Joist Bay Fin Application

Heatmeister_2

I am still contemplating the Ultra-Fin application, however, my big concerns are 1) Will it heat my older house if I use a high density layout say every 18inches vs. 30inches 2) Will I in fact have to run hotter temp. water thus mitigating my cost savings vs. other heating methods like panel rads.

Since I am gutting my old system out, I can do most anything, but I will not be able to go over my existing floors since they are all finished. So for me it is either 1) Plates(spendy and labor intensive 2) Ultra fin affordable and easy to install 3) Panel rads with a some Ultra fin.

Larry Beck

Joist Bay Fin Application

We have done a joist bay/aluminum fin application. On our current project, I am exploring the use of an in floor application i.e "Warmboard" which has a much higher installation cost than the aluminum fin. Is the lower installation cost of a joist application more than made up by the operational costs of an in floor application.

Mark Hunt

Siggy

says that the fin is in! I guess its almost like plates. As long as you run it up to fourhundred degreees. He makes no sense. Plates good,no playtes bad. Ultrafin good,180 degrees good to?
Pass the bowl.

Ol' canasta

ALH_4

Control

Conductive methods will always give you more control and response than convective methods. To a great extent it does not matter if you use Warmboard, Climate Panel, or ThermoFin. Keeping the fluid temperature as low as possible always makes sense. Ultra Fin can never compare to Warmboard in performance. The payback is different for every home and home owner. Obviously when they burn more fuel, efficiency pays back more quickly. It's always seemed somewhat ironic to me that when one conserves, high-efficiency appliances have less benefit, and the payback is much longer.

-Andrew

Unknown

You need to factor in a few things.

-Will using warmboard eliminate supplemental heat?
-Are you using a condensing/modulating boiler that sees efficiency gains with cooler temps?
-How much is your installation time worth (Warmboard will be much faster)?
-Factor in your tubing cost differential and the plywood subfloor differential.
-What are the chances of there being unexpected issues you need your heating system to be able to deal with (bad insulation installation, for example)?

when you're done, you have a fairly apples to apples comparison. Warmboard will give you the best performance possible. However it is not cost-justified on *every* job.