I have both radiant floor heat and baseboards in my downstairs. My understanding is that they perform differently at different temps. My issue is that they are all on one zone and I was wondering what my best temperature range is.
Ideas
Ideas
Max and Min water temperature
- Thread starter Toast
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WoodNotOil
Minister of Fire
Most pex can't go over 180* and baseboard like to be at 180*. It looks like you want to shoot for about 175* and not let it get below about 160*. The other thing would be to put a mixing valve on the radiant so that the system can be over 180*. That is assuming there is no pex elsewhere. Most of the time mixing valves are used in systems like yours.
Nofossil
Moderator Emeritus
If the radiant is in a slab, you don't want to run it anywhere near 180 degrees - more like 100 degrees would be appropriate. You may need to separate the baseboards from the radiant and set up the radiant with a mixing valve and its own circulator.
The radiant is under the hard wood floor. it is stapled up with Al flashing, below that is a layer of foil-bubble-bubble-foil. I am trying to manage the time inbetween fires. My understanding is that fires are more efficiant if they are allowed to burn fast. However, my furnace will slow down when the aquastat gets to 180. So i need either more storage, or i need to get the heat out of the water, or both.
My current storage is a large electric water heater.... If i get the temp to 180, how far down can i draw the temperature before it no longer is useful for heat?
Next question ... if i separate the boards from the floor. should i use copper on the baseboards. And if i use copper can i set the aquastat higher?
My current storage is a large electric water heater.... If i get the temp to 180, how far down can i draw the temperature before it no longer is useful for heat?
Next question ... if i separate the boards from the floor. should i use copper on the baseboards. And if i use copper can i set the aquastat higher?
WoodNotOil
Minister of Fire
Toast said:
Wood floors like a temp between 120-140*, slightly higher than a slab. However, I have run hotter water than that through it and been fine. The real limit with wood floors is that the pex can't go over 180* and the floor should not be heated over 85*. I have a sensor in my wood floors for the thermostat. I don't think baseboards work well under about 160*, but I may be wrong.
Toast said:
Not sure on that one. If there is no pex involved, then I think it could go higher than 180*.
My suggestion is to put in large storage if you want longer burns. Homemade storage doesn't have to cost a lot.
Nofossil
Moderator Emeritus
I run my baseboards down to 120 degrees, but they really don't put much heat out below 140. If you split baseboards from radiant, then I'd plumb the baseboards and the high-temp part of the radiant loop on copper. The low-temp part of the radiant loop can be PEX.
If you ever do storage, the PEX will increase the effective capacity of your storage because you'll get useful heat out of stored water down to somewhere around 100 degrees.
If you ever do storage, the PEX will increase the effective capacity of your storage because you'll get useful heat out of stored water down to somewhere around 100 degrees.
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