Radiant Heat or Other Heating System Question

ag_2

Could you please give me your feedback about choosing a new heating system? I am a woman, constantly cold and hydraulic radiant floor heat seems like the perfect heating remedy. Unfortunately, from my reading, hydraulic radiant floor heat seems to be extremely expensive and I wonder if it is worth the cost?

And if I do not go with hydraulic radiant floor heat, do you have any recommendations?

My contractor recommends baseboard heat which I am considering. I feel thermal mass is important and would like to have cast iron baseboard.

I am leaning towards EasyFloor radiant heat by FlorHeat Co. EasyFloor system offers some thermal mass to retain and radiate heat which I feel is extremely important with any type of heating system but not the added weight of poured cementations thermal mass which my little house could not bear. EasyFloor also provides quick recovery, cushions which also provide air space, insulation, and an acoustic barrier to aid silencing radiant heating noise.

I have e-mailed questions to FlorHeat Co. twice but so far they have ignored me and that does not create a good impression of this company.

My last house had hot air heat and I was always freezing so I am concerned about heat.

This house is an 80 year old, 968 sq. ft. vintage kit bungalow with radiators which I believe are hot water. It is in sad condition and I will be stripping it to the studs. As a result the bungalow will be insulated to the max with attention paid to air leaks and thermal bridges – I’ve been reading a lot about heating solutions – and I am able to retrofit the house with above the sub floor radiant heat. Since the house is so tiny space is important and radiant heat would not take up space the way radiators and baseboard heating does but the cost of radiant heat is scary and I wonder if I should look to a different heating solution.

Thank you for reading this and offering suggestions.

Very truly yours,

AG

Brad White_9

Wonderful Opportunity

you have to renew your home in the best of ways! Not often does the chance come up to make such improvements to the envelope.

Does radiant cost more than other forms of heat? Sure. Is it worth it? Absolutely. If you figure you will pay X dollars for any hydronic heating system, that should be your "new zero", what you will spend anyway. Then look at the radiant premium, that is what you will treat yourself to. Physiologically there is no better way to give you comfort that I know of. If you tend to "feel cold", radiant is the key to both comfort and as a bonus, efficiency! Why heat with 180 F water when 120F or less will do?

The radiators you have are wonderful but if you need the space, radiant floors will do the best job of replicating that feeling.

If you are stripping the house to the studs, stripping the flooring is not much of a stretch. Your new sub-floor can be made into a radiant surface which spans the joist for a half-inch thickness increase. Modest stuff and with newer thin flooring materials, may not add anything to speak of.

Given a choice of what I would suggest for your house, this is the descending order from best to less-best (I did not mention lightweight concrete due to unknown structure and depth detailing):

1. Radiant floor laid as a sub-floor second layer. (Insulation below is always a "default" condition with radiant floors.)

2. Radiant floor "staple-up" between the joists with extruded aluminum plates.

3. Radiant floor staple-up with rolled sheet aluminum plates.

4. Radiant floor with high temperature fin tube in the joist bays. Indirect conductive radiant. If you really must...?

Non-radiant floor options:

5. Radiant panel radiators such as Runtal, Myson, Buderus. These are also convectors but have high radiant output. You want radiant...

6. Radiant panel "baseboard" (Runtal et. al.)

7. Cast iron baseboard. (Still has radiant output!)

Non-Radiant Baseboard options:

8. Fin tube. Convectors. Little radiant output, these work by forming a film of warm air up the walls. Fast to heat and fast to cool.


Start with a detailed heat loss calculation of your final abode. Design from that including radiation of any type you choose, and a boiler sized as close to the heat loss as possible.

Best system? Modulating condensing if you have gas available. Otherwise oil-fired, many good brands out there.

Where is the premium cost for radiant? Material is not terribly expensive by itself; I would say it is in the controls necessary to really make it comfortable and efficient. The installation, bringing together the materials of different trades (flooring, carpentry, insulation) is another facet. But if you get a high efficiency boiler, many have the features necessary (on board controls) to allow you adjustable comfort. You would be a good deal of the way toward radiant comfort at that point, so the leap to full radiant is less.

Many many options and choices.

One last point: You may opt for limited radiant heat in say a bathroom (oh yes!) kitchen or mud room. If that is all you can do, please do so. The only downside is, you will feel the difference and wish you did your entire house in radiant.