Radiant Floor Question

Roland_14

Un-heated basement below kitchen.

Roland_13

Radiant Floor Question

Good Morning All,
The wife and I are contemplating a future kitchen renovation. It's not going to be a total rip-out as the cabinets and fixtures are of recent vintage. What we really want to have installed is a radiant floor heating system to replace a barely usefull 12' length of baseboard.

Can any of you fine folks recommend types of radiant that will be installed underneath the existing kitchen floor. What are the pluses and minuses of existing technology. Cost,of course, is a factor. Thank you all for your generous help in the past.Roland........

hot_rod

how large of an area?

what about floor coverings?

Sometimes a small area, say under 100 square feet, is best server with an electric mat or cable product. Most go in with the thinset above the cementious backer board. Easy to install with tile, and digital setback controls easily wire.

You want to be sure you have enough floor surface area to cover the heatload for that space. 12 foot of baseboard could have an output of 4800 btu or more. Figure around 20- 25 btu/ foot of floor space with radiant, to be safe.

Hydronicly speaking you could use underfloor transfer plates and a separate zone with a mixing valve. Or Ultrafin with the current baseboard temperatures.

Plenty of options, consider a room heat load calc first.

hr

Roland_13

Radiant Floor

Thanks HOTROD, As I recall, the calculated heat loss was around 5200 BTU and the total heated area is 126sqft. The floor covering will probably be a low VOC linoleum.

What's important,besides comfort,is that there is little expansion noise and good heat transfer. do you have a link to what my options are?

Thanks,Roland....

D Sykora

Ondol Radiant Panel System Option

This link may be an option for your kitchen remodel project:http://radiantandmore.com/ondol.html looks like you have to contact them for pricing as they design each system, but I think that is good as it will be designed to your expectations. Since you already have baseboard, you can just add a tempering valve and circulating pump.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

5,200 btu for 126 sq.ft. of heated floor area requires 41 btu/sq.ft. to meet the load. The floor would be far too warm (approx. 93F in a 70F room).

To serve the area via radiant floors only, you must greatly decrease the heat loss. If such is impractical then the floors alone are unlikely to carry the load and you will still need "extra" heat beyond the floors.

You describe the existing kitchen baseboard as "barely useful". Why? Do you have other forms of radiators?

Roland_14

Radiant Floor

The 12' section of baseboard is the only one in the house as all other units are semi-recessed convectors. The kitchen has a large sliding glass door(double panel) and a bay window. I was a bit off on the heat loss figure, it is actually 4072btu/hr. Strangely enough, for the size of the room, it has the largest heat loss of any in the house.

I have looked into panel rads also, but, I don't think they will work out due to the physical layout of the kitchen. A Thermo-Fin type system seems to be the most workable for this project as it probably won't require being on it's own zone. I read the Siggy article about radiant floor and it states that it is possible to replace the baseboard directly with a sub-floor radiant system.

I'm still in the research stage and not set on any one kind of system.

Wayco Wayne_2

What's below the Kitchen.

Is there basement, crawlspace or slab?

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Wayco Wayne_2

You should

install joist trak plates underneath the floor. Aluminum joist trak plates get screwed up to the bottom of the sub floor and then you pop the pex tubing in and run warm water through. Sometimes you can run as little as 105F sometimes more, but don't run high temp through, temper it down. Then you insulate the joists with batt's and push the batts all the way up against the plates. I also like to close in the bottom of the joists with 1/2 foam board of some sort. The plates will inject heat right into the sub floor. You may want to keep the baseboard to supplemnet cuz you can usually allow for 30 btu per foot, but kitchens usually have less floor area because of the cabinents. Use baseboard to supplement, or keep Momma cooking all day long. That'll heat up the kitchen too. WW

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Roland_13

Radiant Floor

Thanks Wayne,

Is there an expansion noise issue with the plates you mentioned?

Wayco Wayne_2

No

make sure you get the 1/8" thick extruded plates. I use the joist traks sold by Uponor, but there are others.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"