# Radiant Floor Heating



## AR Aaron (May 26, 2010)

Does anyone have any experience using Radiant Floor Heating as a primary or luxury kind of heating in your home. My father did a partial install in a couple rooms, but he didn't do enough to heat entire house. Wondering if anyone has some experience with it, and what their thoughts are on it.

Or if your don't have experience, your thoughts always welcome too.


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## 2diamond (Aug 4, 2013)

Radiant floor heat is the only heat I have in our house , loops of 1/2 pex heated with outdoor wood boiler


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## AR Aaron (May 26, 2010)

2diamond said:


> Radiant floor heat is the only heat I have in our house , loops of 1/2 pex heated with outdoor wood boiler


Do you like it? Would you do it again if you had a choice? How long have you been using system?

Thanks,.


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

we have it and love it. we have no carpet so it is vital in the winter to have warmed floors. but,...

problems are if the temps swing. it takes a few days for the floor to warm up or cool down so if there is a day of 40 and the next it is 65-70 the floor will yo-yo. it works best when the temps get cold and stay cold. we have a air system too along with emergence heat back up. 

our wood stove can also keep the floor from coming on if the temps stay too high.


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## 2diamond (Aug 4, 2013)

AR Aaron said:


> Do you like it? Would you do it again if you had a choice? How long have you been using system?
> 
> Thanks,.


I have been using it for 9 years in this house witch was a remodel , it's nice to have warm floors. We are building a new house and doing radiant again .


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## farmgal (Nov 12, 2005)

My friend has it. He said its useless on the wood floors. But where he has ceramic tile the heat radiates there. Wood insulates the heat from coming into the room like it needs. He also said it takes a long time to warm up if you turn the heat down. In a nut shell, I built a new house and he said; "do not install it"...lol


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## 2diamond (Aug 4, 2013)

I use it under wood floors works fine


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

My neighbor has it under wood floors and it works fine. He built a "basement" under his two car garage that he made into a 30,000 gallon reserve. His wood boiler is in the house basement, circulates water into the reserve. When the thermostat calls for heat, a pump circulates the water from the reserve to the plastic pipes under the floor. He has added aluminum shields to help spread the heat away from the plastic pipes. He runs the furnace every week or so and that heats the house for at least a week.
He also added 200 feet of 1 inch pipe that gets preheated before going into his water heater. It is in the 30,000 gallon reserve.
My dad had radiant heat in his shop/garage. Just hooked it to a water heater and a pump. If he was going to work on a vehicle, he'd turn it on and it was comfortable having warm feet and when crawling under a vehicle.


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## AR Aaron (May 26, 2010)

haypoint said:


> My neighbor has it under wood floors and it works fine. He built a "basement" under his two car garage that he made into a 30,000 gallon reserve. His wood boiler is in the house basement, circulates water into the reserve. When the thermostat calls for heat, a pump circulates the water from the reserve to the plastic pipes under the floor. He has added aluminum shields to help spread the heat away from the plastic pipes. He runs the furnace every week or so and that heats the house for at least a week.
> He also added 200 feet of 1 inch pipe that gets preheated before going into his water heater. It is in the 30,000 gallon reserve.
> My dad had radiant heat in his shop/garage. Just hooked it to a water heater and a pump. If he was going to work on a vehicle, he'd turn it on and it was comfortable having warm feet and when crawling under a vehicle.


That seems like a bit over kill, but interesting idea to say the least. I don't know I want to go so far as heat the garage with it, but I guess it might be better the farther north you got.


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## AR Aaron (May 26, 2010)

Wife and I are looking to build in near future, current house on market, so just unknown of the when. We are looking at a Slab Foundation, and currently considering the radiant heat as a primary source of heat, with wood cook stove as secondary/backup source in the living room. Flooring probably mix of tile &/or stained concrete and carpet in bedroom. We are downsizing house 1900 sf down to ~1000sf, upsizing homestead .5 acres to 2.5 acres outside city limits.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

AR Aaron said:


> That seems like a bit over kill, but interesting idea to say the least. I don't know I want to go so far as heat the garage with it, but I guess it might be better the farther north you got.


The 30,000 gallon reserve is insulated with 4 inches of foam on all six sides. Enough heat escapes to keep the garage comfortable, 45-55 degrees. 
One problem with wood heat is that you can't go away for a few days without everything freezing. My neighbor can go away for two weeks and the house is still well above freezing, even if it was below zero the whole time. The other drawback to wood heat is that you have to add wood every few hours. With this system, you chuck the wood to it for a couple hours (like while you are doing laundry, folding clothes, etc) once a week. Plus, the house stays the same temperature all the time.
The principle would still work if you had a 1000 gallon insulated tank in the basement. 
But the point is that radiant heat works even with wood floors with carpet.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

AR Aaron said:


> Wife and I are looking to build in near future, current house on market, so just unknown of the when. We are looking at a Slab Foundation, and currently considering the radiant heat as a primary source of heat, with wood cook stove as secondary/backup source in the living room. Flooring probably mix of tile &/or stained concrete and carpet in bedroom. We are downsizing house 1900 sf down to ~1000sf, upsizing homestead .5 acres to 2.5 acres outside city limits.


