[Shop-talk] Radiant heat for garage

[Jim Stone]

Thanks, Eric.  That is exactly the kind of firsthand experience I was hoping to tap into here.  Our emails crossed in the ether, so a couple of comments:

First and foremost, I am very jealous of your garage!  650 sq ft is the best I can do on our lot, at least if I want to keep my wife.  Fortunately, some of the second floor will be garage storage and our house does currently have a one car garage under it, which will be retained.

The house has forced air heat, so tying the two systems together isn’t an option for us.  I wish it was.  My understanding is that there are now some very small, very efficient heaters available for radiant systems.  I have just started researching those, so it would be great to know if anyone has any experience with those.

Your comment about the bubble wrap insulation under the slab is one of the important things I was looking to learn more about.  My research to date has been very mixed about the relative merits of the bubble insulation vs. rigid foam.  It is good to know you are happy with what you used.  What did you do about permitter insulation on the slab?  There seems to be two schools of thought on that, too.  Some put rigid foam between the footers and the slab, so it is essentially a floating slab.  Others put the insulation around the outside perimeter.

How accurate is the IR camera?  Can you actually see the outline of the pipes?  They are pretty pricey; do you know if the ones that attach to smart phones will also do the trick?

That’s all I can think of at the moment, but I really appreciate the advice.

Jim


> On Mar 16, 2016, at 8:13 AM, eric at megageek.com wrote:
> 
> Ok, I might be in the minority here, but I can't say enough good about radiant floor heat. 
> 
> First, if you are near NJ, there is a plumbing company that I worked with "George's Plumbing" that were on the cutting edge of RF heat. 
> 
> My installation- 2600 sq ft detached garage (Not a typo), in North West New Jersey.  New construction, Lester building (wood frame, steel skin.)  Blown cellulose ceiling insulation, blown ploy insulation on the walls.  6' 4500psi concrete floor. 
> 
> Instead of putting in a new furnace, I added a zone to my home oil furnace for the garage and buried the insulated lines. No additional heating source in the garage, nor any heating equipment on the floor in there either.  Only a wall mounted controller board that feeds the tubes in the floor.  Tekmak controller. 
> 
> I keep it 55 degrees all the time.  I find this is the perfect temperature, as once I start working in the garage, its nice and cool. 
> 
> Since installing the floor (13 years ago), there has not been a noticeable increase in oil consumption (I notified my oil company to modify 'degree days' for my auto delivery, but they never had to change the use rate.) 
> 
> Some of the major things that worked awesome for me.  There is a new (then) installation that gets put on the ground before you pour.  It looks like bubble wrap that is made from mylar, awesome stuff!  I also went with Pex tubing, easy and cheap to work with. 
> 
> As for laying the pipes, you want to use the little 'chairs' to hold them off the bottom of the ground, and you want the pipes much tighter near the edges of the building and there can be lots of space between them in the middle of the building. 
> 
> Once you lay the pipe (and before the pour) take photos and measurement of the layout.  This way if you need to break the floor for something, you know where the pipes are.*  I knew I was installing a lift, so I left the area for the posts open. 
> 
> The TekMak  controller has about 5 sensors to determine the optimal heating.  It can also circulate the water in the floor without going back to the boiler to evenly heat the floor and not draw more energy. 
> 
> In the end, the system has been FLAWLESS.  I would NOT change a thing (except make the garage 3X as big!)  8>) 
> 
> Here are a few pics of the layout, and the controler board. 
> http://tinyurl.com/radiantgarageheat <http://tinyurl.com/radiantgarageheat> 
> 
> *=since then, I've bought a IR camera and I can use that to find any pipe if needed. 
> 
> Please feel free to ask me any other questions and I'll help you out if I can. 
> 
> Sent from my Commodore 64 on a 2400 Baud Modem.
> Eric P
> "Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory." Ralph Waldo Emerson

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