Different temps in the same zone??

Dave_22

I am considering having underfloor radiant installed in my home. I was thinking about 2 bedrooms and a bath on 1 zone. The bedrooms have carpet and the bath has tile. Could a mixing valve be used on 1 branch of the zone? Or could the bathroom be at the end of the loop where the temp. is cooler? What makes sense or should the zone be split?? Thanks for any input.

Tony_8

spacing

same temp might be possible w/ closer spacing under the carpeted floors.

Josh M.

I think that spacing might give you the desired effect however how close together. Sounds like alot of math. Bottom line is I always put different floor coverings on seperate zones. Especially when talking about the difference in thermal resistance of carpet vs. tile.

Andy N._3

beds n baths

It depends. What type of radiant system will you be using? Will you be doing all of the heating with radiant or are you just going after some floor warming? If the bedrooms in this zone have a large btu requirement and a thick carpet you may overheat the bathroom floor. if you are simply after a little floor warming then it may not be a problem. most people prefer to have the bath a little warmer than other rooms in the house. One complaint I have heard from a lot of people who keep the bathroom on with the bedrooms is that when the system goes into night setback the bathroom floor is cold in the morning when they wake up. This is why I personally prefer to keep the bathroom split from the bedrooms and use a floor stat. this way the homeowner can just crank the bathroom floor to whatever temperature feels good. Your feet kind of just "melt" into the tile. Some of them use the bathroom floor warming all year round.

just a few things to think about,

Andy

Wayco Wayne

You could

put the rooms on their own loops and balance them as need be. I've even put a thermostat on a telestat (zone valve for one loop on a manifold so there could be individual control of the loop while the other loops just ride the curve with constant circ. WW

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mp1969

Same zone different requirements

I just did an in-floor last fall where I put 2 small areas with different demand loads on one zone. I designed around the higher load of course and split the zone using zone valves (2)and a common supply. The close proximity of these two different rooms made it very cost effective and it is working just fine.I was told you can do just about anything at Wirsbo school back in 1997 and with common wethead knowledge I have become a believer!

Good Luck!

MP 1969

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Dave_22

So- how did using the zone valve change the water temp? Or did you use a mixing valve on the lower temp. zone??? Thanks.

Radiant Wizard

How about balancing fellas

Spacing of the tubing is not going to make a big difference. If the radiant is designed correctly you will already be at 8" centers in the joist bays utilizing 3/8" tubing and some type of heat emission plate (I would recommend RTI's Radiant Trak). Obviously the carpet water temp is going to be higher than the tile. The best way to do this effectively is to either use an injection pump or modulating 3-way mixing valve with outdoor reset and as long as the difference in water temps between the tile and the carpet are within 20 degrees of each other you could balance out the manifold to accomodate your needs. I would recommend that you only do this if your utilizing outdoor reset, primary secondary piping and you have a very accurate heat loss. I would probably also use a floor sensor or some type of set point control for the tile vs a thermostat on the wall. You will also have to use some type of actuators on your manifold. DO NOT USE A THERMOSTATIC MIXING VALVE IF YOUR GOING TO TRY THIS. YOU WILL BE VERY UNHAPPY WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SYSTEM!

hot_rod

The very first step

would be a heatloss calc and a design. With this info you could play around with flow, temperature, plates, etc.

Maybe use plates under the carpeted bedroom areas and suspended tube at the bath room. Yws, you may be able to run the return "tails" through the bath area for some warming.

Run the calcs, the answers will become clear

hot rod