Radiant Floor Heating Manufacturer Recommnendation (subfloor, engineered, windows, tanks)

[cititravel]

Hi, I plan to install radiant floor heating in my house. Can someone recommend any good radiant floor heating manufacturers? I searched over and over but I could not figure out which manufacturer is reputable probably because there are too many... I plan to go with hydronic system. How is Uponor?

Thanks in advance!

[PNW-type-gal]

For hydronic radiant, you have three basic choices (if it's new construction, anyway) - PEX laid in a concrete base, Warmboard (a subfloor with grooves cut into it and an aluminum sheet bonded on top of the subfloor and down into the grooves, with PEX laid into the grooves) or the staple-up-from-below kind.

You need to decide which one you want (they all have advantages and disadvantages). Then you can decide which types of controller system.

I have a Warmboard system, run in part by solar thermal panels with a back-up electric boiler. The control board and manifold system are Uponor/Wiseboro.

[cititravel]

PNW-type-gal, Thank for responding! May I ask you what the advantages and disadvantages are? I am also researching it by myself but it would be wonderful, if you can also let me know. So far, I found Uponor, Roth, Warmly Yours, Warmboard, Rehau and Viega. Warmly Yours is out because their system is electric. I am still researching the rest but it is so complicated...

I plan to renovate a house and probably avoid electric operation due to the cost issue but solar thermal panel sound good. Is there any reason why you ended up using 2 different compnanies? (Maybe because Uponor does not manufacture both boiler and panel?)

[PNW-type-gal]

Uponor/Wiseboro made the most widely used set of manifolds and control boards, so that's why we used those parts. We use a Taco circulation pump and a Molitron Slant Fin electric boiler (at the recommendation of a company who puts in many radiant floors) and I don't even know the name of the company that makes the flow sensor, pressure bypass valve or overflow tanks.

The solar thermal panels ( two 4x8 flat panels) are Gobi from Heliodyne, who also makes the main control and pump unit (which had to be one of the brands the state accepts as certified systems for our $1,500 tax credit).

I'm pretty sure Uponor's entire system is a staple-up from underneath.

As far as why you would use one style or the other:

PEX in concrete - the big advantage is the thermal mass of the concrete, which helps hold heat well into the cold night. That's also the disadvantage, though, the relatively large thermal mass takes a long time to heat up or cool down and it's harder to adjust the temp during the day. Since concrete weighs a lot, you pay for it in engineering and extra joists. Likewise, any slabs have to be insulated (depending on your climate). If you are designing a passive solar house, concrete's probably the best choice, though, as the concrete mass makes a good sink for the sun's heat coming in through the windows. You most likely end up with concrete floors (and I have seen some very nice ones, as far as staining and patterns), although you can put tile over and use engineered floating floors with a vapor barrier.

(Because our house is 3 floors cantilevered on a hill, and because of the distance from the concrete plant, it was actually cheaper to use Warmboard, even with Warmboard's greater expense.)

Warmboard - more expensive than concrete, it's a subfloor and a radiant floor. Much less thermal mass than concrete, meaning you can heat it up relatively quickly and with lower water temps. We have the main living areas of the house on setback thermostats, and around 9:00pm the temp is set for 65, and then at 5:30am or so it bumps up to 70, warms the house. If it's a sunny day, either the solar thermal panels provide all the heat for the system, or just the sun coming in through the windows heats the room and the tiles and the radiant floor just shuts off. On a cold day, the boiler stays on. The lack of thermal mass, though, means that the floor doesn't hold the sun's heat after dark the way concrete would. For flooring choices, in our house we have tile, engineered wood plank and cork plank in the kitchen.

Staple-up - often used as an add-on, the PEX is stapled to the underside of the subfloor using conducting metal panels. The joist have to be really well insulated, or you just heat the crawlspace - the least efficient of the three, assuming all 3 styles are well-designed and installed. Like Warmboard, you have little thermal mass. The biggest advantages of this system are that it's easier to add on and in flooring materials - you can rip up whatever floor you have over the subfloor and know you aren't going to damage the PEX. (You have to be very careful with a Warmboard or concrete floor.)

I will say that while I love my radiant floors, you really pay for having them - it was probably $7,000-$8,000 more to have radiant than a good quality HVAC system. The funny thing about radiant floors is that your feet are and are not sensitive - you can't really tell the difference between a 60 degree floor and a 68 degree floor (they are both just cold), but at 70 degrees, the floors are warm.

I don't know if you are die-hard DIYers like we are, but if you aren't, call around in your area and find out what installers are available, how long they've been doing it (critical) and what they recommend. Whoever puts in the floor really needs to have done it before.

[cititravel]

I appreciate you very much for your explanation in detail. I feel that I can never find such a valuable summary of radiant heating system like yours anywhere else. Thanks again and happy holidays!

[akck]

I've look into these companies:

Radiant heat, do-it-yourself energy efficient heating

Radiant Heat - PEX Tubing for Radiant Floor Heaiting. Safelink, HousePex, Wirsbo Tube. Electric Radiant Heat Mats and more

Radiant Floor Heating, Do It Yourself Heating System | Pexheat

A couple of the sites have good info for DIY installations. I did buy materials from a couple of them, but beyond that I have no recommendation.

[CarterSwing]

Thanks for the new recommendations that are quite helpful in future to me.