Radiant help for 2 story home

ALH_4 · August 2007

Just so I understand... You have 3/4" Slant/Fin baseboard and carpet currently?

As Brad mentioned, Climate Panel is probably the thinnest method, but it does use small diameter tube which limits the loops to a relatively short length. Using 3/8" or 1/2" tube with extruded aluminum plates and plywood "sleepers" between the tubes will result in fewer loops and more flexibility in locating your manifold(s). If it is 20 feet to the room from the manifold, that leaves very little for actual heating in that room with the 5/16" tube used in Climate Panel/Quick Track. With 1/2" tube, you can run the loops up to 300 feet without adversely affecting the performance of the floor. With that hypothetical manifold 20 feet from the room and 1/2" tube you still have enough tube on the loop to cover a 12x14 bedroom with one loop at 8" on center tube spacing. With 5/16" tube it would take 3 loops.

The drawback is obviously that 1/2" tube raises your floor by 3/4". Depending on how many doors are in this area, this may or may not be a major problem.

Jim P._3 · July 2007

Radiant help needed.

I have a home with 3/4 inch Slant Fin radiant heat panels and I want to remove these and rip out carpet and install engineered hard wood and PEX tubing. Main floor I will staple up as joists are exposed. Any ideas for upper floor? Has anyone used the subfloor that has grooves for the tubing? I understand this will raise floor. But other than keep what I have or rip out drywall ceiling below what are my options?

Thanks, Jim

Brad White · July 2007

Climate Panel is one brand

made by Viega and is also sold under other names I believe. It adds a fairly modest half-inch to the floor thickness.

If going in as a sub-floor in new construction or a gut-renovation you can adjust the various other layers to get a system with no additional height. In a standard retro-fit some threshold work is needed as well as trimming the doors.

Here is the challenge to doing a second floor though: You simply must insulate the space between the floor joists. If you do not, you will have both a radiant floor and uncontrolled radiant ceiling on the first floor and less than adequate heating on the second.

Injection foams are probably a good idea but only if you have done all the wiring you will ever do

Dense-Pack cellulose is a second idea. You will be patching the floor anyway so maybe this is a top-down exercise. It is also an opportunity to seal your rim-joists and will deaden floor to floor noise.

Start with a calculated heat loss taking into account your best envelope. Improve it now if it is not already. Climate Panel as a brand, has 7-inch spacing so that fixes your density. Your floor coverings and water temperature dictate the output. If you are short on capacity, see if you can live with more bare floors or supplement with panel radiators.

Ed_26 · August 2007

2nd. floor heat

Ceiling radiant?

Pinball · August 2007

Regardless of which method you choose. keep in mind, the "whips" or "tails" have to get back to the manifold somehow. You can either drop down through the floor to the joist space below,(which means loosing sheetrock below) or track it back on top. When tracking back on top, usually on the outside edge. be sure to plan all of this ahead of time so you can leave enough wood nailer for the new flooring. Always install the "climate/Quick-trac panels in the opposite direction of the flooring. this enables you to nail the flooring and not tube.

Al (pinball)

Radiant help for 2 story home

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