Heating a Kennel (need help posting pics)

[rombi]

This is a great place, I can ask my stupid questions and someone might know what I am talking about. I have a dog kennel that I board dogs at. It is about 1000 sq. feet. I have an Aquatherm that is parked inside of it and it also feeds my house. I put in-floor heat when I built it but it takes too much wood to heat the kennel so I put up a small heat exchanger on the ceiling. I think it is too small (I think it is rated for 600 sq. ft.) Anyway when it gets around 0 out the max I can keep the kennel at is 55. Very comfortable for the dogs but I think if I get a proper heater in there it would work better.
So what would you recomend for a heating unit in there. It is an all insulated block building with cheap windows so I know it is not a very easy place to heat. When I measured the heat coming out of the heat exchanger it was at 75 degrees. It has just a little fan pushing through the radiator. There is hardly any heat loss between the in temp pipe and the return pipe.
Anybody follow this mess of words.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I think your best bet all around would be infloor radiant, but that may or may not be a practical solution for you. Cast iron radiators are great radiant heating sources, and they work better at lower water temps than baseboard, plus they hold the heat for a lot longer. I don't know about dogs, but we have three cats who just love to curl up in front of a hot radiator.

 

[heaterman]

Whoa there pardna! Is this quote a typo or did you really mean to say this..........

"I put in-floor heat when I built it but it takes too much wood to heat the kennel so I put up a small heat exchanger on the ceiling."

If, and this is a huge if, you a properly desinged and installed radiant floor system, there is nothing more economical to run regardless of heat source. Neither is there anything that the animals like better than a warm floor. There are lot's of good reasons radiant heat is the system of choice for zoo's all over the world.

Back up and tell us about your radiant floor install. How much insulation and what type underneath the slab, what size tube, loop length, flow rate per circuit etc etc etc.

Inquiring minds want to know.

PS: there are no stupid questions

 

[rombi]

Good point.
The in-floor was designed by the guy that I bought the boiler from. He designed it with a 2.5 foot "cold" area down the middle of the dog kennels. The building with the dogs in it is 40 by 12 if I remember right. We ran the loops as directed and I would be lying if I gave you the specifics of it. I will look for that info, I know I have it.
I know we put two inches of pink styro under it. There are two loops in the system and I think there is 600 feet of tubing. I know I should remember more about this but after fighting with this floor last year and pounding wood through it all winter I just gave up on it.
Let me see if I remember some of the numbers
Going in heat after mixing valve was around 110, water temp coming back from floor loops was around 93 when the slab was warm. It seemed that my boiler was always on draft and the wood went bye-bye in a hurry. My laymens view was I had 93 degree water mixing with 175 and it was bringing it down enough to kick in my draft. I talked several times with the Aqautherm dealer and he said my temps coming back were good. I sent him pics and I did what he told me to and he was kind of at a loss. I spent a lot of money on this floor and now I am using a ceiling hx.

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

600 feet sounds right for that floor area. What size tubing, and what sot of pump do you have installed? Is there a bypass system to provide cold-shock protection for the boiler?

Joe

 

[rombi]

I am pretty sure it was 1/2" and I do not know about the bypass. All I know is when I turn the floor on the system temp comes down in a hurry and has a hard time staying hot.

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

I am pretty sure it was 1/2" and I do not know about the bypass. All I know is when I turn the floor on the system temp comes down in a hurry and has a hard time staying hot.

Sounds like you're getting cold radiant water directly into the boiler.

Definitely need some sort of cold-shock protection.

Ideal would be a primary-secondary piping system with a decent controller. It will hydraulically separate the radiant water from the boiler water, only mixing them as-needed to keep the radiant loop hot, and not shocking the boiler with cold water.

Joe

 

[rombi]

Can I take some pics of the system and post them on here?

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

Can I take some pics of the system and post them on here?

Absolutely.

Joe

 

[webbie]

FYI, just for long ago trivia info.

I have a good friend who used to be in this biz....sold a solid fuel device to a kennel. It got very cold one winter, and said kennel over-fired the unit. Class A chimney caught the roof on fire, and place burned to the ground...and with it the dogs!

The case was in court a REALLY long time, and everyone involved was deposed, from the hangers of the ductwork to the chimney maker.

Not saying you should not do this, just please make certain that everything is up to exactly code and approved by insurance companies and code officials. People can hear smoke alarms and run...caged animals cannot. And, as we all know, people tend to value their animal....quite a lot!

So, be safe. Do it right.

 

[rombi]

I know I thought about this a long time and have taken all that into account while buildind and getting isnsurance. If anyone wants to get rid of a lot of money build a kennel and wait for the business to spread by word of mouth. I do like it though, we get to meet a lot of nice dogs and a few nice people. The thought of it burning down does scare the hell out of me. I could always move my boiler outside of the building and plumb it in. I have thought about that as well, but I think that the set-up is safe the way it is.

 

[rombi]

Here are somw pics, I hope

 

[leaddog]

Here is a link on useing radiant heat in kennels. There is a lot of info here about radiant heat by Fred Seton. I'm no expert so I don't know how good his info is but it sounds like he has had alot of experience.
http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/page38.html

Leaddog

 

[rombi]

That was good to read, we did leave a nice cool spot for them to sleep on. Well since I haven't been using the floor heat anyway they have all the cool areas they want to lay on. The little heater is chugging away but it keeps it 55 when it is cold and the dogs look they are happy when they are in there sleeping. Thanks for posting that info, looks like I at least did one thing right with the floor heating, just have to figure the rest out.

 

[rombi]

Bringing one out from years ago. I am going to take some pics and see if someone (myself) can post them up in here. I want to figure this out.