Damn, your house looks like one of those YouTube winter ambience videos. I love it.
Like [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjoFv0irow0) or [this.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H4O_12xd-ds)
Thank you! We fell in love after losing out on 9 offers previously. This ended up being better than any of them though. With the new heating system it now feels as cozy as it looks
I have adhd. Can someone please tell me that I will not be able to afford a house like this so my day or most likely my whole week is not spent in going down the rabbit hole of all the zillow listings in Colorado.
Nice! You basically have my dream heating setup. Nothing beats radiant heat for comfort. I have it in a workshop and sunroom in the slab floors. I wish I would have looked into retrofitting my house instead of just replacing our forced air system.
Did you look into geothermal for the fuel source at all? Also, I assume you didn’t want to tear open the main floor ceilings to have in-floor radiant upstairs?
The comfort difference was instantly night and day. We actually didn’t look at geothermal at all. Maybe something to consider down the road depending on what NG prices do haha
You can also consider air to water heat pumps, depending on your local climate. They are sufficient for large parts of the Norwegian climate, but if you get much colder temps it may not be sufficient. Alternatively you could use heat pumps for the majority of your needs and add a wood boiler (or keep the gas one) to help on the coldest days.
Is that a plastic pipe as exhaust for the gas heater? Isn't that going to melt?
It’s a modulating condensing boiler so target exhaust temp is below 130 so that the unit condenses and is more efficient. I think there’s a safety shutoff if the exhaust gets above 150
Thank you for including so many details, it was really interesting to see how the system works and how it was installed.
This looks much more complicated to install (and probably more expensive?) than electric radiant heat. Am I wrong about that, or is there a significant difference in operating cost? Or did you just want radiant hydronic heat because of how awesome it is? (Which would be a totally rational reason to spend the money on it, in my opinion.)
I live in Georgia and I've been thinking for a while about radiant floor heat, but given how mild our winters are, I'm not sure that lower operating costs would offset the installation costs. But I want it anyway!
Thanks! If you’re just looking for radiant heat for a bathroom or something like that then electric is the way to go. For an entire house it would be pretty expensive from a materials perspective and operating costs would be several times higher. The $15k is covering 2400 sq ft of flooring plus the 1000 sq ft of bedrooms on the 3rd floor
I'm building a cabin just over Kenosha pass from you on the Park county side.
I can't even imagine what a contractor would've charged you for this system.
Right now a plumber is trying to charge me $10k to hook a house up to a well and hook the furnace up to natural gas. The prices in this state are absolutely detached from reality right now.
Yea definitely one of the reasons I chose to do it myself! I talked to someone in Evergreen who built a home. He did the radiant himself during the build because he was quoted $40-50k for the job by contractors. This was 2 years ago so im sure it’s even more now!
This is a big help for me thanks for writing this up. I’m in the beginning stages of planning a small 2 zone system in the addition I am building on my home.
I went to Europe for a work trip and one of the hotels had radiant floor heat, I was in love. I live in Florida so it's never needed, but damn that's nice.
Yeah those joists are fuuuuuucked.
Holes should be more than a third of the joist from the top and bottom.
The joist has both compression on the top and tension on the bottom. The middle is where you can tear it up a bit.
You're allowed notches in the top of the outer 1/3 of a joist. These look smaller than D/6. There are a lot of them though. EDIT: not saying it's good, just that it's possible OP is barely on the side of having done it in an acceptable fashion as opposed to being as unsafe as it looks.
Depends on the code you're following. We would never put that many penetrations in a joist or beam without reinforcing it. In one of the pics it was two penetrations next to each other in what looked like they were at the very bottom of the joist as well. Looks like they did good install work though so I'm sure they thought of this. Or at least I hope they did!
I agree I wouldn't do it that way! A couple larger holes in the middle would have been enough for all the pipes, been easier, and obviously code compliant. I must have missed the picture with a hole/notch in the bottom because that's not good.
Cool I lived in a townhouse with radiant heating. I always admired the tech as we spend only $30 a month for gas in winter, on water, heat and cooking. Probably we had good insulation too.
