picts of your in-floor heat set ups.

[Dick in Wisconsin]

Re: picts of your in floor heat set ups.

30 gal. NG water heater, 1000' total of 1/2" pex, I keep it at around 59 deg., been in operation about 1 month. Still getting the bugs (and air) worked out.

I wonder how this worked out.

Location. Size of shop/garage would be interesting to know.

 

[starting]

Here is my open/direct system for my home. I am running everything off of one water heater for home water and the radiant. I did everything myself which is the reason for some of the copper crossovers but it seems to be working well.

 

[pstnbly]

Here is my open/direct system for my home. I am running everything off of one water heater for home water and the radiant. I did everything myself which is the reason for some of the copper crossovers but it seems to be working well.

You need a bullhead Tee and drip leg at the gas stop .

 

[pstnbly]

Here are a few pics of my newly installed combi boiler heat system done by a local professional - critiques and positive comments welcome!

Boiler side appears to be bushed down to 3/4" from 1", no primary loop, untempered supply feeding infloor loops may result in high delta t above 20f without primary/ secondary piping, and micro zoning is not good for mod/con boilers. Boiler will probably short cycle and bang off the high limit. I hope it has outdoor reset. Setting parameters using outdoor reset may mitigate some issues.

 

[pstnbly]

Here are a few pics of my newly installed combi boiler heat system done by a local professional - critiques and positive comments welcome!

Oh sorry 1 more. The closely spaced Tees coming off the boiler are too far apart to provide hydraulic separation, there is no primary pump I can see unless it's in the boiler cabinet. If there is a primary pump the Tees must be spaced no more than 4 pipe diameters apart to provide hydraulic separation. If there is no primary pump the jumper between the 2 Tees short circuits the boiler side.

The installer did clean work but missed some fundamentals.

 

[4 FN 27]

AC and Tempering Heat: GeoComfort Vertical GXT048 (2X)

Radiant In-floor Heat: 2 GeoComfort Hydronic GWS084 as main source

Back-up Radiant In-floor and Hot Water: Triangle Tube 250K 96% Gas Boiler

Grundfos MAGNA3 Circulation Pump for Loop Field

80 Gallon Buffer Tank

Wilo Variable Speed Pumps

Taco Pump Control Relays

2 Stage Johnson Controllers

6 Zones, Utility Room and Storage Area Radiant only, Office, Car Shop and Machine Shop Radiant and AC, Vault Radiant and Fujitsu Mini-Split for AC

 

[starting]

You need a bullhead Tee and drip leg at the gas stop .

The gas line enters the room to the right at almost ceiling height. I put the t and drip leg where I dropped it down to the height where it runs around the room.

 

[pstnbly]

The gas line enters the room to the right at almost ceiling height. I put the t and drip leg where I dropped it down to the height where it runs around the room.

Gas should enter the "bull" of the Tee and be split to the appliance and the drip leg.

 

[larry4406]

Never heard of the "branch" being referred to as the "bull". Learned something new. Here the plumbers use the terms "run" and "branch" when talking about T-fittings.

 

[pstnbly]

Entering the branch side is called "bullheading" or "bullheaded" . Entering the Tee this way disrupts the flow and allows heavier material ( moisture and particles) to drop from the stream flow.

 

[Novadiecast]

Wow I can't believe I just spent 2 days reading all 690 posts about radiant heating. I am just digging in to this type of heat and have learned a bunch. Thank all of you for the great information and great links to parts, suppliers, and diagrams.

Now back to real life!!!

 

[Flexia]

Finally got mine mostly done. Still have to add drops for the T&P and condensate drain. Using the combi boiler with outdoor reset.

 

[RaskyR1]

Just finished pouring the floor last week and it will probably be a while little while before I connect everything else. It's just shy of 1200sq ft and I just ordered a closed loop package/system from Radiantec and plan to use a Takagi T-H3M-DV to heat it.

6" inch slab with 1/2" rebar on 2" chairs spaced 16" O.C.
2" foam under slab, 1" inside perimeter walls and 2" on the exterior foundation.

 

[hogdaddy]

Great info here thanks for sharing.

 

[pstnbly]

Very nice primary/secondary piping.

 

[smuth10]

Just finished my closed loop system. Just need to pressure test it before I fill everything. I am really new to this so if I missed anything feel free to criticize.

Is there a way to get air into the system for testing via the hose bib? I would rather test for leaks with air first. The setup I had was installed into the manifold, which now has copper installed.

 

[BlueBomber]

Just finished my closed loop system. Just need to pressure test it before I fill everything. I am really new to this so if I missed anything feel free to criticize.

Is there a way to get air into the system for testing via the hose bib? I would rather test for leaks with air first. The setup I had was installed into the manifold, which now has copper installed.

You could fabricate an adapter hose with a female hose connector on one end and a male quick connect air fitting on the other. If your system does not have a pressure gauge (and it should), plumb one into your adapter.

