News & Media
Tisca Rugs Lower Heating Costs
While textile floor coverings offer many benefits, their heat-retaining properties are now coming to the fore.
Scientific studies show that carpets maintain the same level of comfort as hard floors, even when the room temperature is reduced by around 2 degrees. For each degree you lower your heating, you can save about 6%, not counting the insulating effect of the floor covering. This roughly leads to a 12 to 15% saving in heating costs per year.
Of course, a lot depends on the rug or carpet’s material, its construction, the pile density, the way your home is heated and how often, as well as other factors. The objectively measured temperatures are just as important as your subjective sense of feeling warm – or the temperature it “feels like,” as this is often called in weather forecasts. The following factors may have a role:
The quality of the materials used to make the rug or carpet determine how effective the thermal barrier will be. For example, high-quality pure new wool obviously provides better insulation than synthetic fibers, although the latter can also make savings.
The construction of the rug or carpet is also decisive. Its thickness, as well as the many small air chambers between the carpet fibers, keep the heat in the room.
Your subjective sense of warmth is highly dependent on how warm your feet are. Your body heat escapes from your feet being in direct contact with the floor. To maintain the same level of comfort at a noticeably lower room temperature, it is often enough to have a rug under the table to place your feet on while working. Cold feet are usually compensated by a higher room temperature.
Your subjective sense of warmth, which is more important for how you regulate your heating than any objective temperature measurement, will also be affected by colors, light, patterns, and the way a rug or carpet feels.
Contrary to popular belief, rugs—especially wool rugs—are very suitable for underfloor heating. Although rugs have a higher thermal resistance and take longer to warm up when the underfloor heating is first started up, they are then very efficient due to their low heat loss. Incidentally, rugs allow for a lower water flow temperature, which accommodates energy-efficient heat generation options such as heat pumps or solar energy.
Carpets have many benefits. They absorb sound, bind dust particles (a benefit for allergy sufferers), and give rooms their character. Yet, an increasingly important factor is that carpets improve the “feels like” temperature and have an insulating effect – a benefit that should not be underestimated given the energy crisis and rising prices for oil, gas, and electricity.
Cost savings are particularly high when using pure new wool. Thanks to Tisca wool rugs, you can save 12 to 15% in heating costs.
