[Greenbuilding] passive solar homes - floors

[Sacie Lambertson]

We lived in Korea in the 80s where the floors are commonly heated 
either by charcoal or by more modern means.  There the floors were 
truly warm.  When we traveled and slept Korean/Japanese style on 
futon-like mattresses on the floor it was wonderful to have truly 
heated floors in the winter.

Here our house has well insulated radiant-heated concrete floors, 
albeit a system that is secondary to our wood stove heat.  The floors 
don't seem hard to me but then I never go barefoot on any sort of 
floor;  wearing comfortable shoes however, I certainly notice 
absolutely no difference when I've spent hours on my feet cooking a 
guest dinner between these and the wood sort.  I frankly think the 
'hardness' is more psychological than anything objective.

  As far as cold is concerned, our floors definitely are not hot or 
even warm.  I do know when the heat is on because you can easily tell 
the difference, but it isn't a 'warm' feel.  In fact I've never 
understood those descriptions from folks on this list.  I figure they 
installed their PEX tubes either very close together or they have a 
large differential in indoor/outside temps that would require so much 
warmth  (which is another way of saying they probably haven't 
insulated sufficiently).

That said, this advice like the rest, is anecdotal for sure.  I like 
our concrete floors. I wish I had known about the polishing of them 
when we put them in, but that method had not yet reached Eastern 
Kansas.  They require relatively little maintenance and always look 
quite good.  Bottom line when I build again I will do the 
same.  Might color them differently, is all.

The original question was passive solar, direct gain.  We have that 
too, with modifications.  Hard to have art on the walls and in 
textiles AND direct solar gain.

Sacie