Cures for long radiant loops

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loops of radiant tube have sneeked into virtually every radiant market. Heck, one online radiant dealer currently promotes 500 foot 1/2 loops!

Here is and article, and a 4 way designed to work these over.

I hope to install this Paxton built 4 way on my own shop, maybe this weekend. I will combine a couple 250 foot loops at the manifold, add some mid point sensors and flow meters. Stay tuned. Thank Siggy for thinking and calculating.

http://www.pmmag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2379,122299,00.html

hot rod

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George Peteya

Long Loops

HR - my personal record is a 750' loop of 1/2". Seems the GC's son convinced him that there's nothing to this radiant stuff. When I found out about it, the concrete had already been poured and 16" granite (good Mount Desert Island pink) had been installed. I had them install one Taco 0011 at the supply, and one on the return. I think Tim Allen would have been proud.

Then there's that 1000' coil of pex installed as one loop somewhere in SE Mass ...

Dave Yates (PAH)

Here too

A SOG project we bid about a decade ago & I suggested the owners should be considering radiant. We bid that as an alternate to the GC with a boiler, hydro-coil (for the antique oil-fired furnasty) and an indirect for DHW. Our GC didn't get the job.

Two years later, I got acall from the HO asking if I'd check out his radiant system not working. Extremely high bills & not nearly enough heat. He had no idea I'd previously bid the job & I was quite anxious to see what had been done.

This was a bi-level job with a library to be perched over the living room (unheated two-car garage below). Open balcony looking down and a full wall of glass at ground level. I had two loops of staple-up under the library floor running one temp with four loops of tubing in slab running a lower temp figured for our installation.

I arrived first and waited for the accountant executive & as he arrived, he hit the remote for the garage door. As it rose, I was treated to a view of dual 80-gallon electric water heaters with one single pair of 1/2" pex lines rising out of the concrete into a twinned set of UP15 Grundfoss pumps.

Inside the home, the new living room was holding 50 F with outdoor temps about 35F. A visit to the library was a stark reality check of radiant heating being directional. As long as you could be "seen" by the living room floor, you felt somewhat warm. As soon as you walked away from the balcony, you were in an ice box and we could plainly see our breath!

The fix $$$ sent them scrambling back to the GC & a heat pump was installed for them at no charge. The radiant was abandoned.

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Weezbo

YES )

That can be a lot of experience in one go around! )) maybe too much:)) 500 foot on a circu pump down stairs from the boiler in slab,insulated, on stone takes more thinking than the normal computer designed lay out. and my question is, is that our best effort(?) or for a very few dollars more couldnt we designe a better distribution system.while it is fun to educate ourselves with the home owner in stalled loops with out supervision Do we REALLY Wanna? hot rod I am waiting for the day one of them get a hold of a ten thousand foot roll and gives me a call in 30 below to help them:)))) It will take Much coffee to do:))))

Mark Hunt

Had one


where the installation contractor was coupling 200' lengths of 3/8" Onix so he could bring all the lines back to the mechanical room from the master bedroom. I counted 7 circuits that were in excess of 1000' and they weren't finished! That job ended in disaster when the GC split after taking 650k and the house was no where near complete.

I also saw a job where black plastic well piping was used in place of Pex. Can't say how long the circuit was, but there were only two ends sticking out of the concrete of a 5000sqft slab. They were attached to a 40 gallon gas water heater and a Taco 007 pump was driving it all. It didn't work.

Mark H

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