In the winter, my house always had ice cold floors. The existing heating system was wood stove and propane forced air. I decided to start checking into heating solutions for our home, and see if I could improve our setup with radiant heated flooring.
It looked like the most promising option was DIY radiant floor heating utilizing an outdoor woodstove boiler system. Electric radiant heating seemed like it would cost too much on a monthly basis. I really liked solar water heating systems, but I was afraid we didn't have enough sun in the short winter days to make this work.
Right away I decided to get my plan down on paper and figure out exactly what parts I would need to get started. I ordered my supplies by phone and went down to the hardware to pick them up as soon as they called to let me know they were in. Time to start installing.
I had thought about placing my hydronic heating inside the house, on top of the underlay. This would require me to remove all the existing floor covering and replace it. It would also add up to 2" to the floor, and this just wasn't acceptable. This method also sounded like way more work.
That left applying the PEX tubing from the underside of the floor. This meant I was gong to spend hours on my back in the crawlspace, drilling holes and placing tubing. Easy work compared to refinishing all of my floor covering!
The utility and laundry room was the best location for the pump and holding tank. I brought the line from the boiler through the floor here. The boiler hot water line and return line had to have extra insulation on them and we buried them eight feet deep to keep everything from freezing up.
Not only do we save a lot of money, but our floors are really warm now. Our wood burning boiler system has a propane backup in case we aren't home, so we don't have to worry about leaving the system unattended. For the rest of the time, I don't mid adding wood once a day. - 20897
It looked like the most promising option was DIY radiant floor heating utilizing an outdoor woodstove boiler system. Electric radiant heating seemed like it would cost too much on a monthly basis. I really liked solar water heating systems, but I was afraid we didn't have enough sun in the short winter days to make this work.
Right away I decided to get my plan down on paper and figure out exactly what parts I would need to get started. I ordered my supplies by phone and went down to the hardware to pick them up as soon as they called to let me know they were in. Time to start installing.
I had thought about placing my hydronic heating inside the house, on top of the underlay. This would require me to remove all the existing floor covering and replace it. It would also add up to 2" to the floor, and this just wasn't acceptable. This method also sounded like way more work.
That left applying the PEX tubing from the underside of the floor. This meant I was gong to spend hours on my back in the crawlspace, drilling holes and placing tubing. Easy work compared to refinishing all of my floor covering!
The utility and laundry room was the best location for the pump and holding tank. I brought the line from the boiler through the floor here. The boiler hot water line and return line had to have extra insulation on them and we buried them eight feet deep to keep everything from freezing up.
Not only do we save a lot of money, but our floors are really warm now. Our wood burning boiler system has a propane backup in case we aren't home, so we don't have to worry about leaving the system unattended. For the rest of the time, I don't mid adding wood once a day. - 20897
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hydronic radiant floor heating is a great alternative to traditional forced air systems. Have a look and decide if DIY radiant heat is for you!
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