Shop infloor heating Zones

[bfarroo]

I'm current working on the pex layout for my shop and am looking for advice in setting up zones in the shop. The shop will have a office area, a paint booth, and then the open shop area. The office and paint booth are currently 15x24 side by side creating a 30 x 24 sectioned off area in the 48 x 52 overall shop area. This gives an L shaped shop 48 wide across the front and then a 18 ft wide back section along the paint booth. My question is the main shop will be on a zone by itself, currently 4 loops about 305 - 326 feet long. The second zone is the office area with 1 loop at 275 feet. The main question is should I put the paint booth on it's own zone or should I include it in the shop zone? Each zone would require it's own pump right? I'm thinking I'm going to put the pex in so that the paint booth section is still seperated off but tie it in with the shop zone having the option to separate it off at a later time if I want. I may be overthinking it but would it be worth while to have the paint booth separate to allow keeping that areas temperature lower and reduce heating costs? maybe I would be better off just turning back the flow when not in use? It will probably have a separate heating source for painting anyway to raise the temperature higher than the shop.

 

[BadgerBoilerMN]

A zone is an area separated by walls and controlled by it's own thermostat. Since you will likely have an exhaust fan going while painting a zone would be in order. Zones may be drive by a single circulator or one per zone depending on the loads and heat source. Most all hydronic systems are over-pumped and over-controlled wasting money in initial installation and ongoing operation cost.

 

[bfarroo]

I'm planning on putting the office, paint booth, and the shop on separate zones. Now what I'm planning on doing is having the boiler and all of the pumps, expansion tank, valves ect placed on the back wall of the office area which will be in the back left corner of the building(52 deep x 96 wide). If I wanted to run all of the tubing back to this area I'd have super long runs from the other side of the building. So what I'm planning is bringing each zone up on the back wall in the center of the zone. The office zone would come up in the same room as the boiler and would be 1 loop. The paint booth would be 1 room over(about 15 feet on the back wall) so I would run from the pump over to that loop. This one is probably close enough that I could run it up next to the office zone without increasing the loop by much. The shop area would be 6 loops and another 15 feet over. I would then run a 3/4 feed and return lines from the pump over to the 6 port manifold. The second half of the shop isn't going to be hooked up currently but will have the tubing installed in the floor so I plan on putting the 9 port manifold for that section again in the center of the back wall which would require about 50-65 foot run from the boiler to the manifold if I ever decide to heat that section. Does this sound like the proper way to go about setting up the tubing? My original plan was to run the feed and return lines across the back wall to the manifolds but now I'm contemplating putting the lines in the concrete. Let me know what you think.

 

[tdkkart]

Something to be aware of. If you've never worked in a shop with radiant floor, you need to know that you really don't need to set your thermostat as high as you would in a forced air enviroment. The floor is heated, which means your feet are warm, which means your entire body will feel warmer. I will guess that if you're doing any actual work in the shop area, you're gonna be roasting if the T-stat is set much above 60*.
Which now brings up a problem for your paint booth. Most paints are fairly heat sensitive, you need an air temp of 70-75* with most paints. A couple issues. Your paint booth can't be at the 60* that the shop is at or your paint won't dry, and your shop can't be at the same temp as the paint booth or you'll roast when working out there.
The other problem is you'll need ventilation in your paint booth, which means you have extra heat load from constantly exchanging air. Without some design changes, your typical radiant floor probably won't keep up with the heat load while the ventilation is running.
I'm thinking maybe use the floor heat in the booth normally, set at the same temp as the shop, and then add some sort of forced air system(electric??) to bump the heat up while painting.

 

[jack stand]

I would recomend a radiant heat design professional as it seems you have some special considerations. I used one for my shop & house and am 100% satisfied with my system. Some things in certain situations, just "winging it" does not work. The outfit I used wanted to know the wall, ceiling & floor construction/insulation, heat source, and desired use of specific areas among other things. A few dollars spent here against the possability of having a somewhat expensive and mostly unchangeable, underperforming, or worse heating system, is money well spent. Now if you were just warming up a 30x40 shop........

 

[bfarroo]

Something to be aware of. If you've never worked in a shop with radiant floor, you need to know that you really don't need to set your thermostat as high as you would in a forced air enviroment. The floor is heated, which means your feet are warm, which means your entire body will feel warmer. I will guess that if you're doing any actual work in the shop area, you're gonna be roasting if the T-stat is set much above 60*.
Which now brings up a problem for your paint booth. Most paints are fairly heat sensitive, you need an air temp of 70-75* with most paints. A couple issues. Your paint booth can't be at the 60* that the shop is at or your paint won't dry, and your shop can't be at the same temp as the paint booth or you'll roast when working out there.
The other problem is you'll need ventilation in your paint booth, which means you have extra heat load from constantly exchanging air. Without some design changes, your typical radiant floor probably won't keep up with the heat load while the ventilation is running.
I'm thinking maybe use the floor heat in the booth normally, set at the same temp as the shop, and then add some sort of forced air system(electric??) to bump the heat up while painting.

That's my exact plan. The infloor will keep the booth at a good working temperature but I will use an axillary heat source when painting and drying.