Xetal › About Xetal › Products In Development

Xetal is currently working on the following new acoustic attenuation products:

• A-Cousti Omega Joist Cap  (Patent Application number 0614487.7) - Launched February 2007
• A-cousti Direct - a direct onto joists solution for timber floors. Launched.
• A-Cousti Resilient Ceiling Clip (Patent Application number 0615131.0) designed for the improvement of sound attenuation in social housing. Launch in July 2007.
• A-Cousti QuietTile - under tile resilient layer, due for launch in August 2007
• A-Cousti Resilient Noggin for use with internal partitions abutting through ceilings with resilient bars to prevent squeezing of the resilient bar. .

To be notified of any updates to this page, or any further Xetal product developments you can register your interest here.

Hotfoot™

You can read the Winter 2005 article in Bioscience by either viewing the PDF version or viewing the article as an image.

Homes are getting smaller the walls are covered with pictures, mirrors, cupboards and shelves. We then need to site radiators and furniture, a headache for anybody and everybody!

But say the heating system was under your feet! The wall area and flexibility it releases to you can be surprising. Also floor coverings are no longer cold to the touch, so goodbye to dusty carpets and hello to easy to clean surfaces that are bright and welcoming.

Under-floor heating goes back to the Romans where the stone floors had ducts for the flues of a fire lit beneath the building. Nowadays the methods available have accurate thermal control, high efficiency, ease of installation, etc.

Up to now under-floor heating has been mainly waterpipes or a ribbon element fitted below the floorboards through which the heat must permeate before you can receive the benefit. There is a drawback to this technique and that is the delay caused by the temperature change in the heat source and that of the room can be so slow that an oscillation condition can occur. This is where the room is neither warm enough nor cool with the ideal point being a momentary condition as it passes from one state to the other. Pretty uncomfortable wouldn't you say?

The latest solution offers a very short thermal path to the room, giving high-energy efficiencies and tight thermal control. The walls can also be configured as radiators using the same process where carpeted floors are to the taste of the occupants, or a combination of the two maybe the best solution for the heating problem in that area (say a bathroom where condensation can be eradicated on the heated walls thus defeating mould growth).

This heating system is not limited to domestic or office applications, it can be extended to de-icing important roads, runways, rigging on ships, fuel-oil tanks, industrial drying, in fact anywhere a tight thermal temperature source is required over a large surface area.

Producing a heat source of this kind is not the total solution unless the heat is directional, having a high percentage of the valuable energy lost in the structure of the floor or worse still through the wall is just not acceptable.

To this end a thermal barrier applied to the back of the element ensures the heat has only one direction to go. This exhibits very little undesirable losses reflecting all the heat forward from the thermal surface, transferring by contact to the finishes applied to these heated surfaces. The result is a very efficient heating solution in relation to cost, control, and application.

A simple to install heating system that gives all the benefits of under floor heating and more. Full thermal control of room temperature, mat temperature, and a four event on/off timer.

Systems are available for both the European 230/240 volt supply and American 120 volt supply or the 240 volt supply in Canada meeting all respective regulations. The US/Canadian version additionally incorporates an integrated Ground Fault Interruptor (GFC1, Class A). The thermostat and the GFC1 is a dual model suitable for 120/140 volt 50/60 Hz in the US and Canada only.

Unlike many other systems Hotfoot™ is a radiant heat system providing whole room heating and an even temperature from floor to ceiling, heating an average room to the desired temperature in as little as 20 minutes. The system is economical to run due to its instant switching action and when used on a concrete floor it will use the floor as a heat sink in the same way as a storage radiator uses bricks.

Installation is simple and does not require any specialist skills. The system is fitted under ceramic tiles, laminate floors or in the wall laminated between a thermal barrier and wall finish, or under floorboards between joists.

Hotfoot™ is ideal as a complete heating system, or as an add on to supplement the existing heating system which is up to capacity and cannot handle the newly converted garage or attic or new conservatory.

Currently undergoing an exhaustive test programme the product will be available to the market during 07.

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