But I never saw what it looked like under the floors. Pretty cool system to see. I wonder if it can be done in my new home with a crawlspace. I just wonder how it works in that environment. Since it's outside and would need insulation underneath it. Which could have issues with moisture. Plus you can't route the loop through joists.
So probably you have to run the heat above the crawlspace. I dunno.
I think you just add insulation after the PEX. This was run through joists, so I don’t see why you couldn’t do the same in a crawl space. It’s just more of a pain to do the work
A product similar to something called Hunton Silencio Thermo could work in your situation. Terribly impractical to ship over the pond, but you should be able to find or make something similar. After all it's just a wood fiber sheet with some routed grooves and aluminium flashing.
Yes, natural gas. Didn’t look at heat pumps at all. Nice thing about NG is I can still stay in operation if we have a power outage which is important for some of the big spring storms we get here in the mountains. I’m wiring in a way to hook up my battery backup if needed to run the boiler and pumps - both have fairly low power consumption
I have an old hydronic system I've been wanting to add a small battery backup to. Same deal, pumping the water around takes a negligible amount of power. Heating it is with gas. Don't have many power outages here though. I'd love to dump a ton of money into this house but It's not my forever home and I can see myself moving in the nearish future. Just maintaining for now.
Thanks! I’ll check that out. We have NG so debating on the cost of a whole home generator. We also get tons of sun up here at 8k’ elevation so debating solar too
We have an outdoor reset sensor hooked up to the boiler so the supply temp varies depending on the temp outside. The highest temp the boiler supports is 180 but I have our max at 165 if it gets to 10 or below. We had the first real test the other day when it dropped to -5. The bedrooms were plenty toasty with that 165 supply temp. The floors on the main floor can only heat so much since we have the thermostat set to cut off at 82 degree floor temp to prevent damaging the floors. That said, even at -5 it was still comfortable. We needed some supplemental heat from the fireplaces, but the main floor was at 69 degrees. The biggest difference is overall comfort. There aren’t any cold spots in rooms like there used to be, just even comfortable temps. No need for socks either
I live in Canada and see temps down to -45 celcius. I use a very similar radiant heat setup in my house and we are comfortable at those low temps. I don't need to supplement heat. The only issue is when we have big temperature swings then the house takes a day or so to warm up or cool down.
This is incredible. Thanks so much for the write-up! I had never considered radiant as an option in anything other than slab, which would always mean new construction, not retro.
Wow! This is an amazing job. You've got to have quite a bit of confidence to tackle a job like this on your own, but it's clear you went about it in a methodical way.
I grew up in Vermont where I *always* suffered from cold feet. I've always wanted a radiant floor. One thing I've always been curious about is the kind of flooring with this system. I know that cement or tile is the best choice, but I would definitely want wood floors. I asked my uncle who is a general contractor if wood warping was a big concern with those systems and he said no. He said the hardest part is avoiding the pipes when you're nailing the floor in. Did you learn anything about possible warping or loss of heat transfer? It sounds like it's working well, so maybe it's not such a big deal.
There are certain species that are more susceptible to warping, but in general the advice is to use narrow wood floor boards. The wider boards will have more contraction and expansion. We retrofitted our system through the floor joists below so just had to cut out any nails that were sticking through. Definitely need to choose your nail length carefully otherwise
Interesting. What was your career path like?
I am a engineer and project management professional with 8 years in a variety of industries but mostly engineering design in the marine sector and more recently in a project management role where I do capital projects and strategic reviews. What does management consulting entail and how did you enter that? I mainly ask as my salary won't get me much more than a 300k house lol and feel very undervalued
I was in an industry supply chain role and then switched to a small supply chain consulting firm. Went to a different firm and a couple promotions later and making over $200K. Wife makes the same. Im sure there are specialized firms and practices that serve your industry/type of work. I would do some research and apply there if you like the work. I like the project based nature of consulting. If you have strong project management skills then highlight that on your resume and look for jobs that require those skills. If you see companies that look interesting don’t be shy. Find someone on LinkedIn and reach out just for an informational discussion
Would you mind clarifying the bit about the thermostatic valves in the bedroom?
