What thermal transfer plates can offer

[in hot water]

This shows the heat transfer with and without plates. Notice the peaks to valleys in the direct tube staple up. This is across an 8" wide spread, generally two tubes per joist bay are installed.

Use the 140F (green) for example the plateless staple up shows a surface of 82.3 in a very narrow peak. The plate install shows a 87.3 but also spreads that temperature across the 8" wide area much better.

So two plate inside a 14-1/2" wide joist bay would have a very even temperature output.

As the floor output is 2 btu/ square foot per degree difference between room and floor surface you see the importance of having to entire surface up to temperature. Tthat is where the direct tube staple system trip and fall on cold or design days, they just stripe the surface with temperature and fail to provide the required BTU output to the room.

Granted adding floor covering, even wood or tile does help spread that peak out on the plateless, but no where near what aluminum transfer plates can provide.

If the heatload is low, or the radiant floor is supplemental, staple up works ok, but it is not a 25- 30 BTU/ ft design system.

If I had a dollar for every customer that called with an underperforming staple up system

hr

 

[barnartist]

Thanks HR. How about 50 cents from me because half of my home will be staple up and the other half will be using strategically placed transfer plates.

 

[Patch]

Use the 140F (green) for example the plateless staple up shows a surface of 82.3 in a very narrow peak. The plate install shows a 77.3 but also spreads that temperature across the 8" wide area much better.

hr

Is this correct? The chart on the right, green line shows a peak at 87.3 not 77.3. More conduction/radiation over a larger area.

First time seeing a thermal image. Thanks.

john