ultra-fin system

ed_19

Has anyone ever installed one of these ultra-fin systems? I am renovating a newly purchased house
and would like to get the in floor radiant in before winter. I haven’t talked to anyone that has any real
world experience with the product. Or, should I just stick with PEX and transfer plates?

Weezbo

um.....

something seems to tell me that it might not be any more efficent as baseboard(copper fin tube convectors.) which i think would be easier to install.

ALH_3

Temp

Weezbo is right. If you're going to use Ultra-Fin you're going to have to run high temperature water(180F). In the interest of performance, response time, and installation cost, baseboard or panel radiators might be a better choice.

The drawbacks of Ultra-Fin are that you're dealing with convection which requires high temperatures and therefore necessarily eliminates the benefit of using a condensing boiler. Ultra-Fin requires an insanely high energy output (and input) per unit area of the fin to equal the output of extruded plates. Ultra-Fin is sensitive to it's orientation in the joist bay once everything is closed up. The installation method they recommend creates a large number of joist penetrations. Each of these penetrations has the potential to make noise, and in the case of dimensional lumber or microlaminated beams could pose a structural problem. Every method requires drilling, but if it were my home I would want to keep the holes to a minimum. Response time will also suffer due to the added convective step that is absent with transfer plates. It's sort of like filling your fuel tank in your car. If you have to fill a separate tank (air in the joist bay) first and then drain that tank into your car (the subfloor) you still end up with a full tank (warm floor), but filling your car's tank directly is a lot faster.

Transfer plates will be more expensive, but they'll also perform a lot better. You'll also be able to reap the benefits of using a condensing boiler. Newer installation methods have greatly decreased the time required to install the plates and tube. For a "dry" system there is nothing that compares to extruded plates.

This all assumes you are carrying the heat load with the floor. If you are simply warming the floor you might experience similar results with methods other than Ultra-Fin.

JMHO
-Andrew