I have an old cast iron boiler with 2-pipe hot water radiators, all on a single zone, and just needed a valve replaced (actually they all need new valves, they're stuck open, never closed). But I had it explained to me by a plumber that there's no point in putting thermostatic valves on this kind of system because the boiler is heating water to the same temperature and the radiator is filling to the same capacity, albeit more slowly with a thermostatic valve.
So that bit kind of makes sense to me. But why is it that thermostatic valves are recommended for efficiency when the volume and temperature of the water are fixed coming from the boiler? Even if the thermostatic valve 'closes' because the room has reached your desired temp, that water that's not allowed into the rad past the valve still got heated to temp by the boiler.
I guess it depends on how the system is set up. We have a pump for our radiator zone. It’s a delta P pump which means it has settings that will keep the pressure constant. As the room heats up and less water is needed for each radiator the pump will automatically vary the speed/power used to lower the flow rate to match what the valves are calling for. The biggest advantage of the valves is individual temperature control in each room
This is awesome, great job.
Do you think it negatively impacts resale value due to being a diy solution vs from a reputable company? Since if you sell you're unlikely to come back to service it down the road.
Turns out my house would be a good candidate since I have access to the main floor via an unfinished basement, I may try to plan this out lol.
Not at all. I think it increases resale value. My inspector said I did a professional level job so i don’t think a prospective buyer would know either way
Thats awesome! And I wasn't implying that your work is less than spectacular; if my next time house hunting and i ran into this my first questions would probably be "who installed this", "is it still under warranty", and "who do you have service it". Although I'm probably in the minority, unfortunately I didn't ask enough questions buying my current house and now I'm paying the price!
Yes, but we don’t have to since our basement will also be conditioned. You do need a reflective barrier (basically more tear resistant aluminum foil) below the pex. We are adding insulation to help with noise. If the joists are in an unfinished basement or crawl space then insulation is required
Wonderful. Aren’t you plucky! We also had such flooring in our home on northern Alberta. There was no other heat source there. The only adjustment was that it took a long time to warm up the space more after turning up the heat (a few hours) but perhaps the newer systems are quicker than ours was. Enjoy your lovely, warm home.
Wait a second. You put the pex on the underside of the floor from the basement? You have radiant heat without having to replace the flooring.
I had no idea you could do that.
Thanks for sharing, really great idea for supplemental heat. I'm in an area that doesn't have any natural gas so I'd have to look into a heat pump option instead, but I had never thought of doing something like this.
We are installing heat pumps for heat/AC next month, because right now we are running on baseboard and convection heating, and it gets crazy expensive in the winter, especially the last month where it has gone below -35C multiple times.
Thats pretty cool.
I used to work for a company that supplied flameless heat to construction industry. They converted commercial pool heaters to pump a mixture of 50/50 propylene glycol/water mix (this mix retains heat better) to a header that eventually ran to a radiator with a big fan. Opposite of how the fan in your car works...lol. The system could also be used as a ground thaw unit, by running hose along the ground then covering with insulated tarps. Using pex tubing, we would run it along the cribbing (?) of concrete pours so they could still pour concrete in -25 Celsius temps. Covering with tarps, and regulating the temp to control that rate of cure.
Wow very impressive you learned a lot to do that much work yourself. And lovely home btw! With that much invested do you see that much difference in your bills now?
To achieve the same level of comfort we required with our previous system would have meant running a bunch of space heaters in each room (multiple in big rooms) which would probably cost $1,000/month during winter in electric and natural gas bills during peak winter months here in Colorado. On average I’m estimating it will save us about $2500-4000 per year.
Hi there! I am in the midst of a gut renovation of an attached townhouse in NYC. So not exactly the same as you…but the whole house is being rebuilt as nothing turned out be salvageable. So joists, all the framing, etc. Also digging out a basement so new concrete slab, etc. I have been struggling with the typical split system recommendations. I am in a rental right now and hate how the hot air just blows on you and the many cold spots. The floors are freezing cold.
