Can I Use Carpeting With Radiant Heat?

The answer to that question is yes—However, carpet and carpet padding is designed to be thermal insulators. Therefore, you cannot use carpeting over a floor cooling system, as the use of carpeting will drastically reduces the ability of the system to properly cool the floors as well as the room.

Radiant floor heating, however, can work well with carpeting, though it does have some limitations. If you plan to use carpet, then the designer/installer of the radiant heat system must be aware of this prior to designing your system. In addition, they also must be skilled in using carpet with radiant systems so that they will be able to design and install a system, which will over come the limitations placed on it by the carpeting.

The insulation value or otherwise know as the R-value is often higher for the carpet pad than for the carpet, even though the thickness of the carpet will have an affect on the R-value of carpet. In addition, the R-value of the carpet pad can also vary depending on the materials from which it was made. Therefore, in order to design the proper radiant heating system that can work with the type of carpet and padding you have selected, your designer/installer has to know and understand about the different thickness as well as the different materials carpet is made from and then have the knowledge to properly guide you with your selection.