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Radiant in a basement is not a good idea if the floor is at or below the water table. There are also losses around the perimeter if the slab is warm around it's edge. Assuming the ground is dry underneath, the heat is held back from the edge and there is slab edge insulation, there is no need...

No. No need for it.

seths, I'm not comfortable with foam supporting the slab forever. Insulation isn't necessary except around the perimeter and you can keep the heat back from the edges to prevent losses. You can also hold the heat back a ways from roll-up doors as you probably won't be lying on the floor in...

An easy and foolproof way to do it is to lay down a layer of Blueboard, attach the tubing to that insulation board and then pour a thin concrete slab to the level you want. It will also level out any slope. If your floor is dry underneath, meaning no groundwater, just shoot down 6-10 mesh...

Definitely get the tubing in so you haven't burned that bridge. Radiant heat is the most comfortable heat there is and perfect for shops. If you are in a really cold area insulate the slab edges and under the first couple of feet under the slab. 2" Blueboard works well for this. Use 1/2"...

Your power supply can be any 24V transformer. If there is one in your furnace, you can tap into it, or find one that simply plugs into a wall outlet and hangs there. Or wire a 20 VA 24v doorbell transformer into the incoming 120 power supply to the furnace. Some modern systems don't have 24...

Sounds like you need a metal detector. One of those would easily find a piece of rebar stuck in the ground. Especially since you know approximately where the markers are. Look an Amazon or go to big sporting goods store.

That thimble is designed to do exactly what you are doing with it. To hold hot pipes away from combustible materials. It will not conduct enough heat to burn your framing. Run the heater and touch the thimble near it's outer edges. You'll see.

I ran a Dickinson Diesel heater for years in my boat. It is essentially a drip system. And before that we had a diesel drip heater in the shop at the ranch. It had been in service for decades. Instead of dripping in from above the fire, they "dripped" into a pot in the bottom. With a bit of...

I've been considering it, but haven't started yet. My radiant floor is heated with solar primary and oil backup. I have two 300 gallon diesel tanks that feed the boiler. Last year I only burned a total of 38 gallons, but this year will probably be a bit higher. I accumulate about 9 to 12...

Clang! Eeeek. Dangit!

yeldogt, I like how you planned ahead and raised the floor plate to allow tubes to slide underneath. Good job. Holohan's book "Pumping Away", is a fine little reference manual. I've had a copy for many years, but it has disappeared into the archives somewhere. The way he says to pump and...

engineer, Calculating consumption based on in and out temps and flow rates will give you somewhat meaningless numbers. When a slab system first starts out, with a cold slab, it could easily absorb 100 BTU. per foot, but that has nothing to do with the heat load of the building. When up to...

yeldogt, Out here in the West, we have milder weather than you guys, and you're right, the grooved plywood systems were designed to avoid thin pours. Back in the eighties, Maxxon was known as Gyp-Crete Corporation. They started a division named Infloor and developed a line of radiant products...

No need to re-invent the wheel. The infrared thermometer works perfectly well. I've actually located far more lines by crawling around and noticing the warm lines with my hands. The lines are not hard to find.

Since you have about 3" of thickness, why not lay out 6-10 flatwire mesh, tie your tubing to that and shoot it down? This avoids the high cost and complicated Warm Board system, it avoids any moisture problems that might come up with wood on concrete, it allows any tube spacing you want in...

With the floor cold, turn on the heat just in the zone you are interested in. Make sure your hot supply is warmer than just a maintenance temp. Get out any photos or records about tube spacing that you may have. With an infrared thermometer, begin to scan the area and look for heat lines and...

To answer your question: There is no need to connect the two water heaters mentioned. Closed loop radiant does not need to be "freshened". Keep the two systems separate. Or, if you wish, you could use domestic PEX in the radiant system, along with all domestic compatible pumps and equipment...

Yes. But you are going to a lot of trouble and building in continued maintenance to avoid doing it in a much better way. Besides, drainback is very simple to arrange.

To get the most from the solar, design it to cool the collectors, not heat the water. This method keeps the panels as cool as possible, which means as efficient as possible, which means you extract the maximum energy from the panels. The hotter the return water from the solar collectors, the...