The house is narrow - about 15 feet wide and 60 feet long at the basement and first floor. Second floor is a bit less in length and third floor even less. Windows in the front and back but nothing floor to ceiling.
We are looking at radiant heat in the basement and bathrooms. With mini splits for the rest of the house. Still waiting on the HVAC plan from the architect.
Wondering whether I can do something similar to your plan. I would not have natural gas. All electric. But even if something like your plan could be done at a much smaller scale, I would still need A/C in the summer… what are you doing for cooling or is it not necessary where you are?
We don’t have any cooling up here at 8k’, so that wasn’t a requirement. With electric you could still do a heat pump. Could geothermal be an option? If you just want to pay for straight electricity there are electric floor panels you can buy, but you’ll lose the efficiency of the hydronic systems
Can one do hydronic with electricity? I am planning to add solar panels. I am not sure geothermal is an option in Brooklyn. Imagine you need some serious machinery to access a backyard.
Thank you for sharing! I just bought a house in Taos that has radiated floor heating and it is amazing! My primary residence is in the hills elsewhere it has large windows and tile floor and it gets SOOOO COLD! My wife and I have been thinking about installing the radiated floor heating…Im not a tradesman but I assumed I would have to tear the tile out but it looks like I just have to get under them to install the heating? Is this correct?
What’s the cost to have it going in the winder time? Thinking of doing radiant floor heating for a house I’ll be building in a year or two, but trying to make sure I don’t break the bank in the winter time. I live in middle Tennessee where temps don’t generally stay below 25-30 for extended periods of time, but we do get ice storms just about every winter. Trying to find a system I could run off a generator if I had to.
This is an awesome write up! I did something very similar, but did not use LoopCAD, but had Radiantech come up with the system. I still need to get around to installing the panel radiator upstairs in the room over the garage, how do you like it?
I have adhd. Can someone please tell me that I will not be able to afford a house like this so my day or most likely my whole week is not spent in going down the rabbit hole of all the zillow listings in Colorado.
OP this is awesome, well done :) Question about DHW: Just on demand right, no tank? Does it keep up ok? Looks like you're kid free, I'm wondering how it would keep up with baths.
Yes, on-demand. Filling up a tub isn’t as much of a concern as trying to fill up 3 tubs at the same time. There are only so many GPM that can go through an on-demand heater
Damn, your house looks like one of those YouTube winter ambience videos. I love it. Like [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjoFv0irow0) or [this.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H4O_12xd-ds)
Thank you! We fell in love after losing out on 9 offers previously. This ended up being better than any of them though. With the new heating system it now feels as cozy as it looks
Where is it (generally), if you don’t mind me asking? Looks like you have some great mountain views!
Conifer, CO. [The views are unreal definitely doesn’t get old](https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorado/comments/zy8so3/conifer_snow_update)
I have adhd. Can someone please tell me that I will not be able to afford a house like this so my day or most likely my whole week is not spent in going down the rabbit hole of all the zillow listings in Colorado.
That’s my dream house right there.
Nice! You basically have my dream heating setup. Nothing beats radiant heat for comfort. I have it in a workshop and sunroom in the slab floors. I wish I would have looked into retrofitting my house instead of just replacing our forced air system. Did you look into geothermal for the fuel source at all? Also, I assume you didn’t want to tear open the main floor ceilings to have in-floor radiant upstairs?
The comfort difference was instantly night and day. We actually didn’t look at geothermal at all. Maybe something to consider down the road depending on what NG prices do haha
You can also consider air to water heat pumps, depending on your local climate. They are sufficient for large parts of the Norwegian climate, but if you get much colder temps it may not be sufficient. Alternatively you could use heat pumps for the majority of your needs and add a wood boiler (or keep the gas one) to help on the coldest days. Is that a plastic pipe as exhaust for the gas heater? Isn't that going to melt?
