Infloor Radiant Heat

[Jim]

Im building a home and am looking to use infloor
radiant heat.1 contractor says he will staple it under
the floor. Another contractor tells me that this will not
work without using aluminum plates that attach to the
underneath of the floors and then the tubing snaps
into the plates.He says it wont keep the right temps
without the plates……What do you think???????

[Harold Kestenholz – Hydronic Network]

Both ways will work – one better than the other. The plates spread the heat to the general floor area by contact. The tube alone spreads the heat by relying on convection air to move the heat to the rest of the floor. The output of tubing without the flat plate is generally lower, sometimes half that of the tubing with the flat plate.

Adding the flat plate makes the job a more definite success. If your heating needs are small with a lot of floor area, installing the tubing without the flat plate may be enough, but why take a chance? You might have to add some baseboard later to make up for inadequate heat from the floor.

[Andi]

insulating underneath the radiant heating is really important. I’ve done some research on radiant barriers and feel like an appropriate barrier might do as good or better than aluminum plating. Check with your manufacturer to see what they recommend when using this (type of radiant barrier/type of insulation)with the system that you’re going to install. If it was my house, I’d try it! Good luck! (I just don’t know if anyone else has tried it or is using it yet!)

[Ken]

“I just installed radiant heat in one floor above my garage. I used 1/2 pipe and staple up plates. I then left a 1 1/4″ air space and put 1/2″ aluminum faced rigid insulation. Then I install 9″ unfaced batt r-30 insulation capped off with 5/8” fire rated drywall. About half of the 900 sq ft area is cermaic tiles nat he other half is pine board flooring. GREAT HEAT! Just remember to 1) install a mixing valve to maintain a low water ttemp. Your design temp will be under 120 degrees or less. My watertemp is disigned to be 85 to 90 degrees. 2) always have the water circulator pump pushing the heated water through the piping not on the return side. 3) all loops in the same zone should be within 10 % of each other in lenght unless you go to the expense on insalling balancing valves. Good Luck

[bill kubinski]

I was told that I could use a furnice and Then I was Told that It had to be a boiler ? ., For in floor heat . &, I was told that I could use water & not a diffent liquid.

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