Radiant Heating Setup

[Evilcactuar]

I'm planning my slab for radiant heat, and unfortunately don't have any natural gas availability. We've just had a huge hike on electric costs in CT, so my options are propane and oil. I think i'd prefer oil, but i'm not seeing much as far as people going that direction. Has anyone on here gone that route? I was thinking a bock water heater or possibly a high efficiency boiler, but i'd love some feedback from anyone who's done it.

 

[Jking24]

I'm planning my slab for radiant heat, and unfortunately don't have any natural gas availability. We've just had a huge hike on electric costs in CT, so my options are propane and oil. I think i'd prefer oil, but i'm not seeing much as far as people going that direction. Has anyone on here gone that route? I was thinking a bock water heater or possibly a high efficiency boiler, but i'd love some feedback from anyone who's done it.

i almost went that route with the bock condensing water heater. My motivation was i use oil at my house already and it would simplify everything to have the same fuel. After examining efficiency ratings and and a close comparison i decided against it and went with propane. I have not completed the system yet but i plan to use a tankless propane unit to do the heating. I haven't decided on a unit yet but i need in the range of 199000 btu 10gpm any recommendations or input would be appreciated

 

[Jackfre]

Service requirement is higher on oil. Interior tank takes space. Lower efficiency on oil. Oil water heaters do not last and are quite costly. Propane has its drawback but is a clear winner to me. Not many new oil accts across New England.

 

[finn]

I had oil in my shop.

Ripped it out and went with propane.

Oil has high maintenance and, here, at least, the tanks are mostly indoors to avoid jelling problems in cold weather (or run #1 fuel oil), which takes away valuable floor space.

 

[yeldogt]

Overall Think you will find oil to be more expensive at every point ... buying ... maintaining ... running costs

 

[Evilcactuar]

alright, I guess I'll go back to radiantec and have them spec the building for me. I had them spec the original design, but it was much larger then..

 

[Jking24]

alright, I guess I'll go back to radiantec and have them spec the building for me. I had them spec the original design, but it was much larger then..

Radiantec designed my whole system. I went with their higher end tubing and their prefabricated manifold setup. i had originally planned to buy everything from them. I'm currently on the fence because while their service has been great i feel like their hitting me pretty hard on all the components to finish the system. They want over 3600$ for the remaining components. They also rubbed me the wrong way alittle because one of the main reasons i went with them is because they claim they will sell you what you need or help you source what you need. Well when i reviewed their qoute and asked for s little info on certain components that i thought i could source locally and save some shipping i got a cold shoulder and basically told in a nice way that if i didn't want to buy it from them they weren't gonna give me any info. I thought this was pretty petty considering i was still planning on buying the big ticket items from them and had also already spent a considerable amount of money with them. So I'm now contemplating continuing to do business with them or sourcing the remaining components elsewhere. Sorry not trying to hyjack your thread just providing info from my experience

 

[Ak Jim]

Here in interior Alaska heating oil is used in the majority of the houses. I have a System 2000 boiler. Very efficient, as good as propane, I can’t say. But if you go with oil definitely check it out.

https://energykinetics.com/system2000-quietest-most-efficient-boiler/

 

[Evilcactuar]

Appreciate the feedback guys. I had actually already bought standard pex, and I don't like their manifold setup, but that's unfortunate to hear.

I'll check out the oil setup, thanks! I'm not ready to pull the trigger for a bit, but I'm trying to lay out the floor, and if I need an oil tank in the front corner that will move some other things back.

I will say after not finding hardly any stats setup to use oil, and the other feedback I've gotten here, I'm leaning against the oil. Unfortunately, that means I've got to find somewhere to put a big *** propane tank spaced out from buildings, and they're ugly. I suppose I could bury it.

 

[Kobuk]

I’m using a Toyotomi OM-128HH direct vent. It can be controlled by a thermostat and will power a pump up to 300 watt. No mixing valve required because you can control the output temp. It is fuel oil and it’s best to run the low sulfur fuel.

 

[nadogail]

If I had to heat my shop, I would burn waste oil.

 

[Tduby]

Radiant heat for a garage floor will keep your boiler condensing which is good if you have a high efficiency condensing boiler bad for just about anything else. You either need to add more equipment to protect the boiler or ruin it in a few years.

 

[Randy in Maine]

I went for building the 1200 square ft garage using super insulation (R-40 SIPS) and used the condensing propane fired boiler that heats our house 40 feet away. Just added another zone. Cheap to heat and easy to set up.