Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxis
A) 5m of pipes (16mm) on 1m2 - actually it is possible to calculate the needed amount, but than you have to know the heat loss of house. It is quite complicated to do and I was following the rule that you can't have too much. If pipes are closer, you can't feel the cold and hot spots.
B) One loop about 50m long and as equal to each other as possible to make equal circulation in all loops.
C) I have very interesting situation - in my hose are three floors and in each floor I have a little different approach used: - 1) in basement I had already concrete floors, there I put polystyrol plates for insulation and reinforcement mesh on top to have something to what pipes could be fixed. I didn't need it for reinforcement because in concrete (estrich) were fibers for it.
- 2) in first floor I have wooden beams used as floor construction. I have insulated the space between beams with rockwool (for sound insulation) and then I calculated that it will be cheaper to use perforated sheet metal as structure under concrete not OSB. There also reinforcement mesh was used to fix pipes.
- 3) In second floor the wooden/metal joist are used as structure (like Lincolnshire Timber Frame design and construction commercial domestic buildings structures) There I had to think about wight of floor because of long distance between supporting walls (about 5m). In second floor I put OSB on the floor and then laid the pipes on it. Than two layers of drywall were put between pipes and space was filled with concrete. In this way I made good contact between drywall and pipe The the last special floor drywall plate was put as finishing layer. With that approach I got floor which is not so heavy as concrete. The drywall is about 1000kg/m3, but concrete about 2500kg/m3. Of course concrete has better heat transfer properties.
I have seen that reflection metal sheets are used for lightweight radiant floors, bit it is more expensive than my approach - I had waste drywall left from wall constructions which I used for that. |
Maxis,
Thanks for the answers, but I have more questions...
A) Did the minimum bending radius of the PEX determine the pipe spacing? Did you use bending forms, or did you just allow the pipe to bend as it would and put concrete on top?
C-1) How thick was your polystyrol (polystyrene?)? What kind of mesh did you put on top?
C-2) Can you give more detail on the perferated metal on the 1st floor? How did you arrange the reinforcement mesh?
C-3) I'm very interested in the drywall & PEX you used on the 2nd floor. I had thought to use something similar in my house. How many winters have you used radiant floor heating? How well does it work for you?
Most important, do you have a list or chart of heating degree days for the location of your house? How well are the exterior walls of your house insulated?
Do you have a web link to "reflection metal sheets are used for lightweight radiant floors"?
Thanks...
-AC_Hacker