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Baseboard to Radiant Floor

rsqweezy
rsqweezy Member Posts: 3
in Radiant Heating
Hello I just purchased a house. I live in northeast Ohio so it gets decently cold in the winter. It is a ranch on a concrete slab with high ceilings in the living /kitchen area. It currently has a 3-zone hydronic baseboard system.

I was wondering if it would be possible to convert the baseboards to radiant floor in the living room. We are renovating a 3 seasons porch that is attached to living room into a dining area so we will be redoing all the floors.

Eventually i would probably wanna remove the carpet in the bedrooms and do radiant as well but that won't be until the spring.

Comments

  • GroundUp
    GroundUp Member Posts: 2,358
    Anything is possible with hydronics, but not always cost effective and seldom easy. Radiant floors will require a much cooler water temperature than baseboard, which means rezoning with an additional circ (unless currently zoned with circs) and mixing valve at the very least. Might I ask why the switch?
    Ironman
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,720
    A scientific heat loss calculation needs to be done to determine how much heat is needed. That is THE foundation for designing and sizing everything. A radiant floor MAY not be sufficient to heat the rooms by itself without supplemental heat.

    SlantFin has a free app that you can download that is fairly accurate IF you input that correct construction data.

    Proper design is the key to having a radiant floor that you'll enjoy or a mess that you'll wish you never invested money in.
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
  • rsqweezy
    rsqweezy Member Posts: 3
    We don't really like the look of the baseboards. So I figured since the floor was gonna get switched out that it would be nice to do radiant in floor. If it's not possible or it's gonna cost $5k I'd probably pass and get nicer baseboards.

    I believe that everything is zoned already with circs but I'll know more next week.

    I will be adding in a split system in the spring because there is no AC. I could get a system that heats too for any supplemental heating.
  • rsqweezy
    rsqweezy Member Posts: 3
    I think we've decided to just get nicer radiators like the Runtals.

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