Energy Savings
Montreux, Switzerland, on the scenic Lake Geneva, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, looks very inviting and inspiring - just like a beautiful acid-stained concrete floor. Unfortunately, it won’t lead to any energy savings.
Another great benefit of using acid-stained concrete flooring in a home or business is the resulting energy savings. This is due to a fundamental property of concrete called “thermal mass”, which means concrete has a high capacity to absorb, store, and slowly release heat, and coolness. This "thermal mass" property of concrete serves to moderate greatly the indoor temperature swings in rooms of a building, reducing the load on heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning equipment. The benefits of thermal mass are greatest in northern, Midwestern climates, like Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, where outdoor temperature fluctuations are among the highest in the United States. The reason this property of concrete is so important is that floors are the second highest source of thermal mass in a building, accounting for approximately 35-50% of the total.
Energy savings from the thermal mass of concrete in a basement, or slab on grade, however, go unrealized if that concrete is covered, or unexposed, to the air. Carpeting, tile, and hardwood, for example, have very low degrees of thermal mass, so for the most part, they reflect and dissipate warm heat and cool air, rather than store it. Acid-stained concrete flooring, on the other hand, uses the full potential of thermal mass. Monetary savings for acid-stained, and other types of decorative concrete flooring, are estimated at between 15% and 26% annually, depending on the amount of concrete flooring used in a building.
Construction data shows that nationally, about 30 percent of new single-family homes have a full or partial basement, and 54 percent are built on slabs, meaning that most households in the U.S. are perfectly situated to have acid-stained concrete flooring installed, and save big in terms of energy costs.
These savings can be even higher in states like Michigan, where customers in 2017 paid the highest monthly cost for natural gas in the nation - and Illinois, where customers paid the 5th highest cost (see WalletHub). With regard to electricity, homeowners in Michigan paid the 10th highest in the nation (see Energy Savings). That’s a lot money each month for heating and air conditioning.
Two ways of enhancing the savings due to the thermal mass property of concrete even more are to use radiant heating in a concrete floor, or to use decorative concrete overlays on the wood sub-floors of a home. This is because radiant heating systems heat objects in a room, such as furniture and persons, by emitting heat rather than elevating air temperature. As a result, air temperatures may usually be set 7 or 8 degrees lower than normal. Dual radiant systems are also available that provide cooling in addition to heating.