infloor heat for basements

[cattailbandit]

I am building a new house in the spring and thinking about infloor heat in the basement. I have been looking online and found some usefull info. Looking for any feedback from people that have dealt with it. Thinking about the water heater setup. Read a lot of complaints about the Polaris water heater. thanks.

[thumbgoodfisherman]

cattailbandit, I put it in my 800sqft addition and love it. It was done with my waterheater so far so good. The waterheater is a Lochinvar 50 gallon with a heat exchanger coil. If you plan on finishing your basement it is a great investment.:)

[snowman11]

Is there any study on the longterms of these systems? I've always been interested, but leary of the expansion and contraction that is to be expected any time you are heating concrete. I'd be afraid of cracks.

I can't imagine them still being installed if this was the case, I'm just curious if anybody knew of any studies or anything.

[tedshunter]

My Brother does that for a living,if you need someone to install it for you let me know.He lives in Traverse City,not sure where you are planning on building this house.

[Duckman1]

cattailbandit,

If you a building new have you ever thought about water heat for the whole house. This requires a dedicated boiler. If you have any kind of allergies this is a good way top go. No dust from a furnace. Very efficient heat source IMO. If you heat the basement the heat will travel up through the house also.



snowman11,

The basement concrete floor is right around 52* all year due to the depth it is in the ground. The heat that a concrete floor receives is no more than a driveway with the hot summer sun beating down on it. Cold and heat don't have an effect on concrete that is that great. Hydrostatic pressure and the ground moving is what will tear up concrete.

[hawkeyeridgeoutfitters]

Munchkin boilers are the way to go. They make a 50 series that is very efficient. Its expensive to install but will save money and headaches. The hot water heaters will only last so long and cost alot more to run. Concrete generates its own heat to cure. Additional heat of these temps will not hurt it at all.Also, concrete shrinks and cracks. And will not hurt any future plans for your basement improvements.Most cracks are hidden by control joints that your contractor can put in for you. We just did our whole house with a munchkin and laid all the pipes for the heat ourselves.(5400sq ft.) We found Mich supply out of Lansing to be the cheapest for the parts.If you are thinking of putting it in and dont you will regert it later.

[KS up north]

I had mine installed sept 05 and use domestic water heater tied to the heat exchanger. we had to have two 50 gallon heaters installed to make sure we dont tax the system too much. The themostat is about 4 feet from the floor and if set at 68 degrees the floor will run about 75 or so due to the heat being absorbed by the air. Feet stay toasty warm:D.
I was going to run the whole house on in-floor but wanted central air and needed the ductwork so the mainfloor is forced air, since the ductwork was getting installed anyway.
FYI: Check into http://www.icynene.com it is some awsome stuff as far as insulation goes.

Best of luck.

[stevevdw]

Take a look at www.heatinghelp.com . This is a pro site but it would be helpful answering your questions. It is devoted exclusively to wet heat & some of the best guys in the country post there IMHO. You can even get a local contractor referral off the site. If you are building new I would seriously consider 100% radient heat & a seperate ac system. The comfort & savings are worth every penny. I tore out my scorched air system & put in radient & my heating bills dropped in half. Granted the old furnace was 20 years old but what a difference in comfort. I would recommend a mod/con boiler such as the Lochinvar Knight or a Munchkin. The Knight was recently certified 95+% AFUE efficient & qualifies for a $125 tax credit. I'm not a fan of water heaters as they are not designed for space heating & will not provide the service life or efficiency of a radient boiler. Others are free to disagree but do your own research & decide for yourself. Mainly you need to get a heat loss calculation worked up & then you will know how many BTU's you need to heat the space. Good luck