In Floor Heating

Mike
You might look into a hanging hot water forced air heater with an instant heat boiler(they are so efficient you can vent through PVC pipe) or if you already have a hot water heater it can be used. This would cost a little more but the difference in comfort of the heat is amazing.

I've decided against it. I got a estimate from the place Jim suggested, who I was already talking to. There price complete,was 10,000 dollars, with me doing the installation. I can buy a hanging gas heater for under 1,000 dollars. I can buy alot of gas for 9,000 dollars.
CORDially Mike

Thanks for the input. I am having trouble convincing myself because the area I'm building is for car storage and will only be heated to 50 degrees. I'm concerned at that temp. how long it will take to recoup the cost.
CORDially Mike

Hi Mike,

I put the radiant heat in the floor of my garage. I haven't turned it on yet so I can't comment on it's use. I used a company in Vermont called Radiantec ( www.radiantec.com ) you might want to check out. There is a lot of good information on their website.

They did all the design work for the system and supplied all the material except the heater. The workmanship on the pieces they supplied were very good and they were excellent to deal with. They also have some tips on the installation.

My garage is 30'X60'. When I installed the floor I only insulated the outside perimeter under the floor. The outside 4' I used 2" of styrofoam insulation and the next 4' I used 1" of insulation, leaving the center area uninsulated under the concreate. This allows the ground to be used as a heat sink. From all the information I could find the heat loss through the floor is only the outside 4' of the floor.

Have Fun,
Jim

A friend put heat in the floor of his transmission shop twenty years ago and has bragged ever since. My brother recently built a 30x30 garage and I tried talking him into floor heat instead of forced air heat. he ended up going with forced air and a year later wishes he would have listened. Another side benefit of NOT having forced air is the dust blowing around issue.

Had a couple of further thoughts to add.
If you are in a low ambient humidity area, i.e. desert etc. the same system can be used to cool your shop, by simply running unheated water through the system, in Ohio, Michigan, this would result in to much condensation so it is impractical.
Also, Mike if you are adding to a existing shop, the water heater or boiler could be used to provide heat to the old area by retrofiting a hot water forced air furnace, or hanging heater, the benefit being you get a moist comfortable heat rather than dry, and most people use a lower thermostat setting because it is so much more comfortable.

Mike

I put a 3200 sq. ft. addition on my house (see whats next to your acd car posted april 06 under general discussion) and went with in floor heat, the results as far as comfort are fantastic! The heat stays down at ground level, important when you have high ceilings, and the garage is always very, very comfortable to work in, especially if you have to get on the floor.
The addition also added about 2000 sq. ft. of interior space, so I went with a high efficiency boiler that also provides heat and hot water for that area. We also used the expensive pex tubing for the in floor, with several loops to provide options as to what area you heat to what temp.
As far as your Question, there are less expensive alternatives to the pex tubing on the market, and I always thought that in the right demand situation you could use one of the new super effcient on demand water heaters, that only uses energy to heat the water when you need it. My boiler although it is very, very, efficient is always working to provide potable hot water on demand, and is heating the inside adittion as well.
Hope this helps, my feeling is that as always, sometimes you have to spend money up front to reap the long term benefits, I am extremely happy with my in floor heat and as the climate you have is similar, you probably will be too.My gas bill is high some months, bit I'm a little crazy, as I spend more time in garage than house I keep temps pretty high in garage and it costs me.

I am getting ready to start construction on a addition to my shop and am considering In Floor Heating. Finding it MUCH more expensive than conventional forced air. Anyone have any experience with In Floor or comments on whether I should go with it or not.
CORDially Mike