thaks. i have been looking for a bit and comparing. my problem is i am in canada. i have to pay border brokarage fees along with exchange. both are killing me on this project! i am looking to see if i can purchase them in Canada.
rading about them it seems the heavy walled type are worth the investment. Since i have double pex runs in 16" joists i am looking for a double pex holder rather than having two side by side.
amazing what you can get as a result of yahoo!
thanks. if you know of a double plate let me know
thanks

that does not exist, sorry.

My contractor found me plates. they seemed a good price. i have them but now i am confused. the plates are simple allumimun bent to accomodate a 1/2 PEX line. to install these the pex would be squeezed between the floor and the plate (between the joists). i though the pex does not touch the floor and it should be on the other side of the plate? is this proper and ok?? it is a staple up as i plan to uss the radiant barrier then pink insulation to complete the joist application

thanks

those sound like lightweight plates. about two feet long? If you can grab the wings and bend the plates, they are lighweights, not heavy gauge plates. big difference. My earlier post is a bit presumptive, actually, I apologize: there are dual groove lightweight plates, but no dual groove heavy gauges and these days I either use heavy gauges or no plates, typically.

yes, i can bend them. that tells me they are light weight. from what i am hearing as i an with GEO my water temperature will be no higher than 120 degrees so i will get huge pay back using the heavyier plates as you have mentioned. correct?
but, in my reading or research i though the PEX was NOT supposed to touch the floor the plate went between. is that just the plate design and it don't matter?

i am going to source the heavyer plate but here in Canada it seems hard to find anything

the pex hitting the floor isn't really a problem, but the heavyweights will wildly outperform the lightweights. huge pay back, I dunno, but I imagine there must be payback with geo.. unless your heat load is very low to begin with (in which case, you might not even need plates).

the pex hittng the floor makes sense to me also. the theory (I thought) was you would create hot spots (without the plates). but if i am using the plates it is a mute point...( i thought) and thanks for the confirmation there. (when i looked on line at the plates the they all seem to go between the floor and the PEX. )

my heat load is truely not that hi (1000 sq ft, very well insulated, and a pelet stove for the very cold nights) But, the lower the water temperature output of the GEO the better the EER or COP efficiency. ( not sure what you use to measure efficiency)
so, if the plates do allow lower temperatures then i will use them. that was where this all started as i was told if i was just base laoding my floor and using the pelet stove for cold nights the plates were not needed. but you have explained and i believe that the plates will allow lower temperatures between the joist plumbing

thanks eh!

right: without plates, a suspended tube system is better.

enjoy that heat, eh? ;)

the system runs!

i installed the plates as you recomended. it was quite amazing how the floor warmed up where the plates have been installed. they went up quite easily with an electric staple gun (best thing since...)


sure took a while to heat the cement pad up (different zone). not sure about flow rate

i am running 115 degree water in the GEO unit. i am adding the radiant barrier and pink under my double 1/2 pex (plated up). that should really help as my basement is getting quite warm. it was 30 below the other day and we let the fire run out and the house kept warm.

the unit is running at about a 60% duty cycle. this should go down as i add insulation and the radiant barrier. i have 120 gallons of storage

made a mistake insulating inside walls of my basement as now i am heating the outside walls up..should have insulated better on the outside....next time.......

but,

still looking for a multi zone thermostat to allow one controller for all with remote sensors. and i dont want to install a PLC

 

 

What type of plates did you wind up installing?  What size?  Sounds like they are helping!

I ended up using a lighter weight than recomended (as per above). But, with a 750 sq ft living area including bedroom and bathroom R30 walls well vapour barriereered and a air exchange rate of 3 (tested) i have a realitivelt low heat loss rate which means i have a low heat rate required to maintain the house warm.
i have a 400 sq ft addition attached with poured floor (pexed) and I regulated the water temp to 74 degress and that pad is also warm. all in all with the plates and double pex runs and the pad warmed my house is 20 degreees c and the GEo is at 108 degrees.

i need to install the radiant barrier under the plates as the crawl space is getting warm.
NRT.Rob - what barrier do you recomend. seems r value is required after a radiant barrier and the gap should be kept small

use a type that is easy to staple up, comes in different widths with self taped edges like those on www.greeninsulationproducts.com made out of microfoam products. can get it in so staples on bottom of joist or in between shipped factory direct

Thermal barrier you mean.

Sub-floor radiant barriers i.e. foil, are of questionable value. Fiberglass R19 over conditioned space is the industry standard.

EPS is also good, but making the joist space air tight is the most important part of insulating subfloor radiant systems.

EPS, XPS, and  sprayed foams may not meet code in some areas without thermal barrier  (eg 1/2" of gypsum) between it and any living space.  Putting it on the ceiling of the space below would be pretty standard, but check with the local code if it's allowed under a wooden subfloor & wooden finish floor.  In many places foil-faced iso-board (polyisocyanuratem, eg. Thermax) is an exception to the plastic insulation/thermal barrier rules.

I'm not quite sure how you make fiberglass batt insulation truly "air tight", but if installed directly against the staple-up and subfloor you won't end up with an unimpeded thermal-bypass tunnel/gap between the insulation & sub floor. If radiant barriers are installed with the recommended 1/2-1" air gap, it's important to seal the ends of that tunnel to limit lateral air flow potential.

Right as usual Dana. But extruded plate subfloor system will not benefit from the air gap recommended for stapleup or suspended tube (my least favorite methods).