Traditional heating methods, such as forced air systems, produce convection currents around each room causing the unpleasant feeling of overheated upper levels, while our feet become cooled by the return air. The air moving across ceilings and other surfaces leads to high thermal losses and additional energy being consumed to make up for these losses.

With a radiant floor heating system, the temperature of the floor surface is higher than that of the air. CSIRO tests have shown that radiant heating warms the whole body compared to convection heating which primarily warms the upper body.