tubing on perimeter walls

jonny88

hi,i am remodelling an addition to our house for mother in law,so i got to get this righht.three walls are outside walls.i have read you should make your loops closer on perimeter walls,my problem is i am putting a kitchen on one of the perimeter walls.the room will be 25x20.is it a big no no to put tubing under the cabinets

Mark Eatherton

Not recommended...

One small loop to cover any plumbing in an outside wall is acceptable, but putting heat beneath cabinets will make potatoes and onions grow like mad an won't really do human comfort much good.



I have about 500,000 square feet of RFH systems out there, and I never really subscribed to putting more tubing near the outside walls, and have never had a complaint. Stop and think about it. How often do you spend time right next to an outside wall... I didn't think so :-)



Other than staple up, which has a REAL poor heat transfer coefficient, I have never seen ANY installation manual that showed a need for putting more tubing near an outside wall.



ME

meplumber

Mark is dead on.

I also do a lot of RFH.  The only thing I sometimes do for the perimeter is to run the supply from the manifold to the perimeter wall, when it is practical, thus putting the hottest water near the highest heat loss.  But that is just how I learned to do it.



As for under cabinets, I never put it under cabinets.  One loop will find its way near the plumbing but that is it.  I don't trust the cabinet installers to not hit my tubing.



Good Luck

jonny88

thanks guys for your info

im going to put down warm board on top of the slab,then run my tubing leaving out the cabinets.hopefully it will be enough heat.im half way through dans book on radiant heat and will probably have more ideas by the end imsure.by the way is this the same mark that dan mentions in his books

Mark Eatherton

One in the same :-)

A.K.A. The Colorado Mad Man ;-)



ME