Garage heat....

[orbit]

...and basement too.

13 years ago mrs. o and I built a custom-designed 2K sq. ft. house, with an attached 750 sq. ft. garage.

Part of the plan was to use radiant heat for the garage and basement. The rest of the house has forced air heat/ac.

Money got tight toward the end of construction. We had the radiant PEX tubing installed in the basement and garage floors before the slabs were poured, but we never installed the manifolds, pumps, and boiler to finish the system.

'Til today. Well, yesterday, too.

We hired a local heating company that we had do some work on my Mom's house last year. Two vans and three guys showed up yesterday to pressure test the system and to hang the Lochinvar Noble Fire Tube NKB110 wall mount boiler on a basement wall.

Today they're finishing up the intake and exhaust venting and manifolds, installing the thermostats, pumps and valves (two zones - one garage, one basement) and hooking up the boiler to the water and gas lines.

The dudes say I should have heat in the garage (and basement) later this afternoon.

They've made a lot of progress so far.

We be spending some of that hard earned retirement money.......

[stoney]

pics please........

[Dinero]

No basement here.

Years ago I bought a used electric furnace to heat the bottom floor of the garage. A couple of years after that I bought a motel type unit with heat and air conditioning and put it upstairs in the garage (in my man cave).

Fast forward to after almost 15 years of retirement, I'm sure glad I did it then.

[Backroad Mike]

Originally Posted by stoney

pics please........

^^ Yeah, this... ^^

[orbit]

Pic of the install.......





Temp in the garage, at startup, was 38°. I've got that one set for 55°.

The garage is finished with sheetrock and insulated walls and ceiling.

You can feel just how cold that floor is by the water coming back through the return lines. Also, center return is the longest, as that's the coldest to the touch.

Glycol/water is running through the whole system.

Heat guys said one or two days to feel a substantial difference in the garage.

They're gonna come back out Tues. or Wed. to do a final check and adjust the pressure in the system.

[Backroad Mike]

Pretty clean install. Is the grey tubing around the heat tube at the floor transition just short pieces to protect from abrasion where it exits the floor?

Those 3 loops through the wall, are those for the garage? Looks like they drilled them from the far side..

Am I seeing two circulation pumps, one on feed and one on return sides?

[orbit]

Mike,

The gray tubing is just protection they put around the PEX as it comes up through the floor.

The three lines coming from the garage were a last minute add by me so, yes, they hammer drilled those holes from the garage side. Easier, I guess, because the pea gravel for the garage floor slab was in place and they didn't have to hoist a drill over their heads otherwise. The foundation is 10" thick with a lot of rebar.

Yep, two circulation pumps as you correctly described.

The little silver boxes on the supply lines on the left side of the boiler are the zone valves.

Those are controlled by the thermostats and open only when their respective zones call for heat.

Garage is up to 43° already.

Balmy.......

[Backroad Mike]

Nice.

Are they using those return valves on the loops to control flow and balance out the zones so the floor heat is even?

Other than the way your feed and return manifolds are organized, I don't see a lot of difference from what we were installing in Alaska more than 27 years ago. Damn that seems like a such a long time ago.

The last one I was part of was a 40 x 50 garage with 14' ceilings. We put 6" x 4' x 8' rigid foam panels on top of the vapor barrier, then tied the loops to wire metal mesh before pouring the lightweight concrete throughout. Turned out awesome.

[orbit]

Originally Posted by Backroad Mike

Nice.

Are they using those return valves on the loops to control flow and balance out the zones so the floor heat is even?

Other than the way your feed and return manifolds are organized, I don't see a lot of difference from what we were installing in Alaska more than 27 years ago. Damn that seems like a such a long time ago.

The last one I was part of was a 40 x 50 garage with 14' ceilings. We put 6" x 4' x 8' rigid foam panels on top of the vapor barrier, then tied the loops to wire metal mesh before pouring the lightweight concrete throughout. Turned out awesome.

Mike,

Those valves can be used to balance the heat.

I checked the basement this morning. I set the thermostat for 68° last night.

Room was an even 68° air temp this morning as I have a few thermometers in different areas of the basement. No one area felt warmer than the other. Now, if we decide to finish the basement, we may have to adjust those valves to balance the rooms better. Right now the basement is just one large room.

The garage is up to 57°, at the thermostat. The thermostat is set for 55°. I ran my hand across different areas of the floor and it's warm to the touch in most areas. However, there are still cool spots. That should eventually balance out. The garage was 38°, at the thermostat, when we started, so it's gonna take a bit for that big slab to even out.

I have thermometer mounted high on the wall, over my work bench, which is the farthest from the boiler, so probably the longest, coldest loop. That read 48° at 5 this morning. Temp now is 51°, so that tells me the heat is working it's way off the floor and up to the ceiling. I have 11' ceiling height in the garage. Garage is a two bay with one tandem stall.

Checked the boiler read out, too. We're putting 120° water out, it's returning at 109°, so the boiler still has a bit of work to do. It's now cycling like a regular furnace.

I tinkered a bit out in the garage this morning, too. Nice to not have water running from my nose because it's cold out. Don't need to wear a stocking cap, either.

I'm impressed so far.

[Backroad Mike]

Sweet.

[Fe Butte]

Nice!


I want some of that in the driveway at the new place.