Heated Concrete Floor Pipe

Radiant heating system design or installation mistakes that must be avoided.

Heated concrete floor pipe.

Thousands of tract homes built at levittown on long island and in the san francisco bay area during the 1950s also used a system that circulated. Radiant heat is growing in popularity and is now the preferred heating system in new homes. Once you have determined the actual combined length of pipe you will need the next step is to determine the number of loops or circuits of pipe. As the floor becomes warm the room is heated evenly and efficiently.

Again the concrete codes define the limitations of pipe spacing pipe diameter and placement depth it ll be a rare radiant designer that owns a copy of the concrete codes yet the concrete codes will take precedent over the heating design due to structural safety concerns. We offer the best pex and pert tubing for our hydronic systems available in a variety of sizes ranging from 3 8 to 1. How does radiant heat work. This article explains how to avoid some fatal mistakes when installing radiant heat in a concrete floor slab by describing an incompetent radiant heat floor installation along with an explanation of why things went wrong and how to avoid these errors.

Instead of blowing hot air through a vent or pumping hot water to a baseboard radiator along the wall radiant heat warms up the entire floor. Either through pipes carrying hot water embedded in or directly below the floor or via electric mats in or below the floor. The workers in the photograph at page top where our concrete slab. Basic materials for radiant floor heat installation in a slab.

The heat is made possible in two ways. Tubing is an essential part of every hydronic radiant heating system. Pex tubing is installed beneath the floor and heats the home from the ground up. Radiant heat provides more comfort throughout the home than standard baseboard heat.

With tubing a circuit length of 300 is standard but circuits anywhere from 250 up to 350 are within the range recommended by the radiant panel association. There s two basic types of concrete floor heating hydronic and electric. Like veins it transports warm fluid and the heat output throughout your floors turning them into comfortable warm surfaces. In the 1930s architect frank lloyd wright piped hot water through the concrete floors of many of his structures.

Remember since you will only have 1 chance to pour the concrete slab you will only have 1 chance to put the pex tubing in it. Due to it s density and low conductivity concrete retains heat very well.