Hydronic In Floor Radiant Heat System Disasters – Don’t Let Your Project Become One

What is Making The Cost Of Your New In-floor Radiant Heating System Skyrocket!

Designing an effective radiant heating system takes careful planning and preparation.

With radiant heat, you need to calculate the heat loss of your home before you do anything else. This will help determine tube sizing and spacing, the lengths of the loops, how many zones there are going to be, size of the pumps, and boiler. Not to mention what other requirements the homeowner has.

All these things must be engineered to work together and careful consideration must go into calculating the radiant heat output in order to meet the heat loss demands of your home.

Joseph and Nora had counted on the even distribution of their in-floor radiant heating system to lower their heating bills during their retirement years.

From the beginning, they were sold on the benefits of in-floor radiant heat. They had heard how a radiant heat system was comfortable, quiet and cost effective to operate.

Unlike central heating systems, radiant floor heating systems can have the thermostats set several degrees lower. This is because the entire surface of the floor can be set to radiate about the same amount of heat that our bodies give off, which helps to make us feel warm even though the air temperature is only 65ºF (18ºC).

With an in-floor radiant heating system the heat is radiating out into the living area for a longer period of time. In fact, studies show that radiant heating systems can have up to 15% to 20% in fuel savings over a forced-air heating system.

A floor sensor controls the flow of water that heats the room. It’s this sensor or thermostat that controls the temperature instead of a wall thermostat. The system is often designed to keep the circulation pump(s) running while the thermostat controls the boiler's burner.

Given all these facts, Joseph and Nora were extremely surprised to receive an incredibly outrageous propane bill after their radiant heat installation.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that the size of radiant heat tubing placed in the Steckly home was far too small for their radiant heating needs. Their boiler was working overtime to heat the water and transfer it throughout the house.

This was a significant mistake for a radiant heating system installation that would have easily been avoided with a competent radiant heat system design.

Since the popularity of in-floor radiant heat has increased, so have the number of installers and so-called designers. Keep in mind that not all general contractors are radiant heat specialists. As a homeowner, you need to ask the tough questions and find out exactly how much experience they have in the design and installation of an in-floor radiant heat system.

There are many factors to consider when designing your system, especially the floor covering. Any floor covering that has insulative values like a carpet and a plush pad restrict the heats upward flow and reduces the efficiency of your system. It’s important to realize that a change in floor covering can affect your overall radiant heating system.

The water temperature in your radiant heating system will be different between zones depending upon your floor covering. A thermal mass floor with ceramic tile, slate, or wood flooring will require less heat than carpet and pad.

Joseph and Nora had no idea that the size of radiant heat tubes that were installed was so inefficient. It was a costly radiant heat design error that resulted in a complete gut and reinstallation of their in-floor radiant heating system. Don’t let this type of mistake happen to you.

To make sure you maximize the effectiveness of your in-floor radiant heating system, everyone involved with its installation should be given a copy of the radiant heat design. You, as a homeowner, should be aware of the location of the tubing so that at a later date if you want to do more renovations, you can protect the system from damage.

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