any thoughts on discreet heating source for a four season unattached studio. no through the wall units. would rather not pump in gas or water. northern climate and probably to be laid in a concrete slab.
i am thinking electric radiant floor heating. only 205 sq. ft. that needs to warm up relatively quickly.
what doth thou think.
Replies
Standard RFH is not fast.
I am not sure that electric RFH would be but just slightly better. With both, you are raising the temperture of the mass of concrete.
Why not look at electric baseboard heat for that small an area? You might might still want to insulate under the slab to minimize heat loss in that direction, but some here say that is negaliable. Electric baseboard heat would be pretty fast and unobtrusive if you have room for it below your window units.
Dave
this thing needs to be pretty sleek. acid wash slab with komodo mats for meditating type sleek.
trying just to warm a room, no "units."
Electric radiant floor heating can work in a concrete slab...Just put down 2" of foam board insulation either underneath the slab or between the slab and your subfloor.No use heating up all that concrete. The slow heat up times you often get with this heat method mostly go away when there is sufficient insulation under the heat source.If my house wasn't a 100 years old... there would go a really fine hobby.
the slab is potentially my finished floor.
backfill with road mix, still lay insulation?, then pour.
doesn't sound too structurally sound.
would love to get efficient heat in the slab radiating upwardds only...oh yeah, no slow heat up time.
thanks for your thoughts.
Thought I might chip in with my $.023 worth on the insulation over fill. Dow Corning makes a product called HI 60, an extruded polystyrene insulation rated at 60PSI (8,640 pounds per square foot). It is often used as insulation under highways to help control frost heave on difficult sites where upgrading the subgrade would be too expensive. Good Engineering practice would dictate allowing for probable creep (long term deflection) of the insulation, however, even at a 75% reduction (unlikely), you can easily expect more than 2,000 pounds per square foot of load capacity. A 6" thick concrete slab with steel reinforcing won't weigh more than 100 PSF and your live load (you & your furniture & guests) won't exceed another 100 PSF. (Total 200 PSF)
Bottom line: 10X more capacity than you need.
Your fill would probably settle more than the insulation would.
Regards.
PS. I got to feeling unhappy about the limitations of the foregoing. Please accept my apologies & this addition.
1. It is important to understand that although able to support high loads when fully supported, the insulation has little ability to support loads over gaps & hollows. It would be best to use a layer of fine aggregate (sand, stonedust) carefully graded, on top of your compacted fill.
Edited 5/27/2005 9:17 am ET by STAINLESS