Heating System

I know it’s crazy to get excited about the heating system in a home, but I’m so happy with the one in our house I just have to share this with anyone who is interested in reading this blog and might be interested in our heating system.

Before we started building I knew we would install in floor radiant heat. Not because I knew all that much about it, but I knew it was considered to be a very comfortable heat. And, with a wife who always has cold feet the idea that she might actually go to bed without ice cubes attached to her legs was appealing to me.

What I found when doing research was that radiant heat is not only a comfortable heat but it is also very efficient. The other thing that really makes radiant heat work for our home is the thermal mass of the wood. Post and beam homes or for that matter all the homes that Pan Abode designs lend them selves to radiant heat for that very reason. Then when you consider that all the floors in our house are 2 5/8” thick that’s one heck of a lot thermal mass.

In the top photo note that Zach is laying the wood flooring over the Warmboard. Note the pex tubbing that is laid in the floor. If you are intrested here is the link to Warmboard's sight:http://www.warmboard.com/

In the crosssection photo note from bottom up the 3/4" plywood subfloor, then the 1 1/8" plywood Warmboard and then 3/4" of fir. The cross section for the tile floors is the same except the tile is 7/8" thick by the time backerboard and a a thermal expansion barrier called Detria is laid on top of the Warmboard.

The 3rd photo shows the heating with zone valves for 6 zones and 10 loops. The heat comes from a regular domestic hot water heater which circulates 130 to 14o degree water through a variable speed programmable mixing pump that delivers heated water to the radiant heat at a temperature of around 90 degrees. I say around because the pump can be programmed to deliver any temperature up to the heat of the heating source. I find that 90 degrees as about the right temperature to keep the floor toasty warm and the room temperature just right.

The 4th photos is the mechanical room which is located in the "Crawl Space" under the house. Note there are two hot water heaters; one for the heat and one for the domestic hot water.