Radiant Floor Heat Not Keeping Up (flooring, fireplace, furnace, air conditioning)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The house we live in is 5 years old and the radiant floor heat is such a headache. We weren't the orignal builders as we just moved in 2 years ago but I already dread winters here. It's zoned in 5 areas. And the Northeast corner bedroom never keeps up. We live in South Dakota so it gets really cold here. -10 today and that room will drop to the 50s. That room and the other spare bedroom on the Northwest side are both carpeted. I imagine that is the issue. What I can't imagine is why the heck the builders would allow the owners to lay carpet if it causes the heat to be ineffective?
Our living room had difficulty keeping up today too. That's stone tiled with a large area rug. Is that the issue there? The living room is much more insulated as the center focus of the house and I haven't noticed issues here before. But I was disappointed to see 66 degrees on the thermostat for the living room today.
I'm tempted to put in a forced air furnace b/c the annoyance of radiant floor heat never keeping up is making me crazy.
Anybody relate? Any tips? Suggestions? I feel bad wasting such expensive work but a 5 year old house should not be having this many heating issues, right?
If your radiant floor heat is electric, it was never designed to be the sole provider of heat in your climate. It will never keep up. I'd strongly suggest having the place evaluated by a good local HVAC company to see what they can do for you.
Personally, I'd install a pellet stove in an appropriate location
In-floor radiant can only pump so much heat into a room, unsurprising that it can't keep up when it's -10F outside!
Is it just resistive electric or do you have water loops in the floor? If the latter, what is the heat source type and BTU output rating?
Quote:
Originally Posted by amydaws
Our living room had difficulty keeping up today too. That's stone tiled with a large area rug. Is that the issue there? The living room is much more insulated as the center focus of the house and I haven't noticed issues here before. But I was disappointed to see 66 degrees on the thermostat for the living room today.
Yes, a large area rug can act as an insulator, keeping heat from making it into the room. I've seen houses where the owners had to install an additional radiant zone on the master bedroom wall because they didn't want to give up their shag carpeting.
If you have gas/propane, I'd look into adding a low-profile direct vent wall furnace (or a decorative and functional direct-vent fireplace) to the room(s) with the most heating problems.
Radiant floor heat was never intended to be used in extreme climates, like where you're located. A lot of builders these days seem to be installing it everywhere and anywhere, because it's been a fad for awhile, and the short-cuts for installation that have been developed make it a cheap source of heat, but it's not adequate for harsh winters. You'll have to add another heat source; maybe small wall heaters, or if you have a basement or crawl space, you might be able to add central heating (at significant expense, granted), and forego the radiant heat.
The builders cheap-skated you. You might consider lobbying City Hall or the State to create a building code that prevents radiant floor systems from being installed in the state.
There are water loops in the floor. Unsure of the heat source type and BTU, will have to look that up. The living room does have a gas fireplace, thankfully. That Northeast bedroom doesn't though. I suppose we should just consider ripping the flooring out. Just a really big hassle for something that should have been known prior to them laying it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nonesuch
In-floor radiant can only pump so much heat into a room, unsurprising that it can't keep up when it's -10F outside!
Is it just resistive electric or do you have water loops in the floor? If the latter, what is the heat source type and BTU output rating?
Yes, a large area rug can act as an insulator, keeping heat from making it into the room. I've seen houses where the owners had to install an additional radiant zone on the master bedroom wall because they didn't want to give up their shag carpeting.
If you have gas/propane, I'd look into adding a low-profile direct vent wall furnace (or a decorative and functional direct-vent fireplace) to the room(s) with the most heating problems.
I need to find a good, HVAC company. We had one come out when we were having issues after just moving in and the guy started talking about ripping up the tile flooring. Then we got a hold of the guy that installed it and he seemed to really know what he was talking about and the issue was a 5 minute fix. He just rarely has time to get out to see us whenever we have issues (which is a lot).
My biggest complaint is this seems like a fussy system. We have to add water to the boiler occasionally. The other day a valve was stuck so one of our rooms was getting cooked out. Thankfully the installer gave me a couple ideas via text and I figured it out. But jeez, this is not a system for a pedestrian like me to maintain! I'm not qualified.
And it's not electric.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperL
If your radiant floor heat is electric, it was never designed to be the sole provider of heat in your climate. It will never keep up. I'd strongly suggest having the place evaluated by a good local HVAC company to see what they can do for you.
That's good to know. It's extremely frustrating and unsafe to have to run several space heaters throughout the house. I'd love to help someone else not have to deal with this.
It's a slab on grade home so no crawl space but I do wonder what the cost would be to get forced air heat routed along with the air conditioning system that runs in the ceiling.
It's a beautiful home but this is ridiculous. It's not too much to ask to have working heat!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
Radiant floor heat was never intended to be used in extreme climates, like where you're located. A lot of builders these days seem to be installing it everywhere and anywhere, because it's been a fad for awhile, and the short-cuts for installation that have been developed make it a cheap source of heat, but it's not adequate for harsh winters. You'll have to add another heat source; maybe small wall heaters, or if you have a basement or crawl space, you might be able to add central heating (at significant expense, granted), and forego the radiant heat.
The builders cheap-skated you. You might consider lobbying City Hall or the State to create a building code that prevents radiant floor systems from being installed in the state.
And of course we bought the house in March...mildly cold weather. The inspector used a heat sensitive camera to check that all the hoses were working but that wouldn't determine if they could keep up or not. The people who built the house wintered in Arizona...now I know why!
In-floor radiant can only pump so much heat into a room, unsurprising that it can't keep up when it's -10F outside!
Is it just resistive electric or do you have water loops in the floor? If the latter, what is the heat source type and BTU output rating?
Yes, a large area rug can act as an insulator, keeping heat from making it into the room. I've seen houses where the owners had to install an additional radiant zone on the master bedroom wall because they didn't want to give up their shag carpeting.
If you have gas/propane, I'd look into adding a low-profile direct vent wall furnace (or a decorative and functional direct-vent fireplace) to the room(s) with the most heating problems.
Carpet or concrete have for all practical purpose identical abilities to emit radiant energy and so the only difference floor coverings have on the design is in the tube spacing and fluid temperature.
Maybe its the flow rate and head temperature.
Maybe zoning
Maybe it was just done wrong
That said you need a HVAC specializing in floor heating to evaluate the system.
Using ir viewer they can determine the size spacing and btu's per foot of your system.
Then tune your system and/or make recommendations for supplemental heating per room.
It's hard to imagine any house being built without forced air heating, it's not like it's THAT much of an expense if you're already putting in central a/c anyways. I've always considered radiant heating to be used to make the floors comfortable to walk on, not really to heat the whole house.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Personally, I'd install a pellet stove in an appropriate location
