The Fascinating History of Radiant Heating

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The Fascinating History of Radiant Heating

In this informative and entertaining excerpt from his Classic Hydronics seminar, Dan Holohan will tell you about the history of radiant heating systems.

Watch the video here.

rfriedman

What a fascinating excerpt from the book. I grew up in a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Home built for my parents in 1948. The heated floors were great. A single thermostat in a hall downstairs controlled the heat in the floors as well as the linear radiant pipes on the second floor. We sold the house in 1966, and it has been through several owners. Over the years it has developed leaks in the floor and that has sadly been replaced by a system of radiators. I wanted to come up with a repair but soon learned about how common a problem this was. Apparently, moisture coming up from voids in the crushed stone attacked that iron pipe from the outside. I tried in vain to interest pipelining companies to entertain the job, but the 1-inch diameter pipe was a deal breaker.
The issue was that the rather stiff lining needed to be dragged through the pipe, and it would likely abrade on its way around the serpentine bends. I imagined a system that resembled the reverse of a snake shedding its skin where the new material would be fed from the inside, and it would simply unroll itself using liquid or air pressure to force it through. I did some experiments to demonstrate this on a short length. I forget why I abandoned that method. Later, I imagined pumping in high velocity hot air through the inlet and evacuating the air through the outlet. The leaks would simply heat the slab. The problem is getting enough BTU’s through the piping and not have it whistle. Given enough time, I thought it would make the slab warm. There are a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright home owners that would be grateful for a solution.

Heating Pipes.jpg

DanHolohan

Thanks for reading the story, and telling your own. Always something new to learn.

PRR

@3:02 the "1970 raised floor" and the tool in his hand come direct from mainframe computer installs of the 1950s-1960s. In computers they hide the snarl of interconnect cables (mainframes were for showing-off) and also sometimes the return plenum for cooling air.

Mad Dog_2

Wow...Where is this home? Mad Dog