Hydronic radiant floor heating (new home, transfer, living in)

[Fiddledidee]

My husband and I are considering a move to NH (maybe VT) and would likely have a home built to our specs. Energy efficiency + staying warm during winters is high on our list of requirements for our new home.

With that in mind, any thoughts or feedback from those of you who have either retrofitted an existing home or installed radiant floor heating in a new home? I am leaning towards a hydronic system.

Also, any other energy efficiency and/or heating suggestions you might have would be appreciated.

[bigbear99]

We have two areas heated by hot water radiant heat. The floors take a long time to warm up - hours, so they don't respond well to quick temp changes, but we generally have had no complaints.

[Fiddledidee]

Thanks for replying. If you don't mind my asking, what kind of system do you have - embedded in concrete/slab or panels?

[bigbear99]

embedded in something, probably slab, below ceramic tile.

[jdhpa]

Is there any information on long-term reliability when they're embedded in slab? I would be worried about cost of fixing leaks.

Thanks!

[bigbear99]

It came with the house, but I suspect it's at least 20 yrs old. It's plastic piping and plastic tubing, and no moving parts except for a standard circulating pump and zone valves, both of which are easy to replace, so I'd expect long life as long as the slab was properly done.

[Wells5]

I don't feel comfortable in an area with in-floor heating. You are heating surfaces not the air and it's also not an even heat. IMO, the best heating is with baseboard hot water radiators and the best fuel is natural gas. A nice even warmth.

[GregW]

My relatives have hydronic heat in their kitchen that, from my experience, does not seem to be either warm or efficient. If I were designing a new home for inland Northern New England I would have an oil fueled boiler for hot water and baseboard heat in the bedrooms and hydronic in the bathrooms. The living and dining spaces would be heated by wood stoves when they were being used. Air conditioning would be by a big whole house fan. There would also be a wood or coal fired cooking stove in the kitchen. if I were really indulging in the old time feeling there would also be a fireplace in the kitchen.


The house would be a pre fabricated post and beam wrapped in insulated panels for simplicity, cost of building and thermal efficiency. Note that providing each door with a small space between the outside door and a inner door to the living spaces is a real energy saver. The one into the kitchen would be a mud room/pantry and the front door would open into a coat space to hang guests goats and boots.


PS: A hydronic slab would be a great place to use solar heat from heat only collector panels.


You might consider looking for an in town old house with a good frame and deteriorating everything else. It might be worth stripping it to the frame and recovering with pre fab wall panels. In many places these old houses are very inexpensive.

[bigbear99]

Originally Posted by Wells5

I don't feel comfortable in an area with in-floor heating. You are heating surfaces not the air and it's also not an even heat. IMO, the best heating is with baseboard hot water radiators and the best fuel is natural gas. A nice even warmth.

In floor heating is far more even than baseboard. Consider that you have heat in the center of a room as well as the edges. Heating surfaces? What do you think baseboard does? It heats fins that contact the air and transfer heat. Think of a floor as one giant fin. Properly installed floor heating will be far more even than baseboard, not that I see a difference in my house, where I have both.

[WoodyWW]

Originally Posted by jdhpa

Is there any information on long-term reliability when they're embedded in slab? I would be worried about cost of fixing leaks.

Thanks!

re: the "cost of fixing leaks when they're embedded in slab": Well, then you couldn't see exactly where the leak is coming from. And have plumbers with jackhammers maybe come in to dig up the slab, & then if they find which part is leaking & repair it, pour new concrete.

And are you sure you want a house-on-a-slab in New england? Those are not popular, to say the least. And kind of an oddity. As is floor heating, at least thru-out.

I don't have time to get into the '50's house-on-a-slab with (leaking) floor heat I owned for years in Mass.......what a nightmare......even before it started leaking, living in a slab house was awful.