Radiant Flooring-Does it heat the room?

11 years ago

I looked through many posts about radiant heat flooring in bathrooms with tile. I notice most people use mats but has anyone done radiant heating with plumbing pipes running under the floor? Also, with either electric mats or plumbing, does it warm the room up or just your feet? I'm looking to remove a small baseboard from two bathrooms and am hoping the floor will be enough to heat the room. Thanks!

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Comments (6)

worriedone
11 years ago
From my local h/vac guy: yes. to an extent. depending on the size of the room and type of radiant heat. Then there is the floor itself. Tile, marble types are better and hold the heat longer than wood or vinyl types.
Since hot air rises, there needs to be a way of circulation to distribute the warm around the zone.

I have read where they put the electrical type up to the floor and onto lower part of walls in larger areas (heat spreader plates?) - or install floor type radiators. In larger rooms this must be a given in the remote chance a wire kinks, or breaks, and the heat supply needs to be repaired. Always plan B as he says.

Also depends on how long you keep it running. For a large room it is not cost efficient.

Hope that helps. :)
hemera
11 years ago
Yes, hydronic radiant heat in the floor will heat the room. It is the most comfortable kind of heat there is.
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Thanks weedyacres! I actually found the older thread on this exact topic and I'm now convinced that if there's any way we can afford it, we should do it. The problem is that we hadn't budgeted for this bathroom reno at all this year, but the leak & subsequent major mold problem necessitated ripping out the floor, vanity and shower, so now we're forced to renovate the bath now or live without it. It's a major bummer because I had wanted to really do this "right", since its the master bath. On top of that we have a 2/3 finished kitchen that we were in the middle of renovating and we wont be able to afford to finish that for a while either, because of this emergency!! Sheesh. At least I have appliances now. I can live without a backsplash for a while! Anyway, please email me about your leftover materials. If I can convince DH on this, I'd be very interested in talking to you about cost and logistics. Thanks for the offer.
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If the house is designed to current IECC energy codes or better, the 1st level radiant could probably handle most of the home's heating loads including 2nd level. If upfront costs and operating costs are important, you may want to reconsider radiant floors and propane as main energy source. Here is [recent thread on propane[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/energy-star-most-efficient-2019-boilers-help-reading-the-stats-dsvw-vd~5649781?n=36) boilers. To summarize, propane is the most expensive common fuel. It would cost less to heat your home using electricity, as long as you choose high efficiency heat pump options. Cold climate heat pumps are available for your climate so choose a contractor who is comfortable with them and follow their guidance on any needed backup. Tough to beat woodstove with frequent power outages. Radiant only provides heating so it's a tougher choice if the upgrade costs are worthwhile in your climate. Cold climate heat pumps can satisfy heating needs with generally less upfront costs. Ductless heat pumps are packaged systems that are easy to install. Providing sweat equity for radiant floors will be needed to compete in upfront costs. Tubing, manifolds, pumps, appliances, controls, pipes, all done in custom snowflake fashion. Giant propane tank, piped fos$il fuels into house, combustion exhaust to expel, hopefully not backdraft. Most people choosing radiant are going off experience based on inefficient homes. Building to current codes changes the comfort dynamic and some find radiant less comfortable due to thermostat delay response. Radiant floors rarely make economic sense for efficient homes.
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Yes you can do them both. Your problem right now is how the radiant floor is controlled that causes the temperature to overshoot the set point. Your situation requires a thermostat with PID (Proportional, Integral, derivative) capabilities that self tune to your set points and learns to adjust the run time of your radiant system until it finds the perfect setting. These aren't cheap and aren't the Nest or ecobee types. They're made for radiant floors because of the big lag causing temperatures to overshoot and contain microprocessors and some also sense outside temperatures to better control the system. Here is a link with a good selection to pick from but picking the cheapest isn't the best, you get what you pay for. radiant floor thermostats. If the radiant floor heating system is hydronic you can also adjust the water temperature entering the loops to reduce to overshoot with the mixing valve that mixes hot supply water with return water from the floor. This will help some but won't be nearly as effective as a proper thermostat. I almost forgot, No you can't have 80 degree floors but a cool air temperature in the basement without removing the heat in the air, it is thermodynamically impossible without modifications to the basement. Without opening a window you would need an Air conditioner to remove the heat to the outside (waste) or transfer the heat in the air to the upstairs. A few ceiling vents to the upstairs with fans could work, or a entire duct system for a heat exchanger would work. Either way the room temperature will eventually equal the floor temperature if there is no heat loss in the room. Balancing the heat gain to the heat loss is the only way, and this is what the right thermostat will do but you many not have 80 degree floors.
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longtimer
11 years ago
I'm with hemera. It's not only the most comfortable but also the most economical. being that heat rises, it doesn't take as much to heat the entire room, so long as the heat that IS coming out of the floor is constant. As for the electrical mats, it is NOT meant to be a primary heat source, but rather just to heat the flooring (usually ceramic tile or stone) to make it comfortable to walk on. It WILL warm the room to a small extent, but will not work as a primary heat source.
Tim
11 years ago
When I redid our 80 sq ft bath (2 exterior walls) I removed the ineffective duct work and put in a Nuheat electric heated floor. The bathroom is on the 2nd floor, at the back end of our 40 foot long house as far from the furnace as possible, so there was very very little air coming from the vent as it was.

The room is very comfortable with just the heated floor all winter. I put a marble floor in and heat it to 85 degrees at different times of the day. Programmable thermostat is awesome.

Put the same floor in my basement bath as well, directly on the slab with marble on top (Ditra as well).

You'll be fine without your baseboards.
danvirsse
11 years ago
Yes, you absolutely can heat with hydronic radiant floor tubing. Our entire home is heated that way. We installed in ourselves and it was well within our DIY capabilities.
MongoCT
11 years ago
To different animals to consider, Hydronic radiant versus baseboard, in terms of the water temp they circulate.

With true hydronic radiant, you want to circulate water that is around 110-120 degrees. The goal is for the finished flooring surface to not exceed around 80-85 degrees.

The problem with converting baseboard to radiant hydronic is that baseboard systems typically circulate 180-degree water. Running water that hot through a tight hydronic floor system can result in thermal expansion and contraction issues with the floor.

For best performance, it usually results in having to put a the hydronic loop on it's own circuit separate from the the baseboard water. There are a few ways that can be accomplished.

You might be able to get away with circulating 180-degree water if you did something like a below-floor suspended PEX system in the joist bays. Not "staple up" with transfer plates, but simply suspending the loop a few inches below the subfloor. For 180-degree temps, I'd prefer to use copper over PEX. But that's a whole new thread in and of itself.

If the room is well insulated, or has no exterior walls, in-floor electric mats can provide enough BTUs to heat the room space. You'd need to consider the BTUs per sqft that those systems provide. An alternative would be in-floor electric for simple floor comfort warming, and something along the lines of a Runtal electric or hydronic Omnipanel for room heating. The Omnipanel can put out enough BTUs to heat a room.

Radiant Flooring-Does it heat the room?

Comments (6)

worriedone

hemera

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longtimer

Tim

danvirsse

MongoCT

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