OT: Warm floors

[silence dogood]

After having spent 2 summers at McMurdo, Antarctica what you are speaking of is warm. A nice warm sunny summer day there was only down to 20F below. When I got home, well back in the States, I settled in the deep south. It doesnt snow here. After 50 years, I'm allergic to anything below. Wife is from Maine and came here for the same reason. We run the house from 65 to 70F. I wear long sleeves and have an electric blanket for anything below 70F. With wood floors, Wife's preference. I wish there was a reasonable way to heat the flooors in a 100 year old house.
I have read that having the floors heated, one can reduce the ambient far below 75F. Sounds plausable to me. All I have is rugs.

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Bill, after Antarctica, I'm surprise that you didn't move to south Florida or better yet Hawaii.

 

[Bi11Hudson]

After my discharge, I sort of did. Settled in N. Florida, then a little later went to Guam. But Guam didn't sit right with me, too much military, too many places even the locals weren't allowed to go. So I came (back) to mid Alabama. Plenty of steel industry so I could shop around. But it does freeze here occasionally. I've told a couple of sea stories on this site about the steel industry. But the most compelling reason was inheriting a house. A place to live that's paid for. Not much of a place, I call it a dump. But it's MY dump. In my 50s and 60s with a bad case of wanderlust, I couldn't ask for more.

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[MikeInOr]

I have carbon film heat under my engineered wood floors and the thermal wire in the tile floors. Big box store prices are ridiculous on these items. I found them online for a fraction of what home depot or lowes would have cost.

 

[Alcap]

We moved into a bilevel built in the sixties and wanted a porch added on . Had a contractor do the outside work my job was to heating system . The house has oil fired hot water baseboard the copper fin type . I needed to remove the section under the existing window so a sliding door could be installed . After removing all but about a foot of tubing from the corner of the room I installed a adjustable temperature control valve ( might have been called something different) it’s set for the water temperature 112*f to go through the Pex tubing under the dining room and kitchen , water above that goes in a copper line returning to the furnace, the floor heat returns to that after the kitchen. The worst part of the job was cutting all the harden nails from the underside from the hardwood floors .

 

[Cadillac]

We moved into a bilevel built in the sixties and wanted a porch added on . Had a contractor do the outside work my job was to heating system . The house has oil fired hot water baseboard the copper fin type . I needed to remove the section under the existing window so a sliding door could be installed . After removing all but about a foot of tubing from the corner of the room I installed a adjustable temperature control valve ( might have been called something different) it’s set for the water temperature 112*f to go through the Pex tubing under the dining room and kitchen , water above that goes in a copper line returning to the furnace, the floor heat returns to that after the kitchen. The worst part of the job was cutting all the harden nails from the underside from the hardwood floors .

did you put any kind of reflective shield up after the pex ? Ive read of putting a shielding up to reflect the heat upward Then a layer of insulation if on a crawl space.

 

[Alcap]

The Pex is held up with aluminum transfer plates , then a foil type of insulation stapled slightly below , can’t remember but 3” to create a air pocket . Theres a finished room below

 

[Eddyde]

I'm planning to convert my house from oil fired boiler with hydronic radiators to a radiant floor, PEX system, heated by an LP tankless water heater. I know some claim that oil is cheaper but I think at least 30% of my heat is going up the chimney. The tankless heaters are up to 98% efficient, the exhaust gasses are so cool they are vented through PVC pipe. I am lucky in that I have a full basement and access to the underside of all the floors, so I don't have to rip up anything. Still it's surely going to be a brutal job.
I also have a pellet stove that I use for supplemental heat and ambiance. The wife demands at least 70º 24/7...