Radiant Vs. Forced Air

Dave_4

There is no reason a radiant system with good recovery couldn't be designed. Forced air doesn't heat the contents much faster than most hydronic systems. You may want to add some panel rads and towel warmers to the equation.

Sounds like you prefer the comfort. And yes a weekend setting on a t-stat would do that.

paulk

Radiant Vs. Forced Air

Is there any drawback to using a Radiant Floor system in a new construction weekend home? The house will be used mainly on weekends, and the contractor is telling me that Forced air makes more sense because it'll heat up faster when somebody gets there on Friday afternoons. How much longer could it take to get up to temp? And is that worth the sacrifice in comfort? Seems to me that a Programmable Thermostat could eliminate this problem, but just want to be sure I'm not missing something. Thanks in advance.

Wayco Wayne_2

What type of radiant floor?

Slab or plates? How big of a space? Why not a radiant floor with some supplemental radiators to speed up initial heating. I'm with you. I prefer the comfort of a radiant floor. WW

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Josh M.

The Tekmar TN4 controls will allow you to set just about any schedule you want. Also in the spring of '07 you will have an internet gateway to activate and monitor the system from virtually anywhere you have an internet connection.

If that doesn't work, how about a Viking relay? It will allow the user to activate the heating system using any touch tone phone including cell phones.

Just some thoughts for you. Quick recovery is no excuse to scortch your air!

Chris_82

lots of reasons...

The contractor isn't going to make as much and we plumbers cut lots of holes in his wood...

Mike T., Swampeast MO

If not slab construction check out Warmboard™. It's a structural floor with a continuous layer of aluminum on top. As far as floor heat goes, such allows for quite fast ramp-up.

Weezbo

Go Radiant hydronic.

although i like pex tubing for potable water i use copper on Lake homes everything is Graded/Pitched to decend to common low point.that way if you want to you can drain the entire works down and "pump it up" in spring...*~/:)

Unknown

hey josh,

I think latest greatest on the gateway is early '08 or late '07 now. groooaaaannnn....

in the meantime we're using user switches tied to a phone switch, sounds like you're doing something similar?

Nick Ciasullo

In my old house

I had installed staple up radiant. If I went away for more than a few days I would reset the temperature down to 60F. When I got home and turned the dial back up, it only took a few hours before you noticed some comfort change, and maybe about 6 hours before the temp was all the way up. If you do this, I should point out that you would probably want to use a fixed temperature on the boiler (maybe around 120 to 140F tops) and not outdoor reset so it heats up fast.

Josh_10

I second that! Warmboard is a performer! If you look at the statistics it will warm up quite a bit faster than staple up. It is becoming my most recommended way of doing Radiant.

NRT Rob.. We use a viking relay. It is VERY simple. Had a hard time getting my hands on them. Simple single pole double throw activated with any phone.