I know that you all are into your stoves and we are also. Heat with wood at home all the time and have a gas fireplace in our second home and thinking of adding a DV Quadri Fire propane stove also. Question is...our second home is 3 years old and has radiant heat in the first floor. There is a basment beneath. Thing is when it is working well it is great but the last few times we were up we couldn't get the heat up to where the thermostat was registered. Had the heat guy in and he felt it was air in the system. We went home and hope he took care of the air. Question is how do we keep from having this situation happen again. It is not that old and to have issues already. Any help would be appreciated. It is a propane hot water system and there are insulated hoses along the floorboards. Fancy but give my hot air anytime. Thanks.
Anyone familiar with radiant heat in the floor?
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Radiant heat (PEX underfloor and/or tubes in CC) works best when you set the stats and leave it alone. Programable stats and intermitant occupancy would steer me toward other heat types.
Radiant floors do not change temp very quickly for one thing. So if you are trying to heat it up after sitting cold it can be an issue. Have your heating guy install some air vents or something on the manifold for the floor so that air that gets up in that loop has a way of getting out. Mine had air troubles when I first put it in and again after I did some work on the loop. Once air gets in it is hard to get out.
I'm in your area- had a similar situation with a NJ couple with a 2nd home on a Lake in NY - all radiant heat.
I would suggest:
Get yourself a thermostat that you can access by computer or telephone so that you can turn the heat up 12 hours or as necessary before you get there. As mentioned above radiant heat has a slow response. Additionally, if you are close to the design temperature ( 0 degrees in our area) , and you are trying to raise the temperature in the home --- good luck- sometimes it's not possible
Pay close attention to your joist ends (drafts) spend some time & money here to make your house more comfortable, fiberglass insulation is not enough.
To get a quicker response, we installed toeheaters in the floor, to "boost" the temperature, on the high temperature side of the piping. These heaters have a switch built in, so they can be turned off once the house is warm
Good Luck, Chris
I would suggest:
Get yourself a thermostat that you can access by computer or telephone so that you can turn the heat up 12 hours or as necessary before you get there. As mentioned above radiant heat has a slow response. Additionally, if you are close to the design temperature ( 0 degrees in our area) , and you are trying to raise the temperature in the home --- good luck- sometimes it's not possible
Pay close attention to your joist ends (drafts) spend some time & money here to make your house more comfortable, fiberglass insulation is not enough.
To get a quicker response, we installed toeheaters in the floor, to "boost" the temperature, on the high temperature side of the piping. These heaters have a switch built in, so they can be turned off once the house is warm
Good Luck, Chris
All responces posted above are good advice...ie Slow responce- getting system running before you get there- Purging Air-
Sound like an air lock to me too, common with radient systems that start and stop alot- i hear. You mught want to learn how to bleed the air out of your system.
For my OWB and in-slab radient system- I have two curculator pumps- one in the OWB that pushes toward the the house (100' away) and one in the basement that pushes through the slab ( 1800" 3/4 Pex) and back out to the OWB.
Only had one 'air lock' in three years- and that was after a stop and start.
Sound like an air lock to me too, common with radient systems that start and stop alot- i hear. You mught want to learn how to bleed the air out of your system.
For my OWB and in-slab radient system- I have two curculator pumps- one in the OWB that pushes toward the the house (100' away) and one in the basement that pushes through the slab ( 1800" 3/4 Pex) and back out to the OWB.
Only had one 'air lock' in three years- and that was after a stop and start.
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