radiant slab heat

[morpho]

Hmmm...just thought of something.
If the heat wants to migrate to the cold...and the room temp is high due to the stove...will that - possibly - mean the slab simply won't emit and will just hold in the heat longer?
I like my version of the world WAY better!

 

[Highbeam]

So you come home and your house is 70 because the slab heat is doing its job. You start a fire because you want to use some cheap btus. Start your fire and the house temp will go up, way up, that slab continues to emit btus for a long time even if you manually shut the boiler off so both heaters are pumping. If you do shut the boiler off for a weekend of burning, at some point your fire goes out and the room temp drops. You then need to start the two day process of heating the slab before the slab will carry the house. If you never shut the boiler off, your house will stay really hot until the fire dies and the heat is lost from your envelope.

If it weren't for the thermal mass of that slab, and the fact that your thermostat is based on slab temps, you could effectively switch back and forth from slab to stove just as you would do with a forced air furnace. Your thermal mass means you can't shut off the slab when you start your stove so you'll get hot. You've got to think well ahead and activate or deactivate your boiler.

If I were in your shoes, I would commit to wood burning as a means of raising my house from 60 to 75 and let the slab stay heated to a temperature that would generate a 60 degree house without the fire.

 

[morpho]

Thats what I will try first then.
(I think this is what Eatenbylimestone was alluding to as well.)

Thanks Highbeam...and Eaten.