pex fubing

Heeltee

I an doing my house heating system  over.  Goiing from steam sytem to radiant floor heating, 1 st floor .. 2nd floor hot water going to cast irom radiators.W hen istalling pex is there anything I should be aware of. .Need to use oxygen barrier, How should pex be surrported ?  vertical /horizantal ? i was told that heating pannels make to much noise .  Is there anything on the market that would work insfead ? Thanks for all info !hh

Harvey Ramer

Hire a Pro; or

if you are determined to do it yourself get a bunch of Dan's books and start reading. I'm afraid if I were to try an answer all your questions and give you all the other information you will need to know, i'd get carpal tunnel in my fingers before I was done typing.



If you do it right though, you will have the most comfortable heat you can imagine. Don't cut any corners.



Cheers

Harvey

Heeltee

Thanks

Dan, is an educator,teacher,troubleshooter, etc. Dan will tell you he is not a mechanic. It is the problems that mechanics (plumbers,fitters etc) run into, while working in the field. It's called experience. Just one piece of information is better than none. Again, thanks for you're reply.

Ironman

Well...

Here's a little help:



If you can route the tubing without too much difficulty, I would recommend pex-al-pex. It has an aluminum layer which makes it much firmer than regular pex and it doesn't require the amount of support that the regular does. It also has a very low linear expansion rate that is close to copper, whereas standard pex expands almost 12 inches per 100 ft. when heated a hundred degrees.



If you have rads, I would use a manifold (Rehau, Uponor, no chinese) and "homerun" each rad to the manifold. 3/4 to 1gpm is a realistic flow rate for 1/2" pex a manifold system which will give you 7500 - 10,000 btu's. That will cover most rads unless it's a really large one, then you would need 5/8 or 3/4 for that one. Measure you EDR to determine the out put of each rad and the necessary pipe size. Multiply the square footage times 150 to get the btu output.



As far as the floor goes, standard pex is easier to pull for in joist applications. Again, use a good type "A" oxygen barrier like Rehau or Uponnor. Don't use the chinese stuff, you'll regret it.

Heeltee

Pex tubing

Thanks, for, your reply ! Happy holidays !