Radiant Floors

A colleague here has radiant floor in their new home in the basement. Up here it can get fairly chilly (-35 to 40C) and this is all the heat he uses in the basement. It is a very good system and works well at heating a comparable area (~1300 sq ft) to what you describe. A great thing about it from the shop perspective is that there is no air duct, heating element or heat exchanger to collect dust/be a fire hazard and there is not ‘footprint’ to use up valuable shop floor space. I believe he uses an electric furnace and at 5 cents a KW it is not too expensive to heat.

I think one of the most important things is the insulation you have in your shop and of course the amount of incoming cold air. I heat my two car garage/shop with an 600w industrial heater and it does okay but the infiltration of air around the doors sucks the heat right out. I can keep it around 10 to 15C which is great to work in but not so good for finishing.

From my colleagues experience I would say it is worth the upfront costs and is a very effecient way to heat such a space as your shop.

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

You wont regret it.

I have 1,500 square feet with two heating systems. A ceiling mounted, propane radiant heater for when I am gone and the slab which is radiant floor heat.

I can open my overhead door in the dead of winter for an hour, close it, and the temp is back at 70 in minutes without the system even turning on. Being able to ramble on for hours about the benefits in in floor radiant heating is pointless so I dare you to find a single comment from anyone who has installed this kind of system that is complaining about it. Rather you will find those who could have put one in, and didnt…........who do the complaining.

There is simply no better, more effecient and cost effective system then in floor radiant heat especially when its a concrete slab.

A word of advice….............take photos with story sticks on the grid, of the system before they pour the concrete. This can save you a lot of grief down the road.

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

You should be super insulated though. I think its the best.

I worked in a diesel repair shop years ago, 1956-57, the building was cinder block.

In order to keep the building warm, they had the floor temp at 120 degrees.

I haven’t had cold feet since. LOL

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

you didnt get cold feet Dick when you met your lovely wife Barb did you sir? seriously I laid a concrete floor then a wety system heating run from the boiler in the house,so I cannot comment myself but I have heard good reports anbout this system so dont be worried you have to heat the shiop somehow “don’t you!” I put eventually a wooden flooring down but that was because of a bad back from standing on the concrte in hthose days all .day God’s Love to my American friends Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

When I built my garage/workshop 6 years ago my contractor buddy talked me into installing the tubing for radiant heat. I had to save up till the next winter to get the rest of the parts for the system. I am going on my 4th winter with radiant floor heat and still like it. No fan blowing dust around, no heat ducts to work around and once that slab is warm I can open the garage door at 40 below and with in minutes it is comfortable again. I did all the installation work myself. It was fairly simple. My garage is 28’x30’ and is set up with 3 zones through a manifold. As to the efficiency over a Modine or other forced air type heater I can’t speak but my heating bills are reasonable. I use wood for heat in the house to help offset those heating costs and because I always seem to have a fair amount of firewood coming my way. I doubt you will regret it if you make the investment.

Mart

I can’t tell you exactly the cost of the shop heat, but it’s not too bad. I have hot water heat in both the house and the shop. Two seperate boilers, the one for the house & another for the shop. Costs did not go up too much when I installed the shop boiler. Insulation is the key. The tech that came out to hook up the used (FREE!) boiler said it would cost me a fortune to run—-not so. The thing hardly runs. But the shop is tight. 12” fiberglass in the ceiling, 2” foam on a solid brick walls, insulated overhead and service doors & wood storms on the 2 windows. The shop is so tight I can feel the air preasure drop if someone opens the door.
when I need to spray I have a explosion proof blower that pulls the air out thru 2 12”ducts to the outside. I open the overhead door & set it down on a 2×4 scrap. the cold air slides across the floor & the temp stays @ 70 f. for several hours—-in 10 deg weather!

