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Posts:2
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| 10/13/2009 9:19 PM |
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| Just starting to build our new Timber Frame - I have priced out going with a Hambro floor system w/hydronic radiant in the concrete or building using a conventional floor system and using Warmboard. This will be for the mainfloor level - costs between the two systems are quite similar when taking all factors into consideration. Please give me your opinions...
Cheers,
Kevin |
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Dana1
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Advanced Member
Posts:702
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| 10/14/2009 2:36 PM |
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Concrete adds thermal mass to the equation (and thus self-buffering) so you'll likely squeak a few percent better efficiency out of it. (More than a few percent if it's cut up into micro-zones.) But concrete floors have no give to them- some people find it less comfortable to walk on. The thermal mass needs to be managed with PID algorithm thermostats to keep temperature under/overshoots in a reasonable range. Hot/cold spots or striping is less likely to occurwith slabs.
Warm board will respond much quicker (you may be able to utilize setback thermostats for fuel savings, which is nearly impossible to do effectively with slabs), and it won't have the hardness of a slab. You may need to use buffer tanks to keep the boiler from short-cycling much of it's efficiency away, especially if it'd divided up into micro-zones. Some amount of warm-striping is inevitable, more noticable under higher heat loads.
If the sub-floor is concrete anyway, you won't get sufficiently more flex out of warmboard vs. any other hardwood flooring. But warm board over conventional wood subflooring & joist/truss systems will have a bit of give to it. |
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jmagill
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Basic Member
Posts:237
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| 10/15/2009 10:19 AM |
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| We have radiant in concrete. The thermal mass combined with a well insulated building means that our heating system runs only once a day unless we are down in the -20's and then it will run twice. This happens for a few hours in the middle of the night.
We wake up to wonderfully warm floors, amazing on cold mornings. It dries out all the wet shoes and the cats and dogs love it as much as we do.
We have a simple regular wall thermostat and we have no problems with temp undershots or overshoots. You do learn that you can set the temp at a lower degree as the warm concrete seems more comfortable.
The concrete is harder on the body and I wear good shoes if I am doing a lot of moving around. We acid stained our floors so it was cost effective and very easy to clean.
I forgot to add. There is no quick heating response. You set it and leave it. Not good for weekend homes unless you have a remote way to up the temp before you get there. |
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quailrunner
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New Member
Posts:22
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| 10/21/2009 12:27 PM |
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| One more comment - we have a system w. a micro-pour (gypcrete) over a standard joist-supported subfloor surface (above a basement). The above-comments on "no-give" are correct! When people walked on the floor, it shook - I had to increase the blocking in the joist space below the floor substantially to reduce this effect. The response time is OK, but I've been in a staple-up home and a warmboard (or similar) home, and they are definitely a lot faster. That said, the system is quite efficient and, with a good thermostat (one w. an outside temp sensor seems to be useful), maintains a nice, even heat all winter long. |
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