Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobile Master Tech
Radiant floors: All but 3 rooms upstairs and the unfinished basement are done. Let me tell you, it's easy to get spoiled padding around in your bare feet when it's below 20F outside. I didn't realize how much so until I walked across an area that wasn't done yet-BRRR! Staple up can be retrofitted into existing floor by cutting access strips out of the subfloor-easier than removing drywall from below since we are installing tigerwood throughout the entire house including kitchens/bathrooms as each area is completed. After experiencing warm floors, I would never be without it. Realtor surveys of homeowners that have experienced warm floors show that nearly all of them felt it was the best feature of their house by far. By the way, don't listen to naysaying that wood can't be used where humidity is an issue-if it's engineered rather than solid and you use urethane gluedown installation, you are good to go-2 years going and still looking great. The only exception is the first few inches by your shower door-standing water that dribbled out the corners several times every day has caused discoloration. I will cut out wood & install an accent tile strip in it's place to solve this. Staple up works great with 1/2" pex and 12" or less spacing and heat transfer plates, useless without. It can be used with setback strategies and is more responsive during shoulder seasons where a slab type wouldn't put out enough at night but too much during the day. Much easier than structural reinforcement and slab over frame!
|
MMT (AKA: Mobile Master Tech),
I don't know if you saw what
Vlad did on his radiant floors, but I thought you might find it interesting.
There are so many aspects at play in a successful radiant floor, what with balancing heat loss with heat output, that I thought it would be useful to talk about a few of them...
Heating Degree Days...
I went to a Degree Days calculator and calculated what the average heating degree days value would be, assuming that your indoor design temp was 68F, and I got this from the calculator:
Quote:
Description:,"Fahrenheit-based 5-year-average (2007 to 2011) heating degree days for a base temperature of 68F"
Source:,"www.degreedays.net (using temperature data from www.wunderground.com)"
Accuracy:,"Estimates were made to account for missing data: the ""% Estimated"" column shows how much each figure was affected (0% is best, 100% is worst)"
Station:,"ATLANTA DE KALB-PEACHTREE, GA, US (84.30W,33.88N)"
Station ID:,"KPDK"
,HDD,% Estimated
Jan,846,0.1
Feb,661,0.09
Mar,460,0.1
Apr,246,0.2
May,82,0.1
Jun,5,0.2
Jul,3,0.1
Aug,1,0.1
Sep,36,1
Oct,260,0.06
Nov,502,0.1
Dec,731,0.1
Total,3833,0.2
|
The last line is the one I was looking for, Total = 3833
This would imply that your heating task might be pretty straightforward, especially compared to someone with the very same house who might live in Caribou, ME for instance, where the HDD value would be Total = 9744. So, for someone living in Caribou, 12" PEX spaced staple-up, even with plates might be an up-hill battle.
It would be useful also to know what your house insulation situation is, too. For instance if you have gone to any unusual effort to insure good insulation. Also, what is the situation regarding your windows, both regarding their R-value (single-glass? double-glass?, etc) and also if any thought was given to winter-time solar gain?
Also, since I happen to be a hydronic plate believer, I was wondering abou the details of the plates you chose to use in your plate-enhanced staple-up floors? Were they stamped plated? extruded plated?
I'd also be very interested to know what were the water temps going to the floors and returning from the floors on a typical heating day? I realize that many people wouldn't even think to record this kind of data, but it can be very useful if you did.
You mentioned this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobile Master Tech
Staple up can be retrofitted into existing floor by cutting access strips out of the subfloor-easier than removing drywall from below...
|
I'm afraid I don't completely understand your method here... could you share some more detail here?
Thanks MMT, this kind of information is very useful to others (such as myself) who are about to embark on a radiant floor.
Best,
-AC_Hacker