-- http://www.grandprairiewoodworks.com

For 1200 ft2 you would not even need a boiler…just a 50 gallon domestic water heater. A thermostat , expansion tank and a circulating pump (and PEX tubing of course) and couple small items like a check valve/pressure regulator on your fill line. I used to run my own plumbing/heating shop before I got bit by the wood bug and have installed 1000’s miles of the stuff…the only way to go IMO.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

I forgot to mention, I’m not a full time woodworker. I would probably only spend 10 hours a week out there in the winter time. Would you still do it?

-- http://rusty@midohio.twcbc.com

Concrete is one of the best thermal batteries. It retains the heat very well. Shop around. I bought 2000’ of pex tubing on Ebay for almost nothing. When running 1/2” pex you can only run loops of 400’, this might differ depending on the diameter of the tubing. So you will need a manifold to hook your main hot water line to your pex loops.

I ran the pex in our concrete driveway and it acts as an ice melt. After laying the rebar mesh I used 100’s of zip ties to lay out the pex loops and zip tie them in place to the mesh so they wouldn’t move while we poured the concrete.

For cost, alot depends on the fuel you are using. We burn wood in an outdoor boiler which feeds the house and driveway through heat exchangers. We burn a cord a week at $50 a cord. To heat just the house off of gas for the winter would be about $350-$400 a month.

If you plan to turn the system off for a period of time in the winter you will want to invest in using a glycol mix, a non-toxic antifreeze. If those lines freeze they will burst and then you will have a leaking concrete pad.

A friend of mine built a brand new house and ran radiant floor heat throughout, he loves it. It is considered one of the most efficient methods of heating. You could set the system to 50 while you are not out there, turn it up about 2 hours before planning to use the shop and it will be plenty warm. We were going to retrofit our house but the basement ceiling joists are segregated into about 6 areas, all running perpendicular to each other so it would have been a nightmare running the lines.

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

Next year when I redo the shop floor it will have radaint heat. Yes, even if you only spend a few hours a week out there I would do it. It heats up quick and holds the heat. The other thing that might help( does up here in the north) is 2” foam under the tubes. This helps aime the heat up into the concrete, not into the cold ground.

I would anticipate that you have many things in your shop you do not want to freeze. I would still recommend the radiant heat.

Mart

I’m sorry that last post may have been confusing. I wrote it in a hurry headed out the door. What I meant was even if you only spend 10 hours a week in the shop you most likely will have stuff you don’t want to freeze and will probably want to keep it heated all the time. The radiant heat will keep it a very constant temperature and works best when set a one temp and left alone. It takes quite a while for the slab to cool down and heat up but maintains it’s temperature quite well when left at one setting for the winter. My system runs on a natural gas water heater separate from my main hot water and is isolated by a back flow preventer to keep the floor water from co-mingling with the house water. I probably should put glycol in the tank but have not had any problems. If the power goes out for more than a couple days, I will open the door between the garage and family room and let the wood heater keep the garage above freezing.

Mart

dont hesatate it worth it i have it in my shop and run it off of an old water heater and a ciculation pump. pex is cheap and if your doing concreat you only get one chance to do it its worth every dime i spent my shop is the same size as yours and between the house and shop heat my gas bills last year were under 100 bucks if i remember right sorry if im wrong on that i dont pay the bills at home. but this is the most cost efective way to heat a shop i meen think about it you can heat it with a water heater, a boiler “which are very effichent”, or even a heat pump if you have the room. a plumber frend of mine talked me into doing mine i didnt belive him and installed a wood burning furnace at the same time the only time a run the furnace is to get rid of scraps and the blower on it never turns on.

-- I buy tools so i can make more money,so ican buy more tools so I can work more, to make more money, so I can buy more tool, so I can work more

I want to thank you for all your input. You have ALL talked me into getting it. I really wasn’t going to do it because of upfront cost and I don’t normally spend much time out in the shop due to lack of motivation in the winter. My wife mentioned that I may be more motivated if there were a warm shop to go to. So, I guess she is for it too. Thanks again to all who responded.

Rusty

-- http://rusty@midohio.twcbc.com