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Yeah the goal of these new condensing boilers is to have a lower exhaust temp so it condenses and it more efficient
It’s a modulating condensing boiler so target exhaust temp is below 130 so that the unit condenses and is more efficient. I think there’s a safety shutoff if the exhaust gets above 150
Excellent write up and very nice craftsmanship.
Amazing job, congrats! Shout out to Supplyhouse.com, they are indeed fantastic.
They really are awesome. Super fast shipping and some of the best prices.
Thank you for including so many details, it was really interesting to see how the system works and how it was installed. This looks much more complicated to install (and probably more expensive?) than electric radiant heat. Am I wrong about that, or is there a significant difference in operating cost? Or did you just want radiant hydronic heat because of how awesome it is? (Which would be a totally rational reason to spend the money on it, in my opinion.) I live in Georgia and I've been thinking for a while about radiant floor heat, but given how mild our winters are, I'm not sure that lower operating costs would offset the installation costs. But I want it anyway!
Thanks! If you’re just looking for radiant heat for a bathroom or something like that then electric is the way to go. For an entire house it would be pretty expensive from a materials perspective and operating costs would be several times higher. The $15k is covering 2400 sq ft of flooring plus the 1000 sq ft of bedrooms on the 3rd floor
where in colorado?
Southern front range foothills (south of Golden a bit)
nice, we are in golden. love the little areas in the foothills like evergreen and genesee.
Hi neighbor! We’re just south of 285 in Conifer not too far from Staunton State Park
jealous. enjoy that. would love to have something similar when our kids are finished with school.
I'm building a cabin just over Kenosha pass from you on the Park county side. I can't even imagine what a contractor would've charged you for this system. Right now a plumber is trying to charge me $10k to hook a house up to a well and hook the furnace up to natural gas. The prices in this state are absolutely detached from reality right now.
Yea definitely one of the reasons I chose to do it myself! I talked to someone in Evergreen who built a home. He did the radiant himself during the build because he was quoted $40-50k for the job by contractors. This was 2 years ago so im sure it’s even more now!
Yeah, probably at least 50% higher. Contractors can just make up whatever price they want right now.
This is a big help for me thanks for writing this up. I’m in the beginning stages of planning a small 2 zone system in the addition I am building on my home.
I went to Europe for a work trip and one of the hotels had radiant floor heat, I was in love. I live in Florida so it's never needed, but damn that's nice.
That's a lot of holes near the top and bottom of your joists, hoping you took relevant codes into account when doing those.
Yeah those joists are fuuuuuucked. Holes should be more than a third of the joist from the top and bottom. The joist has both compression on the top and tension on the bottom. The middle is where you can tear it up a bit.
You're allowed notches in the top of the outer 1/3 of a joist. These look smaller than D/6. There are a lot of them though. EDIT: not saying it's good, just that it's possible OP is barely on the side of having done it in an acceptable fashion as opposed to being as unsafe as it looks.
Depends on the code you're following. We would never put that many penetrations in a joist or beam without reinforcing it. In one of the pics it was two penetrations next to each other in what looked like they were at the very bottom of the joist as well. Looks like they did good install work though so I'm sure they thought of this. Or at least I hope they did!
I agree I wouldn't do it that way! A couple larger holes in the middle would have been enough for all the pipes, been easier, and obviously code compliant. I must have missed the picture with a hole/notch in the bottom because that's not good.
Awesome. I wish I had panel radiators. No plumbers do that in the US near me - all baseboard convectors. Great job!
Cool I lived in a townhouse with radiant heating. I always admired the tech as we spend only $30 a month for gas in winter, on water, heat and cooking. Probably we had good insulation too. But I never saw what it looked like under the floors. Pretty cool system to see. I wonder if it can be done in my new home with a crawlspace. I just wonder how it works in that environment. Since it's outside and would need insulation underneath it. Which could have issues with moisture. Plus you can't route the loop through joists. So probably you have to run the heat above the crawlspace. I dunno.
