Using floor heat next to unheated slab

[grinnergetter]

New here....I have a 35x25 barn for my shop. It used to have horses in it and the floor was pretty cobbled(partial dirt) up in different thicknesses. I repoured it level and would up with anywhere from 4-8 inches thick.
15 years later I'm planning on adding 24ft to the side (lean to style) this spring and was thinking of using radiant heat in the new addition with the hopes that it could heat the entire space.

I have a furnace installed right now and all the welding and grinding clogs a filter every day I'm out there so floor heating seems the way to go.

I'm in NW Indiana so it gets plenty cold here.

Does anyone have any experience with this idea? Thoughts?

Thanks, Grin

 

[Sureshot]

I think it will work. If not add a radiator with fan that runs off the same heat source.

 

[anthony666]

it's possible to make it work .. do a heat loss calc and mess with the insulation values to figure out how much you'd need to add, or if you have sufficient on the old side

i'd treat the old floor as a heat sink directly to the ground and insulate between the preexisting slab and the new one to create a thermal break - you want the heat to stay inside the structure .. but i think as long as your took down the adjoining wall you'd be fine to expect half the floor to keep the structure at least comfortable and like sureshot said, you can add supplemental heat sources in trouble spots

do the math sir

 

[shamrock12]

I'm not sure it would work that way. What radiant heating system does is heating the object, not the air. Also I don't think a system being setup for the lean-on addition would be capable of producing twice the output for both spaces. And even if it does, the system would likely be working overtime.

Another thing to keep on mind ... how important is your health? If your furnace filter is clogging up everyday from the airborne dust, then it must be helping cleaning the air for you, thus a better working condition. Perhaps you might want to re-evaluate your options.

 

[anthony666]

you need to learn the laws of thermodynamics sir .. a warm object beside a cold object results in heat flowing from hot to cold, it does not matter that one object is a slab of concrete and the other object is the air inside the building

 

[brewchief]

I would increase the amount of tube in the new slab by reducing the spacing between the tubing.

 

[ScaldedDog]

I've done this and, while it's not perfect, it does work. I have 1000sf of radiant heated garage space connected to 500sf of unheated garage space. I keep the 100sf thermostat at 56*, and the unheated space never falls below 50*.

Mark

 

[grinnergetter]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I do have a furnace that does a pretty good job in an old leaky barn which would supplement the floor heat if it's not enough.

The health point was a good one also.

I gotta do some math now.....thanks