I talked with a local hydronic guy who told me that around here, feed water temperatures are:
- 80 to 85 degrees for tube in slab
- 100 to 110 for on top of floor heating
- 120 to 130 for below floor (AKA: staple up) heating
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And just to get the thought process moving, here are some radiant floor links...
- Here's a house heated with water from a solar shed, featuring DIY radiant floor heat. It utilized the large radiant area of the floor to compensate for the lower feed temperatures of the solar system. As a bonus, the solar collectors work more efficiently, too.
- Guy Marsden does a 3" solar heated slab in Maine (w/propane backup).
- (...the 'NEXT' tab at the bottom will take you to the other two pages...)
- Here's a solar shed with a hot water heat storage feature. No radiant floor, yet.
- Here's a link to a company that supports DIY. The web site is filled with grest photos & descriptions. They also have a free downloadable design manual available here. The manual pretty much duplicates the web site, photos not as good as the web version. There's good info here, but a fossil fueled boiler is assumed, so their 'rules-of-thumb' may not hold with the lower solar or hydronic feed temperatures.
- Here's a page from Radiantec, also supportive of DIY, with free manuals too numerous to list. Raniantec also has a list of Solar heating articles, why not combine the two?
- HouseNeeds hosts a Hydronic Heating University.
- InFloor has a free Deluxo Design & Installation Guide.