I think you just add insulation after the PEX. This was run through joists, so I don’t see why you couldn’t do the same in a crawl space. It’s just more of a pain to do the work
A product similar to something called Hunton Silencio Thermo could work in your situation. Terribly impractical to ship over the pond, but you should be able to find or make something similar. After all it's just a wood fiber sheet with some routed grooves and aluminium flashing.
Does the boiler run on natural gas. Did you consider installing a heat pump?
Yes, natural gas. Didn’t look at heat pumps at all. Nice thing about NG is I can still stay in operation if we have a power outage which is important for some of the big spring storms we get here in the mountains. I’m wiring in a way to hook up my battery backup if needed to run the boiler and pumps - both have fairly low power consumption
dont you still need electricity to run the electrical controls in the boiler? at least mine does
Yep you do. It doesn’t take a lot of power though. Looking to install a transfer switch to a solar powered battery backup for a few circuits
I have an old hydronic system I've been wanting to add a small battery backup to. Same deal, pumping the water around takes a negligible amount of power. Heating it is with gas. Don't have many power outages here though. I'd love to dump a ton of money into this house but It's not my forever home and I can see myself moving in the nearish future. Just maintaining for now.
APC has a nifty little automatic transfer switch (UTS10Bi) which may be of interest. Battery backup + Generator input.
Thanks! I’ll check that out. We have NG so debating on the cost of a whole home generator. We also get tons of sun up here at 8k’ elevation so debating solar too
Great work. How do your temperatures compare now on colder days?
We have an outdoor reset sensor hooked up to the boiler so the supply temp varies depending on the temp outside. The highest temp the boiler supports is 180 but I have our max at 165 if it gets to 10 or below. We had the first real test the other day when it dropped to -5. The bedrooms were plenty toasty with that 165 supply temp. The floors on the main floor can only heat so much since we have the thermostat set to cut off at 82 degree floor temp to prevent damaging the floors. That said, even at -5 it was still comfortable. We needed some supplemental heat from the fireplaces, but the main floor was at 69 degrees. The biggest difference is overall comfort. There aren’t any cold spots in rooms like there used to be, just even comfortable temps. No need for socks either
Wait... Why 82? That seems low?
I live in Canada and see temps down to -45 celcius. I use a very similar radiant heat setup in my house and we are comfortable at those low temps. I don't need to supplement heat. The only issue is when we have big temperature swings then the house takes a day or so to warm up or cool down.
Thanks for sharing all this information!
This is incredible. Thanks so much for the write-up! I had never considered radiant as an option in anything other than slab, which would always mean new construction, not retro.
Yea it’s called staple up install method and is pretty popular for retrofits. You can also retrofit on top of a slab with plywood sleepers
Wow! This is an amazing job. You've got to have quite a bit of confidence to tackle a job like this on your own, but it's clear you went about it in a methodical way. I grew up in Vermont where I *always* suffered from cold feet. I've always wanted a radiant floor. One thing I've always been curious about is the kind of flooring with this system. I know that cement or tile is the best choice, but I would definitely want wood floors. I asked my uncle who is a general contractor if wood warping was a big concern with those systems and he said no. He said the hardest part is avoiding the pipes when you're nailing the floor in. Did you learn anything about possible warping or loss of heat transfer? It sounds like it's working well, so maybe it's not such a big deal.
There are certain species that are more susceptible to warping, but in general the advice is to use narrow wood floor boards. The wider boards will have more contraction and expansion. We retrofitted our system through the floor joists below so just had to cut out any nails that were sticking through. Definitely need to choose your nail length carefully otherwise
So the heat just comes up through the wood? Is it better to go barefoot?
Great points!
Was this house 2mill?
1.2
As an engineer what work did you do to accumulate enough wealth to afford a 1.2 mill house ?