Good luck!

 

[dwysywd]

You could fabricate an adapter hose with a female hose connector on one end and a male quick connect air fitting on the other. If your system does not have a pressure gauge (and it should), plumb one into your adapter.

Good luck!

What a great idea! I'm gonna steal it!


Sent from my bag phone...

 

[Burl]

Re: picts of your in floor heat set ups.

I wonder how this worked out.

Location. Size of shop/garage would be interesting to know.

It's still working great. About 60 mi. W of Pittsburgh, 32 X 30 w/12' ceiling, 2X4 walls w/fiberglass batts in walls and ceiling. My wife says that there has been little if no increase in the gas bill. It will run a bit more when the temps get below 20 deg. for an extended period. I will never change a thing.

 

[MNMKIV]

this was an awesome read. i am working on a DIY hydronic floor heat in my 24x30 garage with 18x30 upstairs room/bathroom. slab has 3 250' runs of 1/2 ex and i have aluminum fin under the subfloor between the floor joists for the upstairs, as well as in the bottom 4' of the walls. to add to the fun i have solar evacuated (156 total) tubes heating a 600 gallon tank that preheats the water before it gets to my heat source. it is a work in progress over the winter and will post up pics once more progress has been made.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

May sound crazy, but this is one of two rooms, 1200 square feet per room, that we laid floor heat in. I keep the system set to 67 degrees, and currently these two rooms are keeping my unheated 5000 square foot area at 44 degrees. Outside temps have been in the single to low double digits for the past week to ten days. Building is insulated with high and low density foam and r38 ceilings. It's very comfortable to work in the unheated section and when you are working on the heated floors it's amazingly comfortable.

 

[mopar440_6]

Just finished my closed loop system. Just need to pressure test it before I fill everything. I am really new to this so if I missed anything feel free to criticize.

Is there a way to get air into the system for testing via the hose bib? I would rather test for leaks with air first. The setup I had was installed into the manifold, which now has copper installed.

smuth10, what model Takagi is that?

 

[Boneheads Garage]

I have the Takagi heater it works great. Plug off the lines and get a standard pressure gauge used for testing gas lines (menards, lowes, etc) put 20 pounds of air in it and check it 24 hours later. I filled mine with 20 pounds and finalized the install a couple months later...still 20 pounds. I would not pour concrete until you pressure test it.
Good choice on the heater!!

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Sorry, reading from my phone. Thought you had a tekagi. It's the boiler mounted on the wall.
, closed loop inly. I have another one for the other side of the building that is closed loop for the floor heat and open loop for domestic hot water.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

TH30v..closed loop

 

[BeachBoy]

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Looking good

 

[Denwood]

This was an over-pour over existing with 2" of insulation. It's about 4800 sq/ft, four zones. The triangle tube units swap duties every day. Another 4 AHU units source hot water from the system when needed. The system has been amazingly efficient heating about 9100 sq/ft total.

Just added Ecobee3 stats and external temp sensors to control and provide web based data logging.

 

[bams50]

Dennis – you say your system is "amazingly efficient". Do you have any numbers for us? Maybe as compared to other forms of heating?

 

[Denwood]

Bams, we basically gutted an empty warehouse and did a furred airspace wall system, sensor'd lighting, new mechanical etc. The Triangle Tube boiler units use natural gas and claim 98% efficiency.

Over the last two years we had very cold February periods, averaging -19C and -20C (-4 F average) respectively. The largest gas bill was $228 for last February. When the outside temp averages 6C, we basically don't need heat. Consumption is in cubic meters.

The building is about 9100 sq/ft.

 

[Pythong]

Bams, we basically gutted an empty warehouse and did a furred airspace wall system, sensor'd lighting, new mechanical etc. The Triangle Tube boiler units use natural gas and claim 98% efficiency.

Over the last two years we had very cold February periods, averaging -19C and -20C (-4 F average) respectively. The largest gas bill was $228 for last February. When the outside temp averages 6C, we basically don't need heat. Consumption is in cubic meters.

The building is about 9100 sq/ft.

That's so exciting to see as i hope to get my boiler in for next winter. What boiler did you go with for your shop? This gives me good stats to go off as we have the same temperatures and i want my bills to be as low as possible


My union gas bill last month was 420m3 to heat my 1900sqft home. If you shop is 9100sqft and that's what you had for for the -12C month i'm excited to get the boiler in for my 1700sqft garage now that will be more efficient than my house.


How do you like the ecobee, i was tossed between the Honeywell Smart thermostat and the Ecobee, but ended up getting the honeywell for the house. It works ok - but i like the looks of that unit on your wall now.

