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In Reply to: RE: Radiant has problems posted by LWR on December 19, 2014 at 10:16:43
What you say is absolutely true; it's not the ideal heating configuration for a "programmable set-back" heat zone. We designed our new (well, I guess it's not so new any more -- we've had an occupancy permit for over two years now) house with a mixture of hot-water baseboard and radiant heat. You can see one of the radiant heat zones' manifolds in the top right of the photo above, mounted on the grey board.
One up-side to radiant -- it uses warm (not hot) water to heat, so it can be quite efficient in that regard.
It is absolutely wonderful in the bathrooms and the mudroom (entry from the garage) under tile floors -- it is SO nice, in the dead of winter, to traipse into the bathroom in the middle of the night... and the floor is warm. The whole first floor is radiant; we have baseboard heat in the bedrooms upstairs. Radiant is most effective in spaces with exposed hard, bare flooring (pine board and tile, in our case); I do also have it in the hifi room, under carpet. Special carpet pad is required. It actually works really well in that space (thankfully).
We also put radiant heat into the garage slab (since the hifi room is above the garage, it was necessary to heat the latter). This is really, really nice... we'll see how practical it will be in the long run.
The aesthetics of radiant are also nice (no vents nor baseboards)-- we didn't put air conditioning in the house, although we thought hard about it. Given the global climate changes, I do second-guess myself round about early July, though :-)
We'll see how well it holds up...I do worry about what happens when (probably 'when' as opposed to if) there's a leak.
all the best,
mrh
Follow Ups:
had the pipes buried in a concrete pad. When a pipe broke or leaked they had to break up the slab inside the house to fix it. That happened years after I moved from our house...All the Eichler's in PA had this heat system.
Nowadays the only heat we use is wood stoves. Right now the whole house is a toasty 78 and outside it is 41. Toss in an oak log at bed time and we awake to a house that is still 70 degrees with hot coals waiting for a fresh log.
Regulation of temp is by the type of log tossed in as well as the size.
The stove is freestanding and not near a wall.
The bathroom uses one of those instant on water heaters and it is at the back of the cupboard where our towels are kept. Stepping out of the shower/bath one grabs a nice warm towel to dry off, a real luxury...
It looks like radiant has come along ways if it is under a wooden floor.....
I use a soapstone woodstove at my cabin, and I have yet to see temperatures where it can't keep up, although I've admittedly not been there when it's 20 below. A ceiling fan really helps to keep the heat distributed. The cabin's in the middle of a forest - there's downed wood everywhere, so it seems silly not to take advantage of nature's offereings.
"Live Free or Die!" :-)
Actually, Mrs. H and I are sittin' in front of a fire as I type this. We have a moderately efficient fireplace insert in the LR; not an airtight stove, but it is pretty, burns evenly and slowly, and draws its air from outside (I guess all FPs do nowadays). Close the door and it works sorta like a real woodstove. Sorta.
Amusingly... it's a French Canadian product that has a sliding glass door and screen, guillotine-style. The model's name, of course... is Antoinette.
:-)
all the best,
mrh
occasionally being a "true" fireplace with an open burn. Nothing like the smell and the sound combined with the direct heat.
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