Very high on all counts.
- First, it is cost efficient . You will save thousands of dollars because you will not need to buy a boiler or furnace at all. The heat drawn from the floor preheats the water entering the hot water heater helping to reduce the gas or oil bill. You will get better use from the one heating appliance that you will have to buy, a hot water heater.
- Second, it is more energy efficient because the standby losses of a boiler or furnace are avoided, something that can be quite significant. And the lower operating temperatures of a high quality domestic hot water heater means less heat goes up the chimney. The lower operating temperatures of a high quality hot water heater enable it to condense the flue gases to water to achieve efficiencies of up to 95%. This also provides limited free cooling in the summer to save on air conditioning costs.
- Third, the Open Direct System can be designed to use solar energy initially or be readily converted to solar, the most environmentally friendly heat source on earth. The solar domestic hot water heaters available from Radiantec represent off-the-shelf, fully developed technology that is both reliable and cost effective.