Heated floors?

[coryatjohn]

>> what happened in 1997 when there were places without power for 6 to 8 weeks in the dead of winter

I can't imagine what that would be like. The longest I've ever suffered a power outage for was about ten hours. That's in 56 years of life.

[t28c34]

Thats what has worried me since i put my heated floor in. I picked up a good deal on a 7000 watt generator this fall, so im covered. My shop is 1800sf pole barn with 12 foot walls and open rafter area. bought the palce 3 years ago and had to pour the floor in. The walls are insulated but not that great as far as i can tell. Ceiling rafters are enclosed but no insulation. The entire inside of the shop is caulked and sealed with 1/2 inch chip board. The floor water is heated with a propane on demand water heater. We strugled though the first winter with a HUGE propane bill and could not get the shop near 60 degrees on really cold and windy days unless the heater ran all day. The floor and sides of the slab have 4 in foam so i know its not the problem. I think it is just a poorly insulated building.
Janruary of 2013 is when we stoped using propane for heat in the shop and our 1900sf house. We now heat useing a Central Boiler 2400 outdoor wood boiler for heating the shop floor and house. I can keep the shop at 68-70 degrees on cold windy days, and the house at 72. But with that polar vortex thing that passed though i had trouble. I had to break down and give the major heat load to the house. Just to darn cold, the wind was going right though the shop. had to turn it down to 40 degrees, where it was stable.
Now for how much wood i use? Well my brother runs a sawmill so wood is not hard to find. Just a matter of keeping ahead with seasoned wood. 2013/2014 is my first full heating season and i have gone through about 10 cord of wood. The boiler works best with seasond wood, which i have yet to keep ahead of.

[myxpykalix]

has anyone installed electric heating in their floors?

[gpinard]

Jack
I put an electric snow melt system in a 40x60 approach apron to a fire station. rebar grid to support what looked like 12 ga romex wiring. 200 amp service to run it. no idea about costs to run it.

[mwpfeifer]

I also have hydronic in-floor/baseboard heating in my shop and home. I can't really provide any really accurate numbers as to cost to heat but I use between 10 to 12 cords of firewood in my Central Boiler outdoor furnace. Firewood is readily available here in northern MN at a cost of about $80 dollars a cord delivered in log length ( I get some much needed summertime exercise cutting and splitting this into shorter chunks). The house (1800 sq ft)stays at a constant temp of about 68-70 degrees with the circulation pumps turning off and on as the thermostat demands. Biggest problem I have is regulating the temp in the shop as it's a poorly insulated 24x30 pole barn that I have converted into my shop. If I can keep the temp at about 60 degrees I can usually keep the snow on the roof from melting and creating ice dams otherwise I get a few minor leaks. Still working on finding and getting those fixed each summer. This system has a propane backup in the event we have to leave for a few days and there is a small generator that handles the circulator pumps in the event of a power failure.

[dlcw]

>> what happened in 1997 when there were places without power for 6 to 8 weeks in the dead of winter

I can't imagine what that would be like. The longest I've ever suffered a power outage for was about ten hours. That's in 56 years of life.

There was a huge ice storm that took out virtually the entire above ground power grid. This is a VERY rural area and people back in the sticks were the ones without power for so long.

[chunkstyle]

Jack,

We put in radiant floor heating in the 1st and 2nd floors of the shop/studio. We also went with a condensing boiler using propane. Since were out in the fringe a bit and ice storms have been known to occur I hung a non-venting convection wall heater in the downstairs area in case I need to throw heat into the shop while the power is out.

We went with a Munchkin boiler that was also being branded for Peerless.
Biggest problem we had was the control panel design. I attribute that to over reliance on the design software the HVAC company used to calculate the heads of the diferent circuits and size pumps accordingly. Real world conditions proved them wrong and the zones never functioned as they were designed to. Lots of short cyling of the bioler and fault outs.Talking to many installers on job sites has given me a better understanding of what really works in the field and why. I plan on tearing into control panel this spring and redoing the zone pumps and boiler loop. Just a word of caution there. It is a balancing act of components. I had my panel done by a large company that did nothing but this style of heating.
Also, I don't feel a high efficiency condensing boiler is what I would do again knowing what I know now. Parts are very expensive and the first time you need to replace something you've just blown any perceived savings in fuel costs. I would look at a high output hot water heater for reliability and maintenance costs. As it is I am looking at a $400.00 fan bill right now as the circuit board leaks a little voltage to the fan causing it to turn a very slooow rpm but its enough to fault out the boiler. Nope, that pc board is not available by itself. Gotta buy the whole fan unit. Sigh... Simpler is better when it comes to sub zero nights in the middle of January IMHO.
The heat is great though and I couldn't imagine heating a shop any other way.
As always, my insight is worth what you paid for it.

Tim