 

[Denwood]

P, the boiler system is efficient, but the building envelope is a bigger factor. R35 walls using a furred radiant air space assembly, R80 ceilings, and spray foam at the floor rim joist etc. The windows all use magnetic inner acrylic storms to capture an extra air layer. If you want low heating bills, insulate well!

The ecobee IMHO is easily the best "smart" thermostat out there right now. I wrote a bit of review: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5497239

For my own shop, I still have an old school mercury switch stat controlling a hanging Reznor unit, as I only have the heat on when working. One of the downsides of a radiant slab in a shop is that recovery is too slow for aggressive set backs. So if you work in the shop every day and want it warm, radiant is great. Radiant is also a great idea if you're using solar for heat. However, if you want to minimize heating costs in our climate, insulate really well (including the slab!), and use a forced air unit to bring temps up for working.

 

[Crazy68Dart]

So far... mechanicals hopefully going in before next winter.

 

[bams50]

Thank you for your response, Denwood. Everyone is always interested in actual dollar cost to heat a given building but rarely do we get numbers.

 

[dallasjeannie]

Re: picts of your in floor heat set ups.

They are not very big, but they are quite powerful. This little boiler draws 120 amps. This system will be heating just under 3,000 sq. ft.

What is the name and model of the heat source in this picture?

 

[jopickens]

Here's a link to a post in my garage build thread - looking for a bit of feedback on integrating two heat sources (LP THWH & OWBoiler) for in floor radiant heat etc. Thanks!

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5955123&postcount=195

Josh

 

[E.rodz]

it is coming up into heating season lets see some more systems!

 

[morehead]

Re: picts of your in floor heat set ups.

OK,
I finally got my system in and running. I poured the garage slab about a year ago, never got around to closing it in before winter so it sat until the end of summer before we finished it.

My system is as simple as it gets, thanks to some great advice from fellow GB members ANTHONY666, and FASTBACK, to name a couple. I really appreciate their time going back and forth with PM's and or posts. Also, even though I did not realize it, just reading through these posts helps a great deal with the basic understanding of the systems.

I have 1 zone, 4 loops, about 200 to 220 foot each heating 864 sq. ft. I used a domestic tank water heater for a source, YEA I know, I'm gonna burn in hell, blow up the garage and it will never last. It was FREE, and only a year old so I am going to take my chances. Besides, I can buy a half dozen water heaters for what some of those boilers sell for. (I'm a cheap smack!)

Anyway, I fired it up tonight about 6PM, and played with it bleeding the air out, but once it was pretty much bled out, I started to get heat. Within 3 hours it had warmed the slab up by ten degrees and the water was cold to begin with.

I turned it off for the night just to make sure it has no air left in the system, I would hate to burn up a new pump. I will start it up again this weekend when I have time to be in the garage to monitor it for a few hours.

It is not fancy, but it seems like it will work just fine.

EDIT!
SINCE THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN, I HAVE REPLACED THE WATER HEATER SHOWN WITH A POWER VENT WATER HEATER. I COULD NOT GET THE DRAFT STYLE TO EXHAUST THE SPENT GAS, THE CO DETECTOR WAS CONSTANTLY GOING OFF BECAUSE THE GARAGE IS INSULATED TOO TIGHTLY TO GET A DRAFT GOING. (AT LEAST THE FIRST ONE WAS FREE)

Jim

Great looking system have much the same Sq footage
Have you had any issues since posted?
Do you have the details of all the components in the system?
Would you change anything ?

Thank You

 

[morehead]

Re: picts of your in floor heat set ups.

Any updates with system? All good without any issues ?
Thank you,
John

 

[morehead]

Re: picts of your in floor heat set ups.

I never touch it, it just works. I keep the garage at 49º this winter because I am not painting or curing any primers etc.. I find that is a great temp to maintain because the thing hardly runs.

I dont have a huge amount of insulation under the slab, just on the frost walls outside that run down past the footer to keep the cold from migrating into the walls or under the slab. I figure once I prevent the slab from getting cold the rest is easy.

We just had that super cold snap come through Indy a few weeks back and the garage felt warmer than it usually does, obviously it was just all relative to what it was outside.

It amazes me how much different this heated side of the shop is compared to the other unheated side. On the unheated side I have to run the kerosene radiant heater the entire time I am out there because everything on that side of the shop is frozen, every wrench, toolbox and of course the slab literally feels like it is sucking the heat out of you while you stand there.

On the heated side I really dont need to do anything and it feels warmer than it really is.

Here is a more descriptive picture.

Now, if I had natural gas run to the garage I would get a gas on-demand hot water heater, it would cost more initially but be cheaper to run if I wanted to keep it around 70º all the time.

But, for the cheap initial cost I would bet its hard to beat a system like this to keep things in the mid-50's in this part of the US.
Now, electrical rates could quadruple if politicians love the myth of global warming over the well being of Americans.

Thanks for the info very helpful!
Any issues or updates with the system ?
Thank you
John