Dear Caroline,
Then it was not the copper pipes, so it must have been joints, or he refilled the floor frequently. Copper pipes in tap water with 0.6 mm thickness have average life span of 15 years, 1 mm thickness 40 years. In a heating system with circulating water the 0.6 mm also have average life span of 40 years. It is however much shorter it you use a higher water flow and pressure and in this case it degenerate fast in 90 degree bends. My guess is that the unfortunate man either had substandard joints or well over- dimensioned circulation pump. With the special plastic pipes, you do not have that problem. But they are sensitive to the infrared in daylight and can also show some sensitivities to air exposures. In concrete floor they are very safe. Changes in water bill can also be changes in energy pricing. The consumption does not care about the price 1 BTU is 1 BTU. I do not like this stupid price arguments and unqualified promises. The fact is that the heated floor is a low temperature radiant system and as such it gives you maximum future flexibility of choosing energy source. Correctly done it is a valuable asset, comparable to a true flexible multi fuel engine. When you use wood and other high temperature energy sources, that are difficult to use with a variable output (like the throttle of a car), you must have an equalizing accumulator in between the source and the floor. Radiators must have very large surface area to mimic a low temperature system and will not use the storage/emission capacity of the building in an efficient way . Hakan At 11:49 AM 12/15/2002 -0500, you wrote: >At 01:01 AM 12/15/2002, you wrote: > >Graham, > > > >Did you already built your new house? Leaking floor in concrete, I > >hope that you did not install copper pipes in it. It was a long time, > >around 30 years, since I heard anyone do this. > >The unfortunate old man did have copper I think, installed about 12 years >ago he said. > > > >If the special plastic pipes for heated floors is against your goals, > >then you take a substantial risk, otherwise > ><http://www.wirsbo.com/>http://www.wirsbo.com/ > >and find the distributor in your area. > >I bought my system from Rohar- mainly because it was less expensive to get >a Polaris water heater from them, most efficient I could find, than it was >to purchase the individual components for the system locally and buy the >Polaris in my state. Another of those philosophical compromises. Mostly >I have been satisfied with them, except for a couple of things. One I had >to argue a bit to get my pump replaced (it was within the warranty), and >two when I suggested how a small design change on their part could have >prevented the first pump breakdown (water from a loose pipe fitting leaked >on the top housing) they argued that they had never had any problems >before- it was the plumbers fault. Stupid, the change would have cost >nothing in materials, just placing it above the pipes or beside rather than >directly underneath a potentially leaky place- we cover ours with a plastic >"roof" now just to be on the safe side. Lastly, in typical sales guy talk, >he assured me our bills would be $500 a year, given the house specs I gave >him. Last year they were closer to $800. We don't even use all the zones- >storage area thermostat is disconnected, laundry and stored food need no >additional heat. Plus we supplement with a wood stove in the common area. >So that rarely comes on. > >I grew up with old fashioned radiators. These I loved- a warm spot in each >room, a place to dry your towels, and the ability to turn on and off each >one. I thought this would be a modern version. I think I should have >redesigned some radiators using the pex pipe. That way they would have >been accessable and improvable if uses changed- (storage areas, become >living spaces- some rooms never used but heated anyway because on zone with >another used room, etc. ) > >Caroline > >[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
