Grahams wrote:
> While I am pleased thus far with the performance of my radiant floors, I am
> not sure I would get it again, especially in concrete. I would prefer to
> have more access to the pipe .
We discussed this issue in depth during the construction of our house. The
compromise we made was to put the pipe for the upper floors directly beneath
the wooden subfloor, while we went with concrete downstairs. Truthfully,
however, the extra access is hardly worthwhile, as we'd have to tear the roof
away from the lower floors to gain access to the pipe.
The people in the business told us that leaking pipe used to be a problem
when the grey plastic piping was used early in the radiant floor heating
industry's experience. The red / orange plastic pipe they use now is supposed
to be much more durable, and without joints, has no opportunity to leak when
placed in concrete.
> While building my house I met a man looking
> for someone to repair his system- 2/3's was non functional (leaky). His
> also was encased in concrete with a marble tile covering. No one
> (plumber-HVAC) wanted to mess with it. I felt bad for him, he seemed like
> a nice little old man, but my plumber wouldn't go either.
That's awful!
> Also I am wondering about the efficiency of the system due to the way a
> concrete floor gets "poured" in reality. Supposedly the concrete wire
> (which the pipe is attached to) gets pulled up to the middle of the floor
> as the concrete is being poured. As I watched however, I would say that
> speed certainly takes a priority, and would be surprised if in many places
> the wire is not sitting at the bottom of the pad. Also makes me wonder what
> happened to my under the floor foam insulation as it has been heated by
> this wire/pex every winter. I had imagined walking on this heated floor
> would be like a big sun warmed rock. Uh, not so. The heat only goes out in
> strips- maybe 8" wide. Beside this warm strip, the floor is "stone" cold.
> :) Sort of odd to walk on w/o shoes , you find your kids walking on the
> little 8"paths.
This is completely contrary to our experience. We made sure the pipes were
looped out every 15 cm, and our lower floor is toasty warm--even in the
carpeted areas. (The tile flooring feels sultry under bare feet!) Our
concrete pad is insulated with that nasty, expensive foam board material.
Because heat rises, the lower floor of our house (where my boys have their
bedrooms) is considerably warmer than the upper floor. The thermal mass of the
concrete, once warmed, retains its heat longer, so we have fewer temperature
swings downstairs.
I cringed at all the concrete we used building this house. My only
philosophical relief comes from knowing that we wasted very little concrete,
whereas a lot drywall, vinyl siding (another compromise to suit local building
guidelines) and other materials went to the landfill. Most of the dimensional
lumber left over will be burned this winter to keep my in laws' house warm. I
hope to significantly lessen the environmental impact of the next house we
build. . .
Meanwhile, everyone around me thinks I'm a fanatic.
> The room temperature is fine though. In addition to the
> solar option, an outdoor wood stove can also be used as an option in
> suppling the heat for the pipes.
I'd stay away from outdoor wood stoves. In order for a wood fire to burn
clean, it has to burn hot. Those outdoor boilers will "idle" (hence, smolder
and produce copious amounts of smoke) while waiting for the house to cool
down. It may be convenient for the home owner, but it's murderous on air
quality.
A much better solution is to install a wood gasifying boiler. They're
expensive (around $10 000 U.S.), but will likely last a lifetime. Here's a
link to check:
http://www.woodboilers.com/woodgas.html
For you cogeneration fans with access to a lot of wood, a steam boiler
makes a lot of sense wherever the "waste" heat from steam can be used for
domestic heating and hot water. Hooked to a large tank for heat storage, a
decent sized wood boiler might be able to supply all of the household heating
and electricity requirements--and for a tight house with efficient appliances,
it might be able to do so without deforesting the local county!
> A feature I added was to put floor drains in almost every room. My plumber
> complained, and talked me out of a few (I should have held my ground) but I
> love them. It is so much easier than mopping up dirty water- and the water
> goes directly to the drain tile, not the septic system.
I let my wife read this because I couldn't understand why anyone would get
a floor so wet that it would even have an opportunity to drain, and she
couldn't understand this either! I clean all the floors at home using a small
vacuum cleaner to get rid of dust, and a steam cleaner I bought at Sears. We
put nothing but fresh water in the steamer, and our floors clean beautifully
with this machine. (We have laminate flooring and tile upstairs, with tile and
carpet downstairs. No, I don't use the steamer on the carpet!) The slight
skim of moisture on the floors when I'm done cleaning evaporates rather
quickly. We have a heat recovery ventilation system that exchanges air and
controls indoor humidity. (I wonder what our electric bill is going to be. .
. In our old house, an "all electric" home built in the 1970's, we used around
20 kW hours per day. The people at BC Hydro couldn't believe we used so
"little" power, when they were boasting of "power smart" homes that used more
than twice what we did. I thought our power consumption was outrageous. . . I
guess perspective is everything!)
> I HATE drywall. (Joe from Building Science adores it's draft sealing
> qualities, however) It takes way too much labor, has too many steps-
> drywall, taping, sanding, painting. It was the worst part of the project
> and potentially the most expensive.
I hear you and concur! The only single item that cost more than drywall
was the lumber to frame our house!
> Later we
> wished we had used white tile board- (dry erase board) in the children's
> rooms. This makes a great wall you can write and erase- tape won't hurt it
> either.
What a great idea! (We have a budding artist in the family who believes
that if daddy can paint a picture on the wall, he should be able to draw one
too!)
>
>
> Here is my last link, I thought his ideas inspiring. I read about this
> place in Mother Earth News at the dentist
>
> http://www.cmpbs.org/
Cool place, Caroline! It sounds like you had better luck than I did in
getting some alternative ideas past the builder and the bank. Good for you!
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/9782
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
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