will it work?

drhvac

I'm in the business and have posted before. To make a long story short because i just wrote a book, and it got erased somehow before I posted it, I don't have experience in radiant. I want to do part of my own house in radiant. My challenge is it would be stapled up underfloor piping. The heat would have to go through 1/2" subfloor, hardwood floor, and carpeting. My supplier did a heat load for me and said it would work, but on the coldest day, the water design temp would be 180 degrees. I have an outdoor reset already connected to my boiler, so the water temp. would adjust according to the outdoor temp, and would rarely ever get to 180. The piping would be 8" apart. You guys have experience on this, and I am skeptical on whether or not this will work even though the supplier said it would. Could this work? And, even though the hardwood is covered with carpeting, will it get ruined by the higher water temps.? My supplier says that is a myth, but again i am skeptical. Thanks

Mark Eatherton

It might work, but...

you will never be real happy with it.



It will be noisy going through heat up and cool down.



It will consume more fuel than it should.



I don't think it would do any harm to your floors, because their moisture content should already be down to its minimum background levels.



If you're going to do it on your own home, do it right and install some good extruded aluminum heat transfer plates. Check out http://www.radiantengineering.com/ThermoFin.html



It is worth the money and time necessary to do the additional work.



Sorry about losing your book...



ME

drhvac

The metal plates

were included in the calculations. There's like $1400 worth of them. I also plan on putting some type of foil deflector, and then spray foaming so that all of the heat is pushed upwards. With the plates and insulation, would it work then? Is it worth doing? thanks

drhvac

The metal plates

were included in the calculations. There's like $1400 worth of them. I also plan on putting some type of foil deflector, and then spray foaming so that all of the heat is pushed upwards. With the plates and insulation, would it work then? Is it worth doing? thanks

Mark Eatherton

Wow....

I idid some testing many years ago using plates and 180 degree F water. The plywood sub floor was 1" thick, and it got to around 140 degrees F on top of the floor. I'm thinking you will cause your carpet pad to outgas and cause a whole host of environmental issues.



Maybe you should consider another surface, like the ceiling where there is not a whole lot of R value being placed on top of it...



ME

drhvac

I would think

if that was the case, and by me putting all those plates and insulating so well, that is a good thing the floor you did got so hot. That is an easy fix by just lowering the water temp. ?