Radiant Floor Heat
We are thinking about radiant floor heat in our brownstone (call it a little compensation for finding out how much structural work we had to do, and how much floor and joist was eaten by termites…) We found a product called Easy Floor that looks a little like Legos, and makes installation very easy. And…
We are thinking about radiant floor heat in our brownstone (call it a little compensation for finding out how much structural work we had to do, and how much floor and joist was eaten by termites…)
We found a product called Easy Floor that looks a little like Legos, and makes installation very easy. And we figure that we are going to save like 1/2 on our heating bills over the cheap-ass hot water radiators this dump came with… but we are relatively ignorant.
Anyone have radiant floors? Any brownstone-specific problems I don’t understand? I ask because I’m from the desert, and it is the thing to do when rehabbing an old adobe house, and I wonder how much heat a slab of wonderboard retains in comparison to a whole concrete slab, and how efficient a brick house is compared to an adobe house…
Yeah, OP here. Definitely not running elec through my whole house…
And steam heat is not free. Landlord pays. I = landlord. It’s not free for me.
I am looking at this as a cost-effective way to heat tenant, too. Does this make sense samandjoeshow?
Oh, sorry, I thought I had posted my email.
samandjoeshow@earthlink.net
BTW, this is hot water running through pex tubing,w not electric radiant heat which is a nice luxury item, but is generally not intended to heat a house. Hot water radiant heat, on the other hand offers more than enough to heat to replace your traditional heating system, and it does so more efficiently.
This will be most effective where you have stone or tile, not so effective where you have wood and carpet. I wouldn’t waste the money doing your whole floor. That’s alot of work and you’re not going to feel it so much. It costs electricity to run those things, so you will not be saving much money, considering steam heat in New York City is free.
OP here.
Anon 8:49… what’s yer email address? I’d love to discuss flooring.
Basically, what I’m looking at is three floors of a brownstone. Kitchens and bathrooms will be Easy Floor + Wonderboard + tile. Living areas will be wood subfloor + easyfloor+wonderboard + OSB + wood.
We will be insulating the joists underneath. I am wondering if this is sufficient thermal mass, and how much, if anything, I will save on heating.
I have had radiant heat flooring for about a year now. I did some research before I layed it down and would be happy to share my experience. I have partss where it is layed under tile and wonderboard, other parts i have wood flooring and in the bathrooms it is layed in a bed of concrete so I have a pretty good idea of the efficiency of each surface. The bed of concrete (the highest thermal mass) definitely retains the heat the longest but also takes the longest to warm up. Email me if you want more info.
Hi — We just installed radiant heating in our bathroom floor, underneath slate. It works pretty well but I am surprised how long it takes to get the floor warm. Make sure you get the kind with a timer so that you can set it to go off before you wake up in the morning.