Home-made floor radiator ???

Duane

Here's my situation: my four-square house has a radiator in each of the 8 rooms, except the kitchen. I assume the original designer didn't put on there due to the always-on type kitchen stoves that were common at the time (1920). There is absolutely no room for a new radiator in the galley kitchen. Now that I have re-insulated all the pipes in the basement, the kitchen is cold, and the floor is downright painful. Since electricity is very expensive here (New England), I would like to use the steam available to heat the kitchen. One, possibly crazy thought, but maybe not, would be to make a type of radiant floor heat. I had visions of making up a "floor radiator" by running a 10 foot run of 1" black iron in each of three floor joist spaces (under the standing area of the galley kitchen). There is a riser going to the second floor in the perfect spot to take off from. At the other end of the runs, I would tie the pipes together and place a vent, of course minding proper slope, etc. Finish off with insulation below the pipes between joists. I envision a nice, warm floor and room without any loss of space. Good idea, or nutball fantasy ? Is this ever done ?

Mark Eatherton1

Biting off more than you can chew...

also known as biting off more than I would want to chew.

From what I get, you're trying to mix new technology with an old system and while it CAN be done, it takes a WHOLE lot more skill, tools and knowledge than the normal mortal hydronician can get up.

If it is steam, you'd be better pumping hot condensate through the pipes. The first thing you need to do is a heat loss calculation. Available for free at this site.

Maybe some others will want to comment:-)

ME

John@Reliable_5

It could be done, but............................

I bet the rest of your nice warm house would become a problem, then the post would read, "have a warm kitchen but rest of house cold" Help! One way I have done this is with free standing unit heaters which is a small cabinet w/blower and is hooked up as a water zone from existing boiler.Yes they take up room but very little, the best thing is they work. Kitchens can be hard to heat just for the reasons you stated but I have allot of happy customers with this set-up. Hope this helps John@Reliable

Doug Wagoner

Warm the kitchen floor

with hot water from the boiler like Mark has suggested. The art and skill of the tradesman becomes invaluable in designing a pumping scheme that will not cavitate and a boiler control that will not move steam to the rest of the house but at the same time will supply hot water for the kitchen floor without over heating the kitchen when the rest of the house is calling for steam. Can you do this and still have a safe system or do you need to call in the experts?

Duane

Thanks, guys. I suppose using hot condensate would make more sense, for one it is much easier to control the flow rate. I am a professional chemical engineer, but this certainly does not make me a professional hydronic heating expert. Just for kicks, can someone post a link to the little water / air blower box hx mentioned earlier ? This sounds good since the air flow can be easily controlled by a separate thermostat mounted in the kitchen (it might sometimes call when the boiler is off for a while thus condensate cooled, but so what). I have one of those "dead" cabinet inner corners you can't reach anyway, ideal for hiding such a unit. Not sure about the pump take-off from the boiler, however, visions of bad things like pressure / vacuum fights come to mind. Anyone have diagrams / schematics of this type of system ??? I have one pipe steam btw, modern Burnham boiler. Kitchen is nearly over top of the boiler, so fortunately short runs.

Unknown

here you go.

http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=29

http://www.slantfin.com/prod-kicker.html

John@Reliable_5

Check this one out

It's a little pricey compared to a toe kick unit, but very quiet.http://www.beacon-morris.com/litlibrary/BHCC-1.pdf

Dale

Room in the basement

If you have room for it in the basement above the boiler you could get a used steam covvector type of rad and make yourself up a little hydro air unit with a blower that is relayed if the burner has a call for heat. Frame up a little sheet metal enclosure to direct the air. Kind of like the ancient old jobs where outside air was passed over the rads in the basement and then ducted upstairs. The trick will be headroom above the existing main.