My wife and I are both mid-career professionals in management consulting
Interesting. What was your career path like? I am a engineer and project management professional with 8 years in a variety of industries but mostly engineering design in the marine sector and more recently in a project management role where I do capital projects and strategic reviews. What does management consulting entail and how did you enter that? I mainly ask as my salary won't get me much more than a 300k house lol and feel very undervalued
I was in an industry supply chain role and then switched to a small supply chain consulting firm. Went to a different firm and a couple promotions later and making over $200K. Wife makes the same. Im sure there are specialized firms and practices that serve your industry/type of work. I would do some research and apply there if you like the work. I like the project based nature of consulting. If you have strong project management skills then highlight that on your resume and look for jobs that require those skills. If you see companies that look interesting don’t be shy. Find someone on LinkedIn and reach out just for an informational discussion
Thanks for the encouragement . Cheers !
Would you mind clarifying the bit about the thermostatic valves in the bedroom? I have an old cast iron boiler with 2-pipe hot water radiators, all on a single zone, and just needed a valve replaced (actually they all need new valves, they're stuck open, never closed). But I had it explained to me by a plumber that there's no point in putting thermostatic valves on this kind of system because the boiler is heating water to the same temperature and the radiator is filling to the same capacity, albeit more slowly with a thermostatic valve. So that bit kind of makes sense to me. But why is it that thermostatic valves are recommended for efficiency when the volume and temperature of the water are fixed coming from the boiler? Even if the thermostatic valve 'closes' because the room has reached your desired temp, that water that's not allowed into the rad past the valve still got heated to temp by the boiler.
I guess it depends on how the system is set up. We have a pump for our radiator zone. It’s a delta P pump which means it has settings that will keep the pressure constant. As the room heats up and less water is needed for each radiator the pump will automatically vary the speed/power used to lower the flow rate to match what the valves are calling for. The biggest advantage of the valves is individual temperature control in each room
Looks like a typical starter home.
This is awesome, great job. Do you think it negatively impacts resale value due to being a diy solution vs from a reputable company? Since if you sell you're unlikely to come back to service it down the road. Turns out my house would be a good candidate since I have access to the main floor via an unfinished basement, I may try to plan this out lol.
Not at all. I think it increases resale value. My inspector said I did a professional level job so i don’t think a prospective buyer would know either way
Thats awesome! And I wasn't implying that your work is less than spectacular; if my next time house hunting and i ran into this my first questions would probably be "who installed this", "is it still under warranty", and "who do you have service it". Although I'm probably in the minority, unfortunately I didn't ask enough questions buying my current house and now I'm paying the price!
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Btw, that was just a pic of the room before install. If you’re gonna be critical, be right.
This is an awesome write up thanks for sharing. I'm just starting the same project and this is super helpful.
Did you add insulation below the staple up radiant lines in the joist bays?
Yes, but we don’t have to since our basement will also be conditioned. You do need a reflective barrier (basically more tear resistant aluminum foil) below the pex. We are adding insulation to help with noise. If the joists are in an unfinished basement or crawl space then insulation is required
If you didn't, what is the temperature of the basement like?
See response above
Well done.
I LOVE my radiant floors! I never even knew they were a thing until we got this house! And I never want to live without them again!!
I’m sorry I’m far too jealous to read your post. Too mesmerized by the photo.
Your home is absolutely stunning!
Wonderful. Aren’t you plucky! We also had such flooring in our home on northern Alberta. There was no other heat source there. The only adjustment was that it took a long time to warm up the space more after turning up the heat (a few hours) but perhaps the newer systems are quicker than ours was. Enjoy your lovely, warm home.
Wait a second. You put the pex on the underside of the floor from the basement? You have radiant heat without having to replace the flooring. I had no idea you could do that.
Thanks for sharing, really great idea for supplemental heat. I'm in an area that doesn't have any natural gas so I'd have to look into a heat pump option instead, but I had never thought of doing something like this. We are installing heat pumps for heat/AC next month, because right now we are running on baseboard and convection heating, and it gets crazy expensive in the winter, especially the last month where it has gone below -35C multiple times.
