Looking for some reasonably-priced, simple to use, but good design software for radiant design, loop layout, heat-loss calculations, etc... Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Have you looked at Borst Engineering dot com? For personal use, the price is right. The instructions are very detailed, although you may have to do some outside reading to help get your brain around the specifics of the information required to get a valid output...

Posted By ronmar on 17 Dec 2015 11:49 AM
Have you looked at Borst Engineering dot com? For personal use, the price is right. The instructions are very detailed, although you may have to do some outside reading to help get your brain around the specifics of the information required to get a valid output...

No, I haven't. Thank you. Looks like a good site...

Any other software commonly used? Something similar to LoopCAD without the high price tag?

Thanks again Ronmar!

Here’s the direct link to our hydronic radiant floor heating design software:

Borst Hydronic Radiant Floor Heating Design Software

You will first need to accomplish a heat loss analysis that specifically breaks out the floor downward heat loss from the overall room heat loss. Here’s the direct link to our heat loss analysis software:

Borst Heat Loss Analysis Software

And finally, if you want to determine your fuel usage and associated cost based on your heating degree days and heat source AFUE, COP or HSPF here’s the direct link to our integrated heating system performance software:

Borst Integrated Heating System Performance Software

If you decide to also take advantage of passive solar heat gain, you might want to try our suite of passive solar design software:

Borst Passive Solar Altitude Angle Software

Borst Passive Solar Roof Overhang Design Software

Borst Passive Solar Fenestration Exposure Software

Borst Passive Solar Heat Gain Software

Borst Passive Solar Thermal Mass Performance Software

Thanks sailawayrb... Is there anything else between "free" and the cost of LoopCAD? What are people using commercially?

Mike
Have you ever tried Google Sketchup? You can do 2D and 3d renderings to scale with it. I started playing with it when we finally settled on a floorplan. It allowd me to fairly easilly model the house in 3d so we could virtually "walk-thru" the floorplan and better visualize what we were commiting to I use an older version of autocad to do most of my design work, but found sketchup pretty easy to learn. Lots of Youtube tutorials to help get you started.

Commercial design? I would say most probably use Autocad...

This might be what you are looking for:

Hydronicpros.com

If you are just looking for a CAD PEX tube layout drawing, many places that sell PEX will provide this for you for free if you purchase the PEX from them. However, it is more important accomplish a good heat loss analysis and a good HR circuit/zone design. Many professional HR installers just accomplish the required PEX spacing and circuit lengths that come out of the HR circuit/zone design without need of a CAD PEX tube layout drawing. The required flow rates that come out of the HR circuit/zone design are also used to properly size the HR circulator(s).