Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobile Master Tech
Here goes the first installment of the "RADIANT FLOOR HEATING MANIFESTO" 
Extruded or Omega plates work better, but I found a great ebay vendor for u-channel plates, Gehman Iron in Knoxville PA, whom I then purchased from directly. They offered 2' and 4' plates at less than $1/ft-the best prices, reasonable shipping and great service. You could also get extra heavy duty aluminum foil on ebay that is 0.0015” or 35 microns thick to do something like what Vlad did(or even make an HRV!) This is 2-4x thicker than standard foils. 24” by 500’ is $112 shipped from pactogo_inc.
I ran a small bead of 100% silicone caulk in the groove before stapling up, which fills the gap around the bottom half of the pex. Silicone is an excellent thermal conductor, so avoiding the tiny air gap makes a huge difference and negates most of the benefits of omega or extruded plates. |
I didn't make my own plates I bought them @
PEX Heat Transfer Plates (Aluminum), 2ft long
They cost 68.5c a foot + free shipping . You can't beat this even if you buy just material. They have very uniformed omega shape and touch pex tub all around. There is no gaps to fill with silicone. Also they hold pex tight against plywood and keep flat surface on top.
The only thing I didn't like was the end of the plate. It was just straight. So I took a piece of steel rod and opened each end a bit. I know this is just paranoia. Pex tube is tough and straight edge is nothing for it.