Heat throughout the ages

The other day I was looking for a cheap(er) way to heat my house up during the winter months, especially my living room, which is relatively big and takes forever to heat up with normal space heaters. Talking about it with friends and family they advised that installing a water underfloor heating system would be ideal for me. I had heard about it and was actually considering it, so it was no surprise. What really surprised me, and it sort of still does now, is how old this system is.

Apparently it was invented first by Koreans in the Bronze Age, but a different version of it was invented by the Romans. It was of course only used by the very rich and in public places, but truth is it does date as back as those times. In fact, in the famous Roman Baths a system of water underfloor heating was used to heat up the floors and the walls of the saunas. The Roman system was so good that it was still used in Spain and other Mediterranean countries up until the Renaissance period and, most likely, beyond that. This Roman heating system, called the hypocaust, was even voted the most important heating invention by the British HVAC industry.