DIY Radiant Heat Supplies | Hydronic Radiant Floor Heat

Let's go over a few of the DIY radiant heat supplies you will be needing for a closed loop hydronic radiant floor heating system with domestic water. This is a radiant heating setup which utilizes your domestic hot water tank as a heat source for the in floor or radiator heating as well.

Radiant Heat Supplies:

-Hot Water Tank
-Flat Plater Heat Exchanger (FPHE)
-Circulating Pump
-Valves and Checkvalves
-Expansion Tank
-Manifolds
-PEX tubing or Radiators
-Brackets, Clamps and Fittings

If this is a renovation, then you will already have a traditional hot water tank in place. If this is a new installation, you will need to get one. It is better to have a larger capacity tank. Too small of a tank will mean it is constantly working, trying to keep up to demand.

The heated water flows from the water tank to a Flat Plate Heat Exchanger, and loses it's heat into the radiant heating system's fluid through the FPHE. The now cool water returns to the hot water tank to be heated yet again. At any time someone in the house can open a tap and this hot water will flow there instead.

The reason for the FPHE is to keep the domestic water fresh and completely separate from the heating system fluid, which circulates endlessly in a loop. The water leaves the FPHE warmed up, and the circulating pump moves it along through the PEX tubing, radiators or other radiant heating devices. As it passes through these, it loses it's heat. This heat then radiates through your floor and house.

Other radiant heat supplies are one way valves or check valves to prevent water flowing backwards at any point. You always want the hot water moving forward through the loop in the same direction.

There will also be an expansion tank in the heating system loop. This tank will allow expansion due to heating and cooling of the fluid a place to go, without rupturing or stressing any of your tubing, pipes or other components. As such, it is a very important piece and without it the entire diy radiant heat system might fail and have a leak.

Supply and return manifolds split the water into multiple lines for different PEX tubing loops or radiators. There should be a temperature gauge, a pressure gauge and a bleedoff valve or device to remove air from the system.

A variety of clamps, fittings and brackets round out your radiant heating supply needs. There are special clamps to connect the PEX tubing to the fittings.

This is a general guideline of radiant heat supplies you will need for your diy radiant heat installation. For more detailed information, visit a local plumbing shop or supplier. This will be the best place to pick up supplies for your hydronic radiant floor heat system.

DIY Hydronic Radiant Floor Heat

I was never happy with the floors in our home. In the winter, which is about seven months where I live, my feet were always cold. We have a crawl space under the house and insulated skirting. I decided to start checking into heating solutions for our home.

I looked into solar water heating, but our northern climate doesn't get much sun in the winter. I researched electric floor radiant heating and decided it wasn't cost effective for me. Overall, it was looking like DIY hydronic radiant floor heating with an outdoor wood boiler would be the way I wanted to go.

My first challenge was finding my funds for the radiant heat supplies. I made up a plan of my do it yourself instalation and ran my parts list past a local hardware and home improvement center. The cost was a bit more than I had hoped but I decided to go ahead with my plan.

With an existing wood floor, there are two ways to proceed with hydronic heating. You can remove the flooring, lay down the PEX tubing and recover it with laminate or hardwood. This will raise the floor by as much as two inches, and I didn't want to raise the floor since this would involve refinishing the whole inside of my house.

The second method would be to install the tubing underneath the floor, using brackets and hangers. While this would require me to crawl under my house on my back and drill holes in the floor joists, I figured that would be easier than redoing all of my flooring.

The pump, holding tank and thermostatic controls I placed in the utility and laundry room. I brought the line from the boiler through the floor here. The boiler hot water line and return line had to have extra insulation on them and we buried them eight feet deep to avoild freezing them if the frost went into the ground too far.

It was a lot of work installing a DIY radiant heat system. It paid off though. Now when I walk through my house I don't need slippers to keep my tootsie from freezing off. The wife and children like it as well. The added bonus is our heating costs have dropped, since I use a wood fired boiler instead of a propane heating system.

DIY Radiant Heat

DIY radiant floor heating is an energy saving method to heat your home and save money on installation as well. Heat is channeled in the floor to provide warmth for the whole house. Infrared radiation moves by convection, and the heat rises from the floor with the natural propagation of heat waves and air movement. Not only does radiant floor heating help reduce allergies because less air is moved around, but efficiency is increased as heat from the air duct systems doesn't leak out en route to its destination.

Two different types of radiant floor heating are common nowadays: hydronic (water) and electric. It depends on the circumstances and money available on which one makes the most sense for you.

Heated water or hydronic systems use hot water to circulate the warmth. The heated water radiant floor heating is generally the most effective and cost efficient radiant floor heating to use. The heated water is circulated through piping or tubing placed under the floor or in between joists. The piping system is attached to a boiler that is used to heat the water. You can utilize gas, wood, or solar power to heat the water before circulation.

Electric radiant floors are made of a mat placed under the floor or with electric cables. This is quite often placed over concrete. In this case, the system can actually store heat to further lower heating bills. In general, electricity can cost more than other utilities, but with storing heat in a large area of cement the heating system can yield a net gain.

Starting out, it seems like diy radiant heat is extremely costly. Initial outlay will usually be recovered and more in a fairly short period of time. The cost will depend on the total area to heat and the method chosen. Many homeowners and do it yourselfers will use in floor heat for renovations and upgrades, but it is easiest of course to install at the time of initial construction.

In order to do your own installation, you will need to have knowledge in plumbing for the hydronic floor heat. There will be a lot of PEX piping to install, and connections at the water pmp and boiler or heater. For all types of installation you will need to know how to install your electrical connections, or be able to hire a professional electrician to do it for you after you have placed the rest of the components.

All in all, in floor radiant heating is more cost effective and efficient than forced air heating. It also provides a gentler and more pervasive heat in the home, making it seem warmer and cosier.