# OT: Warm floors



## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

My solution to swarf getting in the home carpet is to get rid of the carpet.  But on days like today, 12 degrees F outside, it is a bit chilly.   We keep the house heated only to the mid 50's.  Recently remodeled the bathroom, put in a tile floor and new tile shower.  Sounds truly decadent, but getting older, some luxuries are worthwhile.  Under the ceramic tile we put in the electric tile heater.  Delightful on a day like today.  Major points with the wife.


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## Reddinr (Jan 20, 2022)

Did the same a few years ago.  Well worth the extra cost I think.  In our house, the master bedroom/bath is on the far end of a rambler and the coolest part of the house.


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## Just for fun (Jan 20, 2022)

We have heated floors in the house and the shop.   Love headed floors.


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## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

Reddinr said:


> Did the same a few years ago.  Well worth the extra cost I think.  In our house, the master bedroom/bath is on the far end of a rambler and the coolest part of the house.


Same thing, master suite is at the far end from the central furnace.  We put a ductless heat pump in the master too.


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## ConValSam (Jan 20, 2022)

rabler said:


> We keep the house heated only to the mid 50's.


Is that a typo? Brrrrr, I'm chilled just thinking about that temperature: you are a better man than I.


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## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

ConValSam said:


> Is that a typo? Brrrrr, I'm chilled just thinking about that temperature: you are a better man than I.


No typo.  We're outside, or in the shop so much of the day it doesn't make sense to warm up the house.  We use the ductless heat pump to keep the master bedroom at 62, which is as low as the Panasonic units go, but the bedroom is a bit warmer.


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## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

We ran the heat under the shower too


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## RJSakowski (Jan 20, 2022)

I used to own an old farmhouse with little in the way of insulation.  We heated with LP at the time and it was expensive even at 1970's prices. At the time we worked away from home and would be gone for 10 - 12 hours each weekday.  While we were gone, I set the thermostat at 45º and set it to come up to 65º a half an hour before our expected return time.  At night, I set the temperature to 55º and set it to warm up a half an hour before we got up.

Over that winter, I graphed run times for the "on" and "setback" time and calculated the ratio, including the first warmup period in the "setback " group.  When I compared the results, I concluded that I had save more than 50% on heating costs doing this.


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## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

RJSakowski said:


> I used to own an old farmhouse with little in the way of insulation.  We heated with LP at the time and it was expensive even at 1970's prices. At the time we worked away from home and would be gone for 10 - 12 hours each weekday.  While we were gone, I set the thermostat at 45º and set it to come up to 65º a half an hour before our expected return time.  At night, I set the temperature to 55º and set it to warm up a half an hour before we got up.
> 
> Over that winter, I graphed run times for the "on" and "setback" time and calculated the ratio, including the first warmup period in the "setback " group.  When I compared the results, I concluded that I had save more than 50% on heating costs doing this.


Southern Wisconsin's climate is definitely colder than here.  Some of those old farm houses there are scary.  Lived in one about 30 miles W of Madison that we joked you could start a marble in the middle of the floor and it would build up enough speed from the slope to go through the wall by the time it got there.


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## RJSakowski (Jan 20, 2022)

rabler said:


> Southern Wisconsin's climate is definitely colder than here.  Some of those old farm houses there are scary.  Lived in one about 30 miles W of Madison that we joked you could start a marble in the middle of the floor and it would build up enough speed from the slope to go through the wall by the time it got there.


Whereabnouts did you live?  We are 25 miles west of Madison halfway between 18/151 and 14.


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## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

@RJSakowski 
About 5 miles SW of Mazomanie.  Intersection of county K and KK.  That was back around 1970.
We had a Mazomanie phone prefix (on a party line, who remembers those?)
Arena Fire service
Black Earth Schools
Blue Mounds mail address.


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## matthewsx (Jan 20, 2022)

We have heated floors (boiler fed) in our Michigan home, agree they are the bees knees.