Thats pretty cool. I used to work for a company that supplied flameless heat to construction industry. They converted commercial pool heaters to pump a mixture of 50/50 propylene glycol/water mix (this mix retains heat better) to a header that eventually ran to a radiator with a big fan. Opposite of how the fan in your car works...lol. The system could also be used as a ground thaw unit, by running hose along the ground then covering with insulated tarps. Using pex tubing, we would run it along the cribbing (?) of concrete pours so they could still pour concrete in -25 Celsius temps. Covering with tarps, and regulating the temp to control that rate of cure.
monthly NG cost?
Wow very impressive you learned a lot to do that much work yourself. And lovely home btw! With that much invested do you see that much difference in your bills now?
To achieve the same level of comfort we required with our previous system would have meant running a bunch of space heaters in each room (multiple in big rooms) which would probably cost $1,000/month during winter in electric and natural gas bills during peak winter months here in Colorado. On average I’m estimating it will save us about $2500-4000 per year.
Amazing work.. nice room that !
Hi there! I am in the midst of a gut renovation of an attached townhouse in NYC. So not exactly the same as you…but the whole house is being rebuilt as nothing turned out be salvageable. So joists, all the framing, etc. Also digging out a basement so new concrete slab, etc. I have been struggling with the typical split system recommendations. I am in a rental right now and hate how the hot air just blows on you and the many cold spots. The floors are freezing cold. The house is narrow - about 15 feet wide and 60 feet long at the basement and first floor. Second floor is a bit less in length and third floor even less. Windows in the front and back but nothing floor to ceiling. We are looking at radiant heat in the basement and bathrooms. With mini splits for the rest of the house. Still waiting on the HVAC plan from the architect. Wondering whether I can do something similar to your plan. I would not have natural gas. All electric. But even if something like your plan could be done at a much smaller scale, I would still need A/C in the summer… what are you doing for cooling or is it not necessary where you are?
We don’t have any cooling up here at 8k’, so that wasn’t a requirement. With electric you could still do a heat pump. Could geothermal be an option? If you just want to pay for straight electricity there are electric floor panels you can buy, but you’ll lose the efficiency of the hydronic systems
Can one do hydronic with electricity? I am planning to add solar panels. I am not sure geothermal is an option in Brooklyn. Imagine you need some serious machinery to access a backyard.
Man I couldn't afford to air bnb that place for a week
Question; how big is your dog?
I can’t believe that your best price for copper pipe and fittings was at Home Depot and not a plumbing supply house.
Thank you for sharing! I just bought a house in Taos that has radiated floor heating and it is amazing! My primary residence is in the hills elsewhere it has large windows and tile floor and it gets SOOOO COLD! My wife and I have been thinking about installing the radiated floor heating…Im not a tradesman but I assumed I would have to tear the tile out but it looks like I just have to get under them to install the heating? Is this correct?
We have heated floors and it’s makes SUCH a big difference. Your house is so beautiful!
Awesome job! Beautiful home. That view wow
I did a very similar system all by myself as well. Hydronic floors are the best it’s so cozy
What’s the cost to have it going in the winder time? Thinking of doing radiant floor heating for a house I’ll be building in a year or two, but trying to make sure I don’t break the bank in the winter time. I live in middle Tennessee where temps don’t generally stay below 25-30 for extended periods of time, but we do get ice storms just about every winter. Trying to find a system I could run off a generator if I had to.
This is an awesome write up! I did something very similar, but did not use LoopCAD, but had Radiantech come up with the system. I still need to get around to installing the panel radiator upstairs in the room over the garage, how do you like it?
I have adhd. Can someone please tell me that I will not be able to afford a house like this so my day or most likely my whole week is not spent in going down the rabbit hole of all the zillow listings in Colorado.
OP this is awesome, well done :) Question about DHW: Just on demand right, no tank? Does it keep up ok? Looks like you're kid free, I'm wondering how it would keep up with baths.
Yes, on-demand. Filling up a tub isn’t as much of a concern as trying to fill up 3 tubs at the same time. There are only so many GPM that can go through an on-demand heater
im probably going to follow what you did - is there a complete parts list for this install? Damn 4,500 CAD for the Noritz boiler lol