Radiant-floor heating can be installed for about the same cost as forced air - but it leaves behind the dust and dry air, not to mention unwieldy furnace ducts.

Simple Pex Tubing Installation

• Stapling it to the underside of the floor with or without distribution shields.
• Attaching it to the top of the floor and then pouring concrete over it. A special light-weight concrete is recommended for this use.
• There are several floor systems that will allow the Pex to pop right into grooves of the floor, allowing you to place your floor covering right over it.
• For joist-supported floor, we suggest two runs between each joist, drilling a hole at one end for it to pass into the next cavity.
• For standard floor covering, the placing of the Pex tubing can be about 2" in from each joist, with the tubing tacked directly to the underside of the floor.
• If you have a large section of fine, thin tile or solid wood floors, either suspend the tubing an inch or so beneath the subfloor or attach it to the side of the joist (or TGI).
• This method heats the air under the floor so that there are no hot runs that expand and contract and damage the floor after a number of years.
• Once the tubing is installed, always insulate the joist cavities.
• Never let the insulation touch the tubing. There should always be a few inches of air space at the top where the tubing is placed. This will keep all the heat focused on the floor above it.
• For a concrete floor and 12 inch spacing:
  Simply figure the square footage of the area you want to heat; that is the amount of tubing that you will need.
  

Example:
30x100=3,000=3,000 feet of tubing

• For the underside of a wood joist supported floor, add 30% to come up with the right amount of Pex you will need. Usually the floor joist are on 16" centers. You would then place two runs of 1/2" Pex between each floor joist (about 8" spacing).
• If you're pouring concrete on the top of the floor, follow the same rules as you would pouring a basement concrete floor.

Floor Built For Pex

This is often a pre-grooved board that is much like a standard 4'x8' sheet you would normally place on top of the floor joist. This product can save money in new construction because it replaces the standard flooring and sub floor. for more information on this product. See Our catalog under Warm Board.

Rules:
1. Each loop should not be longer than 300 feet. The optimum length is 200 to 250 feet. Any further is pretty well useless because all the heat is expended at about 300 feet.

2. Use two loops to each pump, totaling no more than 500 feet. You could make this its own zone. Be very careful in making turns with Pex. Keep turns gentle so the Pex is not kinked. If you get a kink simply heat it with a heat gun and its memory will repair the crease.

3. We use only low voltage DC pumps that can be operated directly from a wall thermostat. You can use one thermostat to each pump. This can be one separately controlled heating zone. Or, if there are multiple pumps, you can tie them all into one thermostat to make the area they cover all one zone.

For example, let’s use a 1000-square-foot concrete floor:
That would require 1,000 feet of 1/2" Pex tubing
That would give you 4 250-foot loops
4 250-foot loops would require 2 pumps and could be operated on one or two thermostats.

Tubing comes in rolls of 100, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 feet. In this example, 1,000 would be the appropriate purchase amount. Always purchase a little extra if you can. Pex tubing can also be used for your domestic water plumbing. If all the components used are free from any cast iron, then the higher cost of Pex tubing containing the oxygen barrier is not needed.

Components of a Typical System

• 1,000 feet of 1/2" Pex tubing
• 2 El- Sid 10- watt pumps
• 2 AC/DC power supplies for the pumps
• 2 zone thermostats
• Manifold assembly

We can custom make your manifolds for your home. Then all you need to do is take them out of the box and hang them on the wall.
Email us for more information

Heat Storage/Domestic Hot Water (tank)

If solar is a consideration for your job, you'll need a storage tank. This can also take the place of your hot water heater. The content of this tank is your domestic hot water. This tank can come with up to three internal heat exchangers. The top heat exchanger would supply the radiant floor heating system. The bottom heat exchanger generally feeds the tank heat from the sun. If the boiler you choose has cast iron in it, then the third heat exchanger is necessary to isolate it in its own closed loop. A commonly used tank size is 120 gallons. (See diagram below; click image to enlarge).

You could have 1 to 3 closed loops systems. Each heat exchanger would support its own loop.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Heat Production (boiler, sun etc.)

Propane or natural gas hot water boiler:
These units can be as small as an average suitcase and can be as high as 96% efficient.

Wood/coal fired boiler:
This can be located inside or out. We suggest the Harmon SF-series Dual Fuel Boiler This boiler is very small and efficient and will heat a 2,200- to 5,000- square-foot home very nicely. The Harmon is so efficient that it will produce the same heat as those huge mammoth outdoor models at half the price and space. We recommend placing it in the garage or other easily accessible utility room

Natural heat produced by the sun can be captured with high quality solar panels:
We suggest Thermomax because of its trouble-free design and fantastic performance. This form of heat won’t send you a bill every month. Solar panels such as these can be a large investment, but you can start out with a small system and add onto it as you see fit.