new hot water heat in 100 yr old home

Nick_14

new hot water system in 140 yr old home. what is the best medium, copper fin, plastic tube under 3" t&g pine, or installing fins to heat the basement/ crawl space areas

Joe_51

?

Are you saying the pine is 3" thick or 3" wide ???

Weezbo

if its a hundred years old ....

might think of using myson or buderas panels creatively with pex zippin all about the place.

kevin coppinger_4

that's exactly....

what I did with my place...it's a bit older(204yrs.) used wirsbo pex to home run to each panel rad (Buderus)used a Buderus 115 oil boiler and set the system on a Tekmar 260 control...woks well. I not sure that radiant floors are for every house in every place. especially 3" pnie floors...kpc

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Mark Hunt

I'm with Weezbo and Kevin


Add thermostatic radiator valves and your Mom will have one heck of a system!

I would not recommend radiant heat under the conditions you describe.

Mark H

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kevin_5

I could be wrong but...

I think there is a mis-print. I don't believe any home has 3" thick pine floors. I know they used to really build 'em years ago, but there are BRIDGES that don't have much more than that in them. The Dead Men didn't mind a little overkill, but they weren't wasteful of labor or materials to that extent either were they? That being said, I agree with you that some panels above the floor may certainly be more suitable than under the floor at times. Kevin

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Mark Hunt

I've seen a few


I have no idea why they were that thick, but no less than 3" of wood. Maybe they had time to kill and extra planks laying around?!?!?!?



Mark H

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hr

A heat loss calc

would be your best first step, regardless of the floor thickness the loss needs to be identified.

With that in hand you can start to pick from emitters that best fit the load and design of the building. If the floors are that thick and you desire radiant, AND the floor panels could meet the load, then you could consider some of the on top radiant retro fits.

Do your best to determine wall and ceiling R values, windows, infiltration, etc. to come up with a heat load.

hot rod

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nbrooks

burnham slimline radiators have a nice 'old' look to them that goes well in old houses without taking too much space. baseboard often doesn't really suit decor of nice old house, and often floors are uneven which is accentuated by linear look of baseboard.

Weezbo

OH! and dont skimp on the places you can insullate! */:)

old homes are like log cabins...a relative back engineering puzzel:)

kevin_5

You gotta be kiddin' 3 INCH?

I'll take your word for it Mark. Do they run the floor joists on four foot centers or anything? Kevin

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Mark Hunt

Most that I have seen


have logs for joists, spaced at seemingly random distances. I'm talking OLD. We recently worked in a home like this. It was built in 1767.

They would have several layers of planking run in opposing directions. I will never forget the first one I ran into. I was trying to drill a hole for new baseboard and thought I had run into a beam!

I don't see them often, but they are out there.

Cheers!

Mark H

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