Learning an other way to do hydronic heating

http://Curious George

I’m new to this site. I experienced the comfort of hydronic in-floor heating. I checked out a couple of installations and found that the systems are operating at approx. 60C (or 140F) and then there are mixing valves to reduce the water temp. in the heating loop, or should I say, to maintain a lower temperature. Why is it done this way in lieu of heating the loop to the lower temp. to begin with?

I would like to install this in my home via an electric hot water tank and include solar assist during the day and wood stove assist during the night for the heating season. Plastic (PEX) is an insulator, therefore a very inefficient conductor of heat compared to copper or aluminum.
In order to make an informed decision, I would like the following info:

1) What is the optimum surface temperature range of the floor in a well functioning heating system?

2) if the water temperature in the system is 38C (or100F), what is the surface temperature of a cupper tube compared to a PEX tube?

3) what would be the surface temperature of a wood floor 38mm thick (or 1.5”) using heat transfer plates for even heat distribution with the lower water temperature?

4) Are heat transfer plates available in more than one width?

5) Is ½” aluminum tubing available on the market?

I would appreciate any help I can get here.

Curious George

Bill Nye_2

CG

The optimum floor temp. would be 80-84°F.

If you had too good a conductor, you would give up all of your heat in the first few feet of tubing and have nothing left for the rest of the loop.

Aluminum tubing would be too expensive, it is not easy to work with, and you would have to be careful with the ph of the water to avoid corrosion.

Water heaters can be expensive to operate when heating a home.

Wood stove?

The water temperature has to be determined by tube spacing, climate conditions, floor covering, floor thickness, heat loss of room, etc. etc.


In a better design you would vary the water temp. with an outdoor reset control or some other control strategy and have continuous circulation.

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Weezbo

heres a bit more info from \"experiences \" ...*~/:)..

1 a well functioning heating system ,well,i think a well functioning heating system would have the floor temp within a few degrees of the room temperature......
2.well,if i heat water up to 100 degrees i suspect that any material used for transmission of heat,from that heat source, over time will have approximately the same surface temp....this i belive is in keeping with generally accepted laws of science..there are alot of variables though...is the heat source consistent? is the material being heated the only factor in the calculation?and then there is the question of are there any other minor technicalities that may have been "overlooked" in the deal....
3.this is probably not what you mean by the question...i am thinking you are wondering what would a wooden floor heat emmitter be able to with stand in the way of being used as a means of distribution...that information is likely to be situationaly specific... and just how many variations you might be willing to"live with"in surface changes over time....
4. there are indeed lots of heat plates...
5.i found some aluminum tubing...i like to polish it with steel wool and use it as the covering for my low voltage transmission lines..it looks like silver and is a nice contrast to the pipes that are heated to a copper "Gold" *~/:)
Here is something that you might want to read on this site. look in the library for -IPEX- and then look in the designe manual.....this will answer many questions you may come up with ..and probably make it more easily pictured in your mind...Dan The Man ,has some great books worth the dime to read here.. maybe, some time spent looking about in the resources would be a great way to designe a system that will work for you in your home.or you can have plink on find a professional and likely there is someone in your area who would be able to work with you ,on your project. this would help you ,as the cost of experience is relative to just how much voodo you do *~/:)