New pole barn build. Questions and info??

kaama82

Hello. Starting a new pole barn this summer. So looking for some opinions on heat source. My existing barn has Radiant floor and now it works great. Want to do a few things different this time around. Would like to use a boiler. I am a do-it-yourselver. So please if you can educate me on the do's and dont's. The building will be 40 x 88 with 14 foot sidewalls. I have some Estimated heat required BTU'S/hour numbers from Radiantec. Curious if anyone would be interested in going over them with me. Thanks Todd.

Zman

It is my understanding that Radiantec has threatened to sue members of this forum for speaking freely about their systems. If you are looking for candid feedback, you can send a PM to people by clicking on the username and clicking the "message" tab.
Those open systems are great for building your immune system

KC_Jones

> @Zman said:
> It is my understanding that Radiantec has threatened to sue members of this forum for speaking freely about their systems.

Seriously?

GroundUp

Radiantec is welcome to sue me if they are upset by my saying they are a POS company with no business in hydronics.

With that said, my primary business is radiant floors in pole barns and stick frame sheds. Assuming you'll be insulating properly, 1/2" tubing in 250ft loops on 12" centers is pretty standard. Forget everything Radiantec has told you and listen to some of the brains here that actually know what they're doing

kaama82

Groundup, Yes. The basic stuff is not the problem. Boiler size? pump size? etc..

Ironman

kaama82 said:

Groundup, Yes. The basic stuff is not the problem. Boiler size? pump size? etc..

Sizing of EVERYTHING is determined by a scientific heat loss calculation. Ignore online calculators that only use square footage. They can be grossly inaccurate. SlantFin has a free app that you can download and is fairly accurate.

And I second what's been said about RadiantWreck.

GroundUp

What he said^^^^. In my neck of the woods (MN), a building that size usually ends up in the 60-100,000 BTU neighborhood depending on overhead door size and insulation value. As was mentioned above though, you'll need to do a heat loss analysis to properly size anything. I did just do a 40x88x16 a couple weeks ago with R32 walls and R50 ceiling along with only two 12x12 overheads and it came out to 71,000 at a design temp of -20F. I installed an HTP UFT-100W in that one with the tubing split into two 7 loop manifolds pumped with a single Grundfos 26-99.

kaama82

Ironman said:

kaama82 said:

Groundup, Yes. The basic stuff is not the problem. Boiler size? pump size? etc..

Sizing of EVERYTHING is determined by a scientific heat loss calculation. Ignore online calculators that only use square footage. They can be grossly inaccurate. SlantFin has a free app that you can download and is fairly accurate.

And I second what's been said about RadiantWreck.

Ironman, I took a look at the Slant Fin app. Seems to be pretty in depth. I will continue to work with it. Thanks

kaama82

GroundUp said:

What he said^^^^. In my neck of the woods (MN), a building that size usually ends up in the 60-100,000 BTU neighborhood depending on overhead door size and insulation value. As was mentioned above though, you'll need to do a heat loss analysis to properly size anything. I did just do a 40x88x16 a couple weeks ago with R32 walls and R50 ceiling along with only two 12x12 overheads and it came out to 71,000 at a design temp of -20F. I installed an HTP UFT-100W in that one with the tubing split into two 7 loop manifolds pumped with a single Grundfos 26-99.

Ground up. Thanks. Sounds pretty similar to my building, and probably the same heating zone, considering I'm in southern Michigan.