How carpets can be used to heat-up the home

By Rami Moorosi

With the rising of electricity costs, insulating your home has become a must – one way to do this through the use of carpets. Belgotex Carpets provides these hot tips for heating your home.

Insulate your floors

10 – 20% of heat loss in a room is due to uninsulated floors, with greater heat loss occurring in larger areas. Carpets are natural insulators due to their low heat conductivity and help reduce energy costs for heating and cooling when there is a temperature differential between the indoor air and that under the floor.

Research has found that that carpeted floors felt warmer underfoot and did not require the heating that a smooth surface may. They also promoted thermal comfort, energy savings and reduced green house gas emissions.

Tests at the Johns Manville Technical Centre Thermal Labs confirmed that carpets retain between three to seventeen times more warmth compared to hard surfaces by increasing the R-value.

The R-value measures how much a material resists the transfer of heat through the floor. The higher the R-value, the more effective the insulation.

Carpet significantly increased R-value and results varied depending on the carpet’s construction, with heavier products generally providing a higher R-value. The thicker the pile, the greater the R-value.

Adding an underlay

The R-value (thermal resistance) can be further improved by adding a high quality underlay. This maximises insulation and underfoot comfort, can be used with under-floor heating.

For the latest carpet trends see this month’s issue of SA Home Owner page 160, and to learn more about thermal efficiency refer to page 178.