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Thread: PEX radiant sub-floor heating under basement floor

  1. #21
    LHBA Member rckclmbr428's Avatar
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    Heat rises
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  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by pip1972 View Post
    The loft is heated just from the heated pad? Or is there a heating source in the loft? Is the loft insulated from the garage/slab area? Is there a living area in the loft? What do you use for the PEX heating source ?
    the loft is heated just from the PEX in the cement slab. there's a game room/man cave in the loft (not necessarily a living area .... dog house maybe?).
    we have a boiler for the heat source though I read that a plain old water heater would work too!

  3. #23
    LHBA Member BoFuller's Avatar
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    I imagine the pad heats the loft very well. My woodstove cooks us out of the upstairs. We have no heaters upstairs and usually sleep with the windows open, even when it's below freezing.

    Heat rises. I'm concocting a plan to duct the heat from the ridge pole area back down to the 1st floor bathroom.


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  4. #24
    Just to clarify, warm AIR rises, heat radiates in every direction from hottest to coldest. just saying.


    Learned this the hard way, with an earth sheltered house, back in the 80s.

  5. #25
    Thanks for clarifying. Now, if the second floor is more of a living space then a loft would just running vents to pass the warm air from the 1st floor to the second be a reasonable solution? I still believe a heating source should be used. Most of the 2nd floor would be hardwood or tile. Could PEX be run in the floor be a good idea to ensure appropriate heating? I would consider either an outdoor boiler or just using a boiler in the garage area. Using a small tractor to bring wood in. One more thing. Would there be any square foot mind or maximus to make that work as planned?

  6. #26
    Ugggh spell check. I am referring to the second floor above.

    Would there be any square foot minimums or maximums to make that work as planned? Meaning size of the pad to heat the structure with assuming no heat source in the living area above.

  7. #27
    Outdoor boiler? Do you run that straight into the pad? What temp enters the pad?

  8. #28
    Your wood stove is on the first floor? What is the square footage for downstairs/upstairs? Do you use PEX in the slab (assuming you have a slab)?



    Quote Originally Posted by BoFuller View Post
    I imagine the pad heats the loft very well. My woodstove cooks us out of the upstairs. We have no heaters upstairs and usually sleep with the windows open, even when it's below freezing.

    Heat rises. I'm concocting a plan to duct the heat from the ridge pole area back down to the 1st floor bathroom.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

  9. #29
    LHBA Member BoFuller's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pip1972 View Post
    Your wood stove is on the first floor? What is the square footage for downstairs/upstairs? Do you use PEX in the slab (assuming you have a slab)?
    No slab. I have a crawl space down under. Under half of the house it is only 2 feet but under the other half it is 5 1/2 feet.

    Stove is on the first floor. First floor is 1,000 sq ft and the upstairs is 750.


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  10. #30
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    My research led me to believe the best efficiency with the pex tubing is more towards the middle of the slab, not the bottom.
    Know how you will fasten the pex and consider allowing for anything penetrating the slab like saw cuts or nailed wall plates before committing to a slab depth.

    The snap in styro panels for pex make for easy install but you may want to use chairs and rebar, etc. instead to raise the pex.

    It can be expensive (or more work, if using wood) heating the earth around a building so in addition to insulating under the slab it makes sense to insulate the perimeter. There are variables in how much heat is lost such as soil type but even a radiant basement slab will lose heat up the wall to the outside just like drafting up a chimney. For a slab on grade the recommendation is to use perimeter Styrofoam to frost line depth or a combination of vertical around the slab and then a horizontal layer to get out past frost line depth. This also increases efficiency for non-radiant heated buildings.

    All this needs to be planned early in the grading/building process.

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