The merits of radiant Floor heating
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- Опубліковано 1 лют 2016
- This video outlines the efficiency of the radiant floor www.ecohome.net/guides/query/... with multiple heating systems in our Edelweiss House, including a 10 zone radiant floor and the new Passive Solar House with Solar Radiant Heating www.ecohome.net/guides/3368/s... or see the video for the solar air heated concrete floor construction at • Solar-Heated Radiant C...
#RadiantHeatedFloor #RadiantHeating #Advantages
I got a little sad hearing "…doesn't guarantee the best comfort and it doesn't guarantee energy efficiency…" at 4:07 Sad, because it could and should.
The first thing that strikes me is the in-slab hydronics. I see this often and I do not understand what benefit it is supposed to have beyond being cheaper. Bringing that huge thermal mass into the maintained environment can have advantages if your intent is to capture solar gain (and you have the means to transfer that gain from warm to cold areas). But if that is not the primary purpose then running hydronics through it will just make the heating slow and unresponsive.
Insulating under that slab to stop thermal bridging causing losses to the ground is obviously good. But 30R is overkill. That could be halved and being under-slab use very inexpensive materials at the cost of only a few more inches of footings. Then framing or other build onto the slab will not cause significant bridging losses. Cover the slab with more insulation, circulating pipe over that and concrete screed to form the primary floor. The purpose of the screed is not mass but to even heat distribution from the pipes. The systems will respond that much more rapidly and it should be possible to achieve the desired ambient air temperatures with lower temperatures in the radiant circulating water.
And that's significant because lower circulating temperatures means that such systems can use air source or better still ground source heat pumps. Where site constraints or northern latitudes that result in deep frost lines make field arrays impossible borehole heat exchangers are still practical.
It was better to hear that you put in 10 zones. Too many examples of _"this dang system ain't no good"_ are the result of skimping on the zones and so making large areas dependent on a single circulation run resulting cold and hot spots for which there is no fix. Best of all is one zone per room; program them as you wish, toasy bathrooms, cool bedrooms, moderate living rooms and you can light a wood burner in the den for the pure pleasure of it without having the dining room turn into an ice box.
At 36 sec in, wouldnt you want to stagger those vertical and horizontal so the seams dont line up?
Was there any consideration for circulating the in-floor system as a method of distributing solar gains throughout the home?
Solar gains through a window during the day are also a heat loss when there's no sun, which means each room must be figured to heat as if there was no solar gain, then let the thermostat do it's job by cutting back when not necessary. This is why these systems are commonly set up with many zones. It's all about controlling where the heat goes.
Hi Eric, we employed that strategy in a house we did much further north, which was able to passively hit temperatures of 27C even when it was -20C outside, so it was partially a cooling technique. www.ecohome.net/news/latest/ecohome-s-kenogami-house-wins-home-year-award That one was an experiment of sorts to see if a house was able to stay warm heated entirely by the sun, which is actually quite possible. We get ripped all the time for overkill on the Edelweiss House, that one is even more extreme and is not something we recommend, as mentioned it was more an experiment to see what was even possible.
you forgot to acoustically treat your rooms;)
Yes, excellent aural observation! The missing video is "How to design your home for acoustical comfort". Oops too late and another "Dang, this home is SSssoooo irritating...but...oh well, too late, cant fix it now." So sell the home and build another with lessons learned.
In my opinion, a single Architect or Builder doesnt have his ideas Peer Reviewed. "Let's heat the Eco-home passively with free solar energy" is such a powerful fantasy it's hard to hear others critisizing your dream house.
I don't understand this. You talk about multi zones, but you only show images of a single manifold. How does that work?
Each manifold connection is a control valve. The zone thermostat signals its valve to open or close.
Are there any tests run before pouring the concrete to verify that there are no leaks in the tubing? water test?
Brandon A. Deimel I'm not sure what they did in this particular system but most plumbers charged the lines to pressure before and during the concrete pour. Now this is done for several reasons. First it is used to test for leaks. Second it is used to charge the lines so as to reinforce the tubing from the pressure of concrete bending and twisting the lines.
The two systems I've helped with had the lines recharged with fluid.
They charge the system with air first and some continue to keep it charged for when they pour the Slab to help keep the shape of the tube.
Yes. Pressure tests are performed and an inspector must sigh off on it before concrete is poured.
Does this do cooling too?
even if you run freon in those tubes the heat rises, so the impact of a cool floor during sumer is almost none, there is some ceiling cooling tubes for that matter
audex heat doesn't rise, warm air does.
Cooling can't be done via a floor for many reasons. First off, if the floor is cooler you get condensation, which makes the floor damp, which may also rot the wood, never mind the wet spots you can slip on. Secondly, without a way to circulate the air the cold would stay close to the floor and leave a lot to be desired in the way of comfort.
Cooling is never done via the floor, except in the case of an ice rink. Even then it's not done with Freon in the floor tubes. They use a liquid solution with a very low freezing point so it can still circulate. Cooling via pipes in the walls or ceiling must be done in tandem with a means to circulate the air and remove moisture, otherwise those pipes drip water all over the place. The up side to a cooling system like this is the duct size can be reduced by about 75%, which also means a reduced noise level and reduced electric bill via smaller blower. The down side is increased installation costs because it is a "stand alone" system in addition to regular heating. (via floor, radiators, or forced air)
Yes it can. Uponor added new tech in 2009 that added the ability to run cooling thru the same tubes. Best done with a mix of coolant & water. I worked on a house in CA that had the dual purpose concept and the place was comfortably cool in the hottest days and you didn't experience the "cold shock" of walking into an a/c system.
Sadly, the equipment is pricey either way.
LOL, put on 1.75x speed and he talks normal speed!
Straight up bro! hahaha
😂😂
a bunch of money wasted on over insulating, but then we put there huge Windows in. that's where all your heating and cooling is lost!