My Radiant System Is Costing Me An Arm And A Leg…

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:57:44 +0000

This came in from someone who unfortunately, was never a client of mine. The problem boils down to lack of proper hydronic heating design…

I had radiant floor heat put in my new home (2850SF) in Oklahoma City. It is run by propane. The propane tank was installed in Sept 2008. I moved in during Jan 2009. Since then (12 months), I have blown through 3000+ gallons of propane! The gas people are blaming the floor heat and the floor heat folks are blaming the propane company. I’m at a loss as to where to go next. I’ve spent more than $8000 for propane since last Jan. Can you give me any advice?

There are a few possible reasons:

1) The structure/poor insulation or excessive infiltration – you may want to have a local HVAC or mechanical contractor perform an energy audit to see if your structure has infiltration or insulation issues.

2) Heat source inefficiencies – for systems I design and sell, I typically recommend the heat source be set up and fired off by a local pro – where applicable, a combustion analysis should be performed on gas and propane-fired heat sources to insure they are operating within manufacturer tolerances and at peak efficiency.

3) System installation issues – depending on your system design, there may be issues with the amount of tubing, spacing of tubing, water temperatures, water flow rates, floor coverings with high r-values.

Bottom line – it sounds like your system is working hard to keep your structure at temperature – and it sounds like it’s working. (You don’t mention being uncomfortable or cold) – your home loses “x” amount of BTU’s per hour – and your system needs to put out “x” amount of BTU’s per hour to keep up.

If it’s fighting poor insulation or thick floor coverings – well, that makes it the structure, not the system.

If it’s inefficiency at the heat source – a local pro should be able to test and adjust for that.

If it’s a design/installation issue – there may be some things you can adjust like water temp and flow rate…and some other things that would be less practical to go back and change – like amount and spacing of tubing.

Bottom line - it sounds like this could have been either avoided or explained to you by a competent radiant heat designer. Hopefully, you’ll be able to use these answers as talking points with your local contractor - hope you can get your radiant system working better soon!

Technorati Tags: hydronic heat, hydronic heat system, hydronic heating, hydronic heating system, hydronic heating systems, radiant design, radiant designer, radiant floor heat, radiant heating, radiant heating system, radiant system

Hydronic Heat Updates for 2010-02-02

SteveH — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Does anyone else ever worry that the commoditization of hydronic heat and radiant heating supplies will ultimately doom the industry? #

Technorati Tags: hydronic floor heat, hydronic heat, hydronic heating

Hydronic Heat Updates for 2010-02-02

SteveH — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Does anyone else ever worry that the commoditization of hydronic heat and radiant heating supplies will ultimately doom the industry? #

Technorati Tags: hydronic floor heat, hydronic heat, hydronic heating

Hydronic Heat Updates for 2010-01-26

SteveH — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Electric radiant heat or hydronic radiant heat? Which is best? The answer depends on what type of project you are doing… #
Curse you Microsoft Windows and your forced system updates and restarts…my MAC is so much more polite #
hydronic heat is also called ‘radiant heat’ and ‘hydronic radiant heat‘ - a term-change will bring up different search results. #
A hydronic floor heating system is a way of heating a building that relies on the circulation of warm water through series of pipes. #

Technorati Tags: hydronic floor heat, hydronic heat, hydronic heating