the cable is installed just before the concrete in poured.
One of the most recognized local projects that Heatizon undertook using The Tuff Cable was Utah’s TRAX light rail system. The snow melting system was installed on all the passenger station access ramps to keep the area from snow during the winter. One of its largest projects- 20,000 square feet- was the LDS Conference Center, where the cable was installed on plaza sidewalks and stairs.
For interior flooring applications, as well as under-shingle roof systems, Heatizon uses Z Mesh, a bronze wire mesh, which is placed over an existing concrete floor or on top of the wood subfloor. Tile, carpet or wood flooring can then be placed over the heating system. In roofing systems, the mesh is installed underneath the shingles, making it virtually invisible.
An in-floor radiant system is ideal for homeowners who are finishing off their basement, yet not sure how to make walking across cold floors more bearable during the winter.
For Richard Hull, who is building an addition on to his father’s 1950 home in Hooper, installing a Heatizon system was a no-brainer. In order to install a conventional forced-air system, he would have had to run new ductwork throughout the new part of the house, which he says would have cost the same as installing a radiant system. Hull also had managed the 7,000-square foot Hidden Springs Resort Ranch in Nephi, which had been heated by a Heatizon system. It was only after living there that he was convinced that radiant heat was the only way to go.
“It’s a more efficient, uniform heat that is distributed more evenly because the heat rises from the floor,” he says. “Also, I anticipate my heating costs will be about the same as if I had a forced-air system.”
“What makes the technology so unique is that Heatizon uses a low-voltage system, ranging from 8 to 30 volts AC,” Love notes, “eliminating safety concerns for water, cuts and nails or screw driven through the element.”
Besides safety, radiant heat offers a number of other benefits over the traditional heating systems- one being that radiant heat is 51 percent more efficient than forced-air systems, making it less expensive to run.
“With a radiant heat system, you can reduce your heating bill between 23 to 26 percent, whether it be natural gas or electricity,” Love says.
A Heatizon System does not need to cycle constantly, like other systems, making it more cost-effective. Therefore, homeowners can program the system to go on and off at specific times based on their needs. For example, to run a zone of a snowmelting system during a snowstorm would cost about $1.53 for four hours (based on Salt Lake City electricity rates).
From a health standpoint, radiant heat is also cleaner and environmentally friendly. With a forced-air system, pollen, dust, and other particles are circulating throughout the air, making it uncomfortable for those who suffer from allergies or asthma.
With other heating system, homeowners are limited on where they can place furniture, wall coverings and decorations because of register and radiator placement.
Because all Heatizon systems are solid-state and are not comprised of moving parts, homeowners do not need to worry about maintenance. There is also no risk of broken pipes or tubes or expensive repairs resulting from water damage.
Because it offers such high-quality and durable products in its heating systems, Heatizon provides its customers with a 25-year warranty.
For more information on Heatizon Systems products, call 801-293-1232 or visit the Web site at heatizon.com.
Radiant floor warming is a wonderful addition to any living or working space. The warm floor makes the space the most comfortable in the entire building. Designed to provide years of trouble free service, high quality floor warming systems are designed to last substantially longer than the flooring covering itself. Given their long life expectancy and the repair/replacement expense incurred if the heating element or tubing gets damaged or, improperly installed, a significant amount of time should be devoted to the design, product selection and installation of radiant floor warming system.
Designing a radiant floor warming system is relatively easy, provided; a few simple rules are followed. Listed below please find a list of simple rules for designing a radiant floor warming system:
Once the design is complete the best products for that design can be determined and a final selection made.
Often times, product selection occurs simultaneously with the design process. The nature of the design process helps focus on the advantages and disadvantages of different technologies and thus helps determine which are best suited for the project. At the very minimum the design process should help eliminate most of the competing radiant floor heating technologies from further consideration leaving less than a hand full for further evaluation.
Remember number 7) under design and do not allow the product to control the project. Since many competing products are available and they differ in technology, quality and warranty coverage, most buyers are well served by contacting a radiant floor warming professional to assist in determining which is best suited for their needs and their project.
More difficult than design and product selection (but equally deserving of attention to detail), is the proper installation of the radiant floor warming system. As a matter of fact incorrect installation and/or product damage during installation are the two leading causes of problems in the radiant floor warming industry.
No doubt the best way to insure proper installation is to choose a product made by a manufacturer that has a comprehensive installation manual, offers unlimited technical support and has been in business for more than a couple of years.
Steven Bench is Managing Member of Heatizon Systems a leading manufacturer of radiant snow melting, floor warming, roof snow and ice melting, pipe warming, and radiant space heating products located in Murray, Utah.
