Looking back to 1991 when we first started searching for home designs, there was a radiant heating revival underway in the USA. I was relatively familiar with radiant heating because my company, which I had purchased from the third-generation owners, had installed a number of hydronic radiant heating systems with adaptive hydraulic outdoor reset controls in the 1940s. The systems were conceived by Jack Spotz, a well-known local architect and a family friend. His drawings depict black iron piping embedded in concrete that were works of art, and the installer had to precisely follow his detailed layout.
Having worked in many of those homes while maintaining the owners’ hydronic systems, I was more than a little familiar with how comfortable they felt. Most were in-floor systems, but I had to chuckle when one homeowner who had recently purchased his home called in a panic to say he didn’t think his heating system was going to work: “I can’t find any baseboard or radiators.” Upon arrival, I turned up the home’s thermostat and within minutes could feel the radiant rays emanating from his ceilings.