I’m building an addition to my house. There are two stories both with concrete floors with inbeded PEX tubing (each floor is on a seperate termostat). The question is–do you insulate the first floor ceiling. The curent hose is built the same way with no insulation between floors. Thanks in advance.
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I'll give this a bump for you.
Don't have an answer for you , but the bump will get your post back to the top of the list.
I would provide fg batt insulation between floor joists/trusses to help deaden sound transfer between floors.
For a lightweight concrete pour with tubes on top of the subfloor, unless you cover this with a very poor conductor (like a thick, cheap carpet) insulating under the subflooring is of very little benefit.
Some of the ICF systems have formwork for doing ceilings/floors and also provide the insulation.
Don't how you are doing your walls or if they could be used with non-ICF walls.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I suffered last mild winter with crazy heating bills on a second home turned down low when we were not there. I have RFH in gypcrete on my first floor. After writing within others on here, I was told to insulate the 1st floor below the PEX. I can say at this time my basement is cooler down there and the heat runs a little more on that zone if I turn it up to 55 or more. The wood stove heats the area very nicely in short order if I am going to work down there.
We do not have children and at 47 never will. :-) I would also insulate the second floor below the RFH if I had installed it. I opted for baseboard to save a few bucks and put that money into a central AC system. Later in life it's easy to install a humidifier. For now I'll enjoy the AC when we want it.
I did not install insul under mine (I have imbedded pex) but a few people have told me that it is more effecient to insulate below the floor to help push the heat up)
I always thought that the heat would rise, but what do I know.
I can say that my basement stays cool (we keep the zone turned way down) and the first floor is nice.
"I always thought that the heat would rise, but what do I know."Heat does not rise.Heated air does.Heat transfers by 3 methods, convestion, conduction, and radiant.With convestion the hot surface heat the air by conduction and then the heat air expands and move rises, being lighter than the surrounding air.Conduction heats anything that is in direct contact with the heated surface.Radiant radiates in all directions equally depending on the emmsivity of the surfaces..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Thanks Bill for the good description of heat transfer.
I should have known that and probably learned it, but did not remember.
It makes sence so hopefully I will remember moving forward.
So does that imply that I should insulate between floors to isolate the two heating loops?
I amnot that familr with radiant heat, but yes it is my understanding that you need some insulation on the bottom of radiant floor..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Most practical choice is foil faced FG batts between the floor joists.