Flow through radiant floor tubing

Crusty

I have house with radiant floor heat, the water is heated via a heat pump. The system is locking out on low water flow, this was a problem the original owner had also.



A contractor told me that he believes the pump is not strong enough to move the required 5 gallons per minute the heat pump needs to stop the lock outs from occurring. The locks outs happen on a random basis.



The same contactor told me he could install a more powerful pump, but could not guarantee this will solve the problem. He said he needs to figure out what the flow rate is through the radiant floor tubing, but has no idea of how long the loops are.



The price for installing the pump is not cheap, and I don't want to take a chance that the pump will not solve the problem.



Since the tubing is all hidden blow the floors how would I determine how long it is, or what the flow rate of the floor is at this time?

Mark Eatherton

Generally speaking....

Water source and ground source heat pups require a buffer tank. This tank has a pump between it and the heat pump. There is supposed to be another pump that moves flow between the heating system and the tank. Unless you have a single zone hydronic system, you pretty much MUST have a buffer tank.



Do you??



How many square feet of radiant do you have?



How is the tubing installed? Stapled to bottom of floor, or stapeled to top of floor, or poured in concrete or gypcrete?



ME