Author Topic: Latest Project (Read 2341 times)

280plus · « **on:** May 06, 2006, 02:22:09 PM »

Heres a few pics of what I've been up to. That's an 8000 sq ft house with a 3 car garage attached. The second 2 tube pics are the basement and the last is the garage. All radiant tube. Total of 3600 feet of tube. So far! So if you haven't seen me at the range lately now you know WHY!

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #1 on:** May 06, 2006, 02:55:38 PM »

Is that an HVAC system?

280plus · « **Reply #2 on:** May 06, 2006, 04:04:14 PM »

It COULD be both heating and cooling with certain mods but this tube is strictly for heat. I'll be heating the water with these new fangled heat pumps I posted about a while back.

(Wrong link posted, scroll down for the right one.)

280plus · « **Reply #3 on:** May 06, 2006, 04:07:13 PM »

By the time I'm done I should have WELL over a mile of tube in there. shocked

280plus · « **Reply #4 on:** May 07, 2006, 02:46:14 AM »

Corrected link:

http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/viewtopic.php?id=2711

Leatherneck · « **Reply #5 on:** May 07, 2006, 03:17:50 AM »

Big job, eh? Is that your house or are you installing for someone else?

re: heating and COOLING. I understand that cooling through the floor is not too good. You don't get the dehumidifying effect of a heat exchanger, and the cool floors attract condensate, leaving you with cool wet floors. Better to get your heat through the tubes and install a regular forced-air cooling system, I think.

TC

280plus · « **Reply #6 on:** May 07, 2006, 05:04:04 AM »

That's somebody else's house. I'd never live in a house that big, too much to dust and vacuum. (The mortgage payments would probably be a little rough for me too) Tongue

You're right about cooling with the floors but the secret is to dehumidify as well. In Europe they are actually tubing the walls AND ceilings for cooling. You need a lot more tube in a space to cool than you do to heat so they put the extra tube in those places plus in the floors to make up for it. It's really an exciting project for me because I'll be the first contractor in the state to heat a structure using these new heat pumps. It could quite possibly end up featured in some of the trade magazines. It should be a remarkably efficient HVAC system but, of course, only time will tell.

zahc · « **Reply #7 on:** May 07, 2006, 06:41:08 AM »

My parents have radiant floor heat in their log house; it's the most amazing thing ever. No noise, no dust flying around, warm floors so you can walk around in your socks. No hotspots in the house at all it's just warm.

280plus · « **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:06:29 AM »

This is kind of a hybrid. I'm heating the basement and garage with the floors. There is now concrete covering all my pretty tubes which will act as a giant heat sink. For the rest of the house I am doing floor WARMING only and only under the tiled areas. The house itself will be heated and cooled by forced air that will be warmed or chilled by water from the fancy heat pumps. The object is if you heat the basement floor and don't insulate the floor above it, the space above will not require any additional heat until ~ 30*F outdoor temp. On a 45* day, for example, I will only need to heat the water in the floors to about 85*. This is where the efficiency comes from.

280plus · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:07:54 AM »

BTW, the GEO - thermal company wanted to drill SEVEN wells to heat this house and were $35,000 higher than my bid.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:20:11 AM »

I just want to say that is soooo cool. Because I like to design/build stuff, I could really get into that sort of work.

Chris

280plus · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:24:51 AM »

Thanks, I'm looking for help! Wink

I tried to enlist recent HS grad son #2 but he lasted ~2 weeks and decided work just wasn't in his immediate future. Kids rolleyes

LOL...

280plus · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:30:06 AM »

There's approximately 120 hours in that basement floor alone. The white stuff under the tube is insulation then you see the wire mesh which is 5' x 10" sheets and the tube is lockwired to the mesh EVERY 3 SQUARES! I joke with the homeowners that once the concrete is poured, if the Earth were to explode they'd find that floor floating in space still in one piece, and it might actually be TRUE!!

(The garage went much faster, no lollies to navigate around etc...)

K Frame · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2006, 05:48:31 AM »

"The house itself will be heated and cooled by forced air that will be warmed or chilled by water from the fancy heat pumps."

Yak. That I don't understand.

Were that my place the entire house would be heated with radiant heat, with each room its own independently controllable loop.

AC would be a high velocity system...

280plus · « **Reply #14 on:** May 08, 2006, 11:10:05 AM »

It's a cost cutting measure. I HAVE to put in fan coils / air handlers and ductwork anyhow to cool. Why add an entire second system to heat when I can use what I've got and supplement it with the radiant? Putting heat under carpet (high R factor) and hardwood (warping and splitting problems) rubs me the wrong way. I won't do it. High velocity is VERY nice but costs a lot more than conventional air moving systems. Believe me, I've looked into it.

Wink

280plus · « **Reply #15 on:** May 08, 2006, 11:17:53 AM »

BTW high velocity is a VERY good way to heat as well as cool. The air moves through the coils at a much lower velocity than conventional thereby picking up more heat / cool and removing more moisture and dust. I would LOVE to sell high velocity but once again the cost is prohibitive.

K Frame · « **Reply #16 on:** May 08, 2006, 11:25:52 AM »

A cost cutting measure on an 8K square foot house?

You know, there are priorities, then there are STUPID priorities. To my way of thinking, installing what amounts to a belt & suspenders approach... well, you know where I'm going.

Yep, I know that air handlers and ducts have to go in to do the cooling, but let's face it, a unified system isn't exactly the best way to do it, either, given the different natures/requirements of heating vs. cooling. For example, heated air is best released at floor level, while cooled air is best released from ceiling level, but you rarely see houses with the dual ductwork to do that. Why? Cost cutting measure.

I've been in several homes with radiant heat and hardwood floors, and there's been no warping/splitting. Maintaining proper humidity levels year round and not "shocking" the floor is crucial, though.

Finally, there's blowing air to heat a home in general, which I despise. I'll never own a home with forced hot air again if I can help it.

...has left the building. · « **Reply #17 on:** May 08, 2006, 12:31:33 PM »

Quote from: Mike Irwin

A cost cutting measure on an 8K square foot house?

Even the Palace of Versailles had cost-cutting measures of one way or another. Even framing the house out of wood is cost-cutting when compared to framing it from steel.

280plus · « **Reply #18 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:22:28 PM »

Forced air also allows you to humidify in the winter. As far as hardwood, yup, as long as mr homeowner keeps his humidity right and the floorboards are at the right moisture content on start up, it'll work. Will I be able to guarantee mr homeowner won't neglect his humidification system in the future and cause problems that will come back to haunt me later? Nope, so no thanks. I knocked ~ $20,000 off the price doing it this way. There's another consideration here. LANDING the job. Very important. I'm not the only one doing it this way either, it's becoming recognized as a good compromise between cost, comfort and efficiency. Oh, forced air heated by water is MUCH more comfortable than the usual "scorched" air heated by a furnace. It's VERY comfortable.

News:

Author Topic: Latest Project (Read 2341 times)

...has left the building.