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Advanced Hydronics is a design-build mechanical firm providing proven expertise in radiant heating,
snow melt, solar thermal, geothermal, as well as creative cooling solutions for residential and
commercial applications.
We specialize in the following system types:
The physics surrounding heat transfer are not complex. The primary law is that heat moves from
warm to cold. Any object or thing that is warmer than another nearby will give up its heat to the
cooler object. This is the reason we feel cooler when walking down the frozen food aisle at the
grocery store. It isn't that the food cooler is giving off cold air; rather, our body is radiating its heat
to that cooler object.
There are 3 ways heat is transferred: conduction, convection, and radiant heat transfer.
Conduction is how heat moves through solid objects, or from one solid object to another when
they are in contact. When we reach for an item in the frozen food aisle it feels cold to the touch
because we give up heat from our hand to that object. Similarly, when we stand on a cool
basement slab or a tile floor, we give heat up from our feet. Thus, it feels cold to us.
Convection is the manner in which heat moves from a solid surface to a fluid or gas (such as
water or air). Motorcycle and lawn mower engines cool themselves this way. The engines
have fins around the hot areas that disperse the heat into the air. Hot-water baseboard
heating systems do the same thing. Hot water is circulated through a copper pipe, which
itself becomes hot, and the heat is given up to the air. The pipes have aluminum fins along
their length that significantly speed this process by increasing the contact surface area. By
physics, warm air (not pure heat) rises and draws cooler air down. Baseboard heaters have
an opening at the top and the bottom for just this reason.
Radiant heat transfer is infrared light moving through space from one object to another, and
no contact between the objects is needed. The best example of this is the sun, which emits
enormous quantities of infrared light. This light travels uninterrupted through the 93 million
miles of space to the earth, where the radiant energy from the light rays is absorbed by the
earth's atmosphere and the earth itself. We only feel the heat from the radiant energy when
we absorb it ourselves. Infrared light shares at least one very important characteristic with
visible light. It travels in straight lines, regardless of direction, at the same speed, 186,282
miles per second.
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