O/T radiant floor heat list or group?

I've been poking around looking for a list or NG to learn a bit more about radiant floor heat. I have not had a lot of luck.. If anyone knows where these guys hang, please post or drop me a note. Thanks for all I learn here.. Cheers! Ian

Reply to
Ian Timshel
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I don't know where you find the info in a newsgroup, but I had radiant heat put in by a local plumbing contractor when I put on our addition. It's in the shop floor and room above, heated with an oil furnace.

I'm really happy with it and would do it again.

The contractor wasn't familiar with the installation, so called in a factory rep who designed the layout and assisted in the routing and distribution valve panels.

Earle Rich Mont Vernon, NH

Reply to
ERich10983

I'm afraid I can't point to any other groups, but there have been several discussions on this group. I installed radiant heat when I built this shop about 10 years ago. Wouldn't have it any other way. The heat source is a Monitor kerosene fired on-demand hot water heater.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Google groups:

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All the words: radiant floor heat

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Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

I installed it in my new house under the floor. Check it out at

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and follow the Station link.

Bernd

Reply to
Bernd

Ian Timshel squeezed out:

Thanks guys.. I posted some details to "sci.energy" after seeing some questions posted there via google. Here is what I posted on "sci.energy" Again if anyone has any more comments I'd sure like to hear from you. Cheers! Ian.

========== Hi all.

Direct questions are listed at the bottom of this post... "The rambler" eheh

If there are more appropriate forums to be posting these questions please steer me toward them.

I have "googled" away a fair amount of time today trying to find an email list or N/G dedicated to this type of question but did not find my way home..

I hope only a few of these ideas are "goofy stupid" but I am willing and able to be set straight with the wisdom of the group.. ;^)

I'm looking for some answers regarding radiant floor heat. I've built a small 200 sq/ft first attempt system and it works well... meaning that even with cold Canadian winters I have not noticed a significant boost in my electric bill to keep the building heated this way.

This first attempt runs with a 15 gallon hot water tank and has the thermostat controlling the pump. Even during the coldest days (minus

40C) the tank does not spend very long heating, but the pump will run for extended periods of approximately five or six hours. The tank kicks in once in a while to keep up with the demand. The tank is set to it's lowest heating setting. The tank has no trouble keeping up with demand. It spends most of it's time "off". The tank sports a single 3000k element.

The pump on the first attempt floor is too big for the job so it rifles the glycol through at a pretty quick rate.

I find the heat to be very attractive and stable. I am very pleased with the resulting environment. This is my "clean shop" with a lathe and mill.

The concrete for both floors is eveloped in 1.5" of rigid Styrofoam on the bottom and sides, to break contact with the ground. The walls and ceiling are R40 or better.

==============

I'm now attaching another larger floating pad 22' x 22' to extend the building and wondering how best to heat it. This will be a guest house with a sitting area and two bedrooms. Walls and ceiling will be R40 or better.

This new floor will have an independent heating system.

I'm considering an "on-demand" type boiler system 5000k but am leery of the thermostat controlling the heating elements. The new pad is a 5" thick pad with a 10"x16" footer around three sides.

The new floor will have a pump appropriate for 300 foot loops of .5" kytek pipe.

The heating pipe will be 6" from the perimeter on 12" centres in two loops. The first loop is 262' and the other is 229.5' in theory. That makes for a difference of between 12 and 15 percent depending on how you go about calculating it (I think!). The loops are staggered to allow for circulation throughout the building should one loop fail.

Will the "on-demand" set-up be more or less efficient than the small reserve tank on this size/type of floor?

Will the difference in loop length be too great between the two loops and adversely effect the flow or some other element of the design?

Is staggering the pipe a waste of time?

Any comments will be welcomed. Cheers! Ian.

"Linux is not The Answer. Yes is the answer. Linux is The Question" ==========

Reply to
Ian Timshel

I would use a water heater with the capability of temperature reset. Keep the loop temperature as low as possible which will give you a large delta T across the heat exchanger. If you can program in an optimal start/stop scheme it would be even more efficient. More tubing in the slab will allow f or a lower water temperature and more even heat. Match the circulator to the actual requirements, which in your case is going to be high head and low to moderate volume- Taco and Grundfos have the charts on their websites.

Reply to
ATP

Go to

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and buy Modern hydronic heating and a slide calculator. Both have helped me understand hydronic systems. Also
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has quite a bit of info.

Nate

Reply to
Nate Weber

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