Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Heated Wall

Today I finished tiling the mud room’s heated wall. Here in Southeast Alaska one frequently comes in from outside with a wet coat. Since Connie rides her bike to work most days and home again for lunch that means she is out in the rain about 30 minutes each day. So she not only has wet rain gear but a wet backpack. So, I figured a heated wall that is hooked to the radiant heat source would be a good idea.

What wasn’t a good idea was that I originally had just a layer of sheetrock over the PEX tubing that delivers the heated water to the wall. Well I can now tell you that sheetrock is a very poor thermal transmitter and that the thermal conductivity of ceramic tile is much better by a factor of several times. So, the tile will now transmit the heat to the coats and wet gear to more efficiently dry them. The added bonus is just before you go outside you put on a nice warm coat.

I had never seen a heated wall before I built this one into our home, but I have to say I got the idea from heated towel racks that are common in many European hotels. I can now say that I highly recommend radiant heated floors and why not heat at least one wall in a mud room?


I only hung one coat on the wall so that you could see the tile. The wall is only 3 feet wide and the tiling is 4 feet high. That is big enough to do the job. The water that run through the PEX in this wall and in the floor is heated to around 90 degrees.

3 comments:

Lady Di Tn said...

That Sir is a grand idea. I think the idea would be a selling point to most houses in such climates. Heck I would not mind on here where our coat closet resides. A nice warm jacket would make going out in the rain and cold start with something cozy and pleasant.
SMART MAN
PEACE

Yehudi said...

Brilliant idea! We could use that here in Oregon!

Mary said...

Marcel,

What a wonderful idea and next year we are hoping to expand our porch to make a mud room. I will keep this in mind. I could have used it this morning when I had to walk Meeko. A nice warm coat would have helped as he pulled me through the snow.

Meeko doesn't usually pull on the lead, but this morning, with over a foot of snow on the ground, his natural instincts kicked in and he pulled me up the hill. I let him because the going was tough. I have photos on my Writing Nook blog.

Take care, my friend and thanks so much for this idea.

Blessings,
Mary