Ondol: Korean Heating System

Ondol, the under-floor heating system, is one of the Korean traditional innovations. It has a history of more than 2000 years. In the twentieth century, many Korean traditional things have changed to Western style, but Koreans are still using this heating system even though they live in apartments or Western-style houses where a hot-water system is used instead of smoke to warm the floor. The Korean heating system is very useful to keep the room warm during the winter as well as cool during the summer. Moreover, foreigners are increasingly interested in this heating system.

The main materials of Ondol are flat stones and mud, and it consists of fireplace or stove(Korean: Agungi), also used for cooking, flat stones(Korean: Gudeuljang), and chimney. In the process of building a house, the system needs to make drains, the pathway for smoke, under the floor. Flat stones are laid on them, and covered with mud on. The system needs to make a chimney at the end of the pathway. When someone lights the fireplace, the warm air goes through the pathway and to outside through chimney. While the warm air is going through, it heats flat stones. Therefore, people can feel that the floor is warm. It is a very scientific system because the cold-air is heavier than the hot-air meaning that the cold-air is in the lower part of the room. When the cold-air is heated, it goes to the upper part, so it is circulation that the whole air in the room will become warmer.

The under-floor heating system was used by the Romans but was invented by the Koreans in the Bronze Age. however, their system was based on Hypocause. Initially the rich preserved it, and it became commonplace in public buildings and villas, particularly in the colder regions of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, the hypocause continued to be used in the Islamic world. By the twelfth century, Muslim engineers in Syria introduced an improved central heating system which was widely used in the bathroom in the Middle Ages.

Modern heating systems are generally either hot-water and electric system instead of smoke-heating system. In a hot-water system, warm water is circulated through pipes or tubes that are laid under the floor. However, if can be more expensive to install than radiators. When people use the hot-water system, a condensing boiler or a solar thermal system, they can save energy up to 40%. Even though people use a standard boiler, they can normally save energy up to 15%. The electric heating system has low installation costs because it is easy to install. Even the automatic temperature switch system costs only about $ 100-$ 200. It benefits from faster installation times, and its warm up times are also generally quicker than the hot-water system. People can save not only a lot of energy but also money. For that reason, many people recently like to use those systems.

The Korean heating system is one of the best heating systems in the world. It is also very famous to foreigners. Many hotels in Korea have the ondol rooms which can give experience of the heating system to foreigners. Also, the Koreans are trying to export the heating system to the other countries, the cold regions like China, Russia, and Canada. The heating system is good for reducing energy, saving money, and even getting better health because the room is well ventilated. If people use it, they would like to have it in their house because they will know why it is the best innovation ever.