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   Guest_ | Jun 02, 2000 10:07pm | #4

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   Hi Guys, I have a small 6'x8'room in my house which originally had a concrete floor. Then I laid 2X4 sleepers and insulation down on the concrete with 3/4" plywood for a floor and some forced water baseboard heating. I now have to rearrange the heating in that small room because of a renovation involving numerous cuts through the baseboard. I want to simply take up the 3/4" plywood and lay down a grid of copper pipes on top of the insulation and then replace the 3/4" ply to effect a heated floor. Then the plywood would be covered with vinyl tile. Any problems that you fellas foresee fellst approach to heating the room?

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   Guest_ | May 28, 2000 11:42pm | #1

   *Hi Ron,I don't know the orientation of your room or it's heating requirements, but by warming the floor, whatever supplementary heating that may or may not be required would be minimal.I like warm floors so good luck.Gabe

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   Guest_ | May 30, 2000 04:41am | #2

   *Ron, A few small items...1) consider using a short run of PEX instead of Cu. One continuous run will do it, with no soldered joints to worry over. It'll take 5 minutes to lay out the PEX, much longer to solder the Cu.2) If you do use RFH, it may be quite easy to overheat the room by running baseboard-temp water through the tubing. You can have a very basic heat calc run, and design-wise, instead of running "X feet" of half-inch PEX, you can get better, more even floor heat by running a longer length of 3/8ths. The more even heating will be easier on the tile as well, which leads to:3) Check with the tile manufacturer regarding the tile installation over what will essentially be RFH. Baseboard water temps run much higher than regular radiant setups, just make sure that the vinyl tile adhesive will hold (long term) with whatever temp your water will be circulating at.Good luck!

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   Kwan_Choi | Jun 02, 2000 06:49pm | #3

   *Here is little I know: your approach heats the space under the floor, not the floor itself. This has problems on its own as a radiant heating. The wood floor also will be an insulator, not a conductor of heat. Check http://www.danholohan.com and get Hydronic Radiant Heating. The suggestion about using PEX is good, but you will have to install controls to lower the water temperature going into the tube. I wish I could get radiant heating in the floor as well but after some research, it doesn't look like DIY project.

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   Guest_ | Jun 02, 2000 10:07pm | #5

   *The design water temperature for baseboard heat is not the same as for radiant. You will probably be unhappy with this arrangement, which will likely result in the floor being too hot. Jeff