Radiant in a garage

Unknown

in the floor of a garage that will house my son's construction equipment. It will be a 22' x 40' by 20' high building. There will also be a work area for some cabinet building. It will be all open construction no partitions.

Any suggestions for a small inexpensive boiler. We have decided against using a water heater.

I am also concerned about the tubing in the floor as related to heavy equipment. Does anyone see a problem with that? I am open to some suggestions on this. What would you look for as far as spacing the tubing is such an area?

Robert O'Connor_6

Timmie I would

suggest you have your local wholesaler put the garage thru a radiant design program

Wirsbo Watts and I'm sure others have programms that spit out all the particulars. For a garage it won't take long to do the data entry.

Regards,

Robert

ME

Mike Kraft_2

Heres an article to read..................................

Timmie,

The obvious first thing is a heatloss.As far as the appliance it depends.Is the garage the only load that will be served?I would'nt trash a water heater right off the bat.So many of these questions will be answered from a good heatloss.Cut and paste this link.Good info.

http://www.pmmag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2379,117858,00.html

cheese

Gregg Jackson_3

GJACK

Timmie,

I wouldn't worry about the tubing spacing. 12" is common for your application. We have many buildings we have done that contain heavy trucks & equipment. I am from the "mixing valve" school of thought but we did a small garage like yours with a small cast iron boiler and a grundfos miximizer (injection pump) and it was very slick. I might have some slightly used boilers if your interested (in RI) .

GJACK

Unknown

Gregg, give me a call

401-437-0557. I may be interested in a used boiler if it will meet the heat loss.

Empire_2

Consider overhead radiant heat.

You might consider overhead radiant heat. Both will cost some cash, but I think the overhead will heat more objects in the shop including the trucks when they are inside. Floor heat will only warm the slab. Keep in mind that slab heat warms thru convection and radiant is direct radiant application. Check it out...

Bob Bona_4

I'm not

sure I understand that statement, Empire1. What is the difference between slab heat and radiant heat, in your opinion?

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

gehring

Radiant in Garage

Another thing to keep in mind if you are in a snowy climate AND in a jurisdiction that prohibits floor drains in a garage - when you drive your snow covered vehicle in from outside and the snow melts onto the warm floor with no place to go you will end up with a humid sauna like affect as all that melted snow turns to water, warm water and then evaporates into the space. I have seen radiant floored garages with steamed up windows and drops of water dripping off the ceiling. Just something to keep in mind depending on what else you use the garage for.

Unknown

Thanks Robert, yes we will do that

we have already done my son's new house with radiant and hydro-air. The detached garage is our concern as to ability to handle weight and other factors.

Unknown

Thanks Mike, I will cut and paste

that article.

Unknown

Empire1, I have had some experience with

overhead infra-red heaters over the years and they work great. It is just not what we want for this application as we have some internal storage considerations and can not get the height requiremnets needed for overhead heaters. Thanks for you input.

Unknown

Gehring, that is a good heads up thanks,

I am not sure what the restrictions on drains will be. This is a rural area and we have a septic system serving the house. We also have an inground water problem with water table. There is also stream that runs through the property so all that will have to be considered, Again thanks.

Mark_25

I have experience with both overhead radiant and floor radiant. My dad has a tube heater in his shop, I have infloor radiant. You will have no problems with tubing in the floor, provided you spec your concrete for your machinery. I like the floor radiant much better than the tube radiant because you need a direct line of sight on the tube to feel warm. The heated slab is just warm everywhere.
Your first step is definitely a heatloss calc. For example, my shop is 40' x 64' x 14' and with only two small windows and very good insulation, speced out at about 35,000 btus at my design temp. Hard to find a boiler that small, so a water heater might be alright for you. I went with a used boiler for durability. I know the WM WGO I bought will be good for many years. As far as costs go, I did everything myself and shopped around, but used good materials, no corner cutting, and the infloor cost me about 2X what a good quality overhead heater would have. My tubing is 8 circuits of 250' 1/2 tubing as one big zone driven by a Taco 007 on both primary and secondary loops. I used a Honeywell injection controller, and another Taco pump for injection. The loops in the floor are about 12" at the outside walls, and down to about 16-18" spacing in the center of the building. It works beautifully. I'd caution you to make sure you use oxygen barrier tubing for your tube, if you decide that way. The cost is minimal, and then you don't need bronze pumps and a heat exchanger or special boiler.

Unknown

Not quite

Slab heat IS radiant heat. Your entire floor is a radiant panel. It does not rely on convection to transfer most of its heat. It does heat the objects in the room directly through radiant energy transfer.

_______________________________
Northeast Radiant Technology, LLC

Robert Brown, Co-Owner, RPA certified Radiant Designer

207.899.2328
NRT@maine.rr.com

John Starcher_4

Tim, as others have already.....

.....stated, proper heat loss calc is essential (as I am sure you didn't need to be told ;-) See if one of your wholesalers can run the radiant design for you (Wirsbo ADS Rocks!!!)

As far as the boiler goes, check out New York Thermal's Trinity boiler. It's fully modulating and condensing, and is ideal for low water temperature applications, at a very reasonable price.

Starch

John Jr

Tim, if Gregg can’t help you out let me know. We have job that’s a 50 x 70 with 16’ ceilings with radiant, used a Viessmann Vitoden. The owner’s heat bill has averaged $100.00 a month. The job is in Woonsocket and he plans on using it to store classic cars. The other is in North Smithfield it is two buildings one is a 30 X 60 and the other is 30 x 50 and they are connected together. The 30 x 50 was done after he spent the first winter in the new 30 X 60. He jack hammered the floor out so we could install the radiant in the old building. The owner rebuilds military vehicles in it. When I say military vehicles I’m talking tanks, APC’s and 2½ ton trucks along with the 5 ton tractors. We used a Buderus boiler for that job. We have others in the area that work great! If you need someone to do a heat loss for you give me a call if Gregg can’t help.

John Perry Jr
Advanced Comfort Systems, Inc.
401-356-0230