Up here, it is common (required?) to put down 4 inches of rigid foam sheets under the slab.


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## sustainabilly (Jun 20, 2012)

I've never lived with it. I worked on a remodel in WI where the owner had it buried in the concrete. This was in the late 80's and the installation was probably 5-10 yrs before that. Before 'green' was a buzz word and modern materials like Pex-Al-Pex were developed. We did extensive concrete demo due to leaks in the system. Modern methods notwithstanding, I would install mine above the insulated slab. A moderately sized re-circulation tank, would definitely be a plus. Would also serve as an expansion tank, as well as, an easy access point to add de-oxygenation chemicals.


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## NorthwoodsMike (Jun 10, 2013)

I love it. Simple or fancy, it's nice. I heat our cabin, which is on a slab, with a 15 gallon water heater and a thermostat which turns a circulator on and off. Super simple. In my current homestead build, I went a little more complicated with an on demand water heater and zone control. Other than a building code issue with the water heater, it's been great. 

Shoot me a PM if you have any questions. I designed and built both systems myself and have done a bunch of research.


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## Michael W. Smith (Jun 2, 2002)

My Brother-In-Law installed it in their house when they remodeled it.

When starting it up for the season - it does take several days to heat up, and has been said, if you have a warm spell, sometimes the house is actually hot because of the heat coming from the floor.

They have wood floors with carpeting, and wood floors and tile and it feels really good on the feet.

At some point when we remodel our house, I would like to have it installed.


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## Ozarka (Apr 15, 2007)

there used to be a thread in the shop questions that was a sticky, detailed a man's shop that he heated with a store bought propane water heater and he was beyond pleased with the efficiency and comfort.


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## NorthernMich (Apr 30, 2006)

wood and tile...just be sure you have reflection or insulation under pex

we love it...was 8F and cozy inside...new chalet with loft, basement and 12 x 16 sunroom entry


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Ozarka said:


> there used to be a thread in the shop questions that was a sticky, detailed a man's shop that he heated with a store bought propane water heater and he was beyond pleased with the efficiency and comfort.


I know a guy that put in radiant heat and built a wood fired boiler. Insurance company needed UL approved furnace. So, he just bought a gas water heater and hooked up to the radiant plumbing.


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## Jackpine Savage (Jul 4, 2002)

I'm a fan of radiant. I wouldn't pour a house or shop slab without tubing.

We live in a remodeled 2 story farmhouse. The basement floor has radiant, I put tubing and heat transfer plates in between the floor joists for the main floor and the top floor has radiant ceilings. We are using an off peak electric boiler with plans for a wood boiler in the future.

Do make sure someone competent does the system design. There are some bad ideas out there. My BIL is a plumbing and heating contractor. He has run across 1000' loops, under floor with no transfer plates, outside wood boilers with uninsulated underground lines, etc, etc.

For a slab make sure you have foam under the slab and around the edges. Reflective insulation under a slab is a scam. 

For between the joist installation you need insulation under the tubing so the heat goes where you want it to, the amount of insulation is dependent on what type of floor covering you have.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

We have radiant. We put 2" of concrete on top of our floor. Stained it and we use it for the finished floor. Nothing like getting up in the morning to toasty warm floors.


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## John_Canada (Aug 17, 2013)

Way more energy efficient cause you can turn down your heat to 61 degrees. Warm feet, cool head. Ideal heat. Can also open your windows in middle of winter to air place out and close them and not lose much heat at all. Disadvantage is of course temp swings but I know a guy that has a backup forced air system for that and a/c (all underground of course). I would think even one or two edenpure type heaters would do the same backup job.


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## amylou62 (Jul 14, 2008)

We put it in our new home we built in Kansas. Lines in concrete with a boiler. The heat coming up through your feet into your knees is like heaven.


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## ArmyDoc (May 13, 2007)

Had it when I lived I Korea, and loved it. Looked into doing it here in Georgia, and it wasn't cost effective. We only have to run the furnace for about 2 - 3 months out of the year. Estimate for whole house was more than 5x the cost of a conventional system.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Many up by us are putting it into new construction, in their poured slab. I can tell you it works incredibly well in the cold temps we have - I have visited homes that have it. Personally, I would not put it in my slab - the obvious problem is "what if it leaks?". I know people say it won't leak, but with enough time, everything fails - a basic law of physics. I would, however, install it if I was able to service or repair it. It is the best heat you can get with respect to comfort.


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

I am loving mine today. it is cold and getting colder so the floor is warm and my dressing area is so warm. makes old feeling bones feel better. if you have wild temp swings it will be flaky like I stated before. It is like having heated seats in the cars/ trucks. wow fab.


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## AR Aaron (May 26, 2010)

okiemom said:


> I am loving mine today. it is cold and getting colder so the floor is warm and my dressing area is so warm. makes old feeling bones feel better. if you have wild temp swings it will be flaky like I stated before. It is like having heated seats in the cars/ trucks. wow fab.


Hopefully this year we can get current house sold. Its something that is up near top of wants on the extra for design/planning of next home.


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