My First Radiator

sorry to hear about the radiators. They were lookers too.

blrman07 wrote:sorry to hear about the radiators. They were lookers too.

I don't think I'm done yet! It is a pretty good look'in radiator and it will make a great towel warmer. The only problem is, I will have to disassemble it to find out what the problem is. I'm sure it has at least 2 good sections and that's all I really need. This will take some time so it will go to the back burner. The last heating priority I have is the bathroom. I am leaning toward PEX loops clamped to the floor for radiant floor heat. That should work real nice in the bathroom.

-Don

StokerDon wrote:This will take some time so it will go to the back burner. The last heating priority I have is the bathroom. I am leaning toward PEX loops clamped to the floor for radiant floor heat. That should work real nice in the bathroom.

In the bathrooms, I've put in a heated vent with the heat being on a spa timer at my inlaws. You know, the ones you crank to 15 mins and it works down with the buzz, buzz...

They only need minor heat unless you plan to spend some time in there for a shower or whatever. In that case, the quick heat from electric hot air is pretty hard to beat, plus the drying effect.

A towel warmer would be nice and likely maintain a decent temp. Keep up the good work!

I have the bathroom as a last priority because it is my number one priority to get right the first time. It takes me a lot of think'in sometimes to get it right. The way I look at it, the bathroom is the only part of the house where you will be naked and wet at the same time on a daily basis.

I have a coal boiler or two lay'in around here so there is no way I would even consider any type of electric heat. My electric bill is crazy enough with out any heating elements. So, electric is not really an option here.

-Don

Last night I got to work on the radiant floor heat.

I had to pull down some of the duct work to get at the floor. I have 20, four foot extruded aluminum pieces put up that take 1/2" PEX.

Bathroom side. I used a piece of PEX to line up the panels before screwing them in. This keeps them lined up nice so they won't make a lot of expansion and contraction noises. While I was play'in around with this stuff, I decided to go the full length of the floor joists. This takes the radiant all the way under the smallest bedroom. It's not really big enough to put a radiator in so this should get some heat in there. Today I hope to get the PEX banged in. I started doing it last night but after pulling about 50 feet through it kinked badly where it comes out of the box. at that point I said "it's quit'in time!".

-Don

Don, I think you'll like the in floor. It's not silent like the rads, but feels great under the feet. So far so good with my suspended in joist floor system.

What's your mixing valve plan? Or are you planning on just keeping the bairamatic low?

Lookin' good, Don!

I'm sure you know that PEX is healed by heating with a heatgun

For right now, no mixing valve. To get the whole mixing valve thing to work we need a pump for the radiant branch. Keeping the BiarMatic at a low-ish temperature is the plan for now.

DONE!
For now anyway. I banged the PEX in this afternoon and power purged the branch just as this major cold front was blowing through. It was 70* this afternoon, it's 30* now! This is the first real cold weather this Fall so it will be a good test. Unfortunately I ran out of plates. My return line is just run up against the floor with tube talons for now. I might put plates up there later. I guess I should put some insulation up in there. I ran the pump for a couple hours after I was done. The floor didn't get very warm. I think the insulation will help push the heat up through the floor. The BairMatic is still running 120* LO and 140* HI, I might bump it up a little for the cold weather.

-Don

I had some scraps of 1" foamboard insulation left over from the Yellow Flame project. I cut some pieces to fit up in the floor joists. I put them in foil side up right up against the PEX. This should reflect some of the radiant heat up through the floor, I hope.
This radiant floor heat is just running off of a branch of the supply and return headers. So far, this does not make the floor too hot. I plumbed a bypass in to try to lower the heat a little just in case. So far, we have not needed it.

This is the first full day of really cold and windy weather and all the radiators and floor heating is working very well. No more air duct heat exchanger for me!

-Don

THE MONSTER IS IN!!!
I have it piped into the GJ/EFM. This radiator is huge and it takes loads of water. I wasn't timing it but it took a very long time to fill it!
Once I got it full I set the aquastat to 160 degrees. It took over and hour for the stoker to heat up all that water. Once it did heat up, it drove the garage temperature up from 55 degrees to 65 degrees. Cold and windy today, it didn't get above 35* all day.

This thing puts out a ton of heat!

-Don

What a beast! No glow plugs needed for any diesels in that garage!

Shwiinnggg for da fence! It's going...going...going....

Awesome

titleist1 wrote:What a beast! No glow plugs needed for any diesels in that garage!

NOPE!

The diesel and the cat are quite happy. 22 degrees outside this morning, 70 degrees in the garage. That's a bit to much, I'm going to crank it down a couple notches.

Right now the pump is just ON. I need to hook it to a thermostat.

-Don

It's been over a year since I installed the radiators and in floor radiant. Everything is working as good or better than expected. I did make a couple changes for this heating season. The six tube, 14 section is now the only one on the living room zone valve and the six tube, 22 section is on a constant slow gravity flow. The corner radiator is out of the system right now, sorry.

Currently we are pushing heat from a Axeman Anderson 130M in the garage. I thought it would be a good idea to tally up the radiation we have currently attached to the system. I have it calculated for 180* and 140* boiler water.

Thirteen section, 3 column. 11,050BTU / 5,850BTU Six tube, 22 section. 14,960 / 7,920 Six tube, 14 section. 9,520 / 5,040 Five tube, 10 section. 5,950 / 3,100 3 column, 10 section. 8,500 / 4,500 3 column, 7 section. 5,950 / 3,150
3 column, 8 section. 6,800 / 3,680 My wild guess at what the floor radiant puts out. 5,000 / 3,000

That totals up to 67,730BTU @180* / 36,240BTU @ 140* for the house.

Out in the garage we have;
Four column, 19 section. 25,840 / 13,680 Rough calculation of the Small Gentleman Janitor as a radiator. 32,843 / 17,440. WOW! that's a lot! No wonder you should insulate your boiler. Total for the garage is, 58,683BTU @ 180* / 31,300BTU @ 140*. That's a lot more than I thought!

The grand total is, 126,413BTU @ 180* / 67,540BTU @ 140*

The outer radiating surface area of the Small Gentleman Janitor boiler was a real surprise to me.

-Don

Interesting, how are u controlling the in floor in the bathroom?

Are u running the 140 temp?