Solar heating may be what in-floor radiant was 20 years ago. It’s an old idea come back to a new life; an idea that has “failed” in the past because of misapplication, but if used with technical smarts has great potential. When I first came west in 1987, only a few folks, and only in Santa Fe, N.M., were talking about in-floor radiant heating. Half of those were full of horror stories about how it had failed back East - leaks inside concrete, not enough heat, too much heat. The other half couldn’t say enough about the great new technology. And look at it now.
A Bit Of History: By accounts from those who were “there” during the heyday of solar in the 1980s, the solar heating craze wasn’t really about technology or energy savings. It was all about tax credits. Bruce Faul, now a rep for Shamrock Sales in Denver, was a contractor back then. He says you could pay your $7,000 in taxes to Uncle Sam or you could pay it to a contractor for a solar heating system.