When we finished our bedroom over the garage we put infloor heat there too, it worked for one season then quit. Have never been able to find someone who could fix it and eventually put a mini-split up there. 
At least I don't have to carry the window AC unit up there for summer anymore

John


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## RJSakowski (Jan 20, 2022)

rabler said:


> @RJSakowski
> About 5 miles SW of Mazomanie.  Intersection of county K and KK.  That was back around 1970.
> We had a Mazomanie phone prefix (on a party line, who remembers those?)
> Arena Fire service
> ...


I am about 3 miles south of there,  just west of K.  I moved there in 1978.


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## Janderso (Jan 20, 2022)

rabler said:


> My solution to swarf getting in the home carpet is to get rid of the carpet.  But on days like today, 12 degrees F outside, it is a bit chilly.   We keep the house heated only to the mid 50's.  Recently remodeled the bathroom, put in a tile floor and new tile shower.  Sounds truly decadent, but getting older, some luxuries are worthwhile.  Under the ceramic tile we put in the electric tile heater.  Delightful on a day like today.  Major points with the wife.


Mid 50’s, brrrrrrrrr.
We keep ours at 70.


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## Janderso (Jan 20, 2022)

RJSakowski said:


> I used to own an old farmhouse with little in the way of insulation.  We heated with LP at the time and it was expensive even at 1970's prices. At the time we worked away from home and would be gone for 10 - 12 hours each weekday.  While we were gone, I set the thermostat at 45º and set it to come up to 65º a half an hour before our expected return time.  At night, I set the temperature to 55º and set it to warm up a half an hour before we got up.
> 
> Over that winter, I graphed run times for the "on" and "setback" time and calculated the ratio, including the first warmup period in the "setback " group.  When I compared the results, I concluded that I had save more than 50% on heating costs doing this.


Way ahead of your time sir.


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## Janderso (Jan 20, 2022)

rabler said:


> Southern Wisconsin's climate is definitely colder than here.  Some of those old farm houses there are scary.  Lived in one about 30 miles W of Madison that we joked you could start a marble in the middle of the floor and it would build up enough speed from the slope to go through the wall by the time it got there.


My brother use to live in Sturgeon bay, WI. He spent one winter there and left in the Spring. Never looked back.
He said it was too darn cold.


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## rabler (Jan 20, 2022)

Janderso said:


> My brother use to live in Sturgeon bay, WI. He spent one winter there and left in the Spring. Never looked back.
> He said it was too darn cold.


We went from there to Duluth, Mn.  *Significantly* colder there.  My father left Duluth when he retired, to move south.  He's just on the other side of the Mississippi, in NE Iowa.  

I remember driving home from college to visit the folks in Duluth over Christmas one year.  Got just north of Rice Lake, Wi about 3am, and the car (a VW diesel rabbit) started to run really rough.   Pulled over, stepped out of the car and immediately knew the problem.  It was pushing -30 below and last I'd filled up was in Northern Illinios, with diesel #2.  Hitchhiked to a gas station, added a pint of gasoline to the tank, and was off and running happily again.  There are downsides to getting too much gas (diesel) mileage.  I do not miss sub zero temperatures!!


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## silence dogood (Jan 20, 2022)

When I was station in Korea back in 1969, there was a type of heating system called ondol.  Archaeological remains go back 5000BC.  Basically, you have a fireplace with the chimney that goes under the floor of the building.  The masonry will radiate the heat and keep your feet warm.  Great in a climate in Korea where they have bitter cold winters.  The bad thing is if the masonry cracks, people could die of carbon monoxide poisoning.


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## Cadillac (Jan 20, 2022)

Now I feel bad keeping my garage heat set at 55*. Keep the house at 70. don’t think the cat would like anything less. 
next house will be radiant in floor heat!!


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## Bi11Hudson (Jan 20, 2022)

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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## silence dogood (Jan 20, 2022)

Bi11Hudson said:


> 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.
> 
> .


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


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## Bi11Hudson (Jan 20, 2022)

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 (Jan 21, 2022)

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.


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## Alcap (Jan 21, 2022)

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 .


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## Cadillac (Jan 21, 2022)

Alcap said:


> 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.


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## Alcap (Jan 21, 2022)

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


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## Eddyde (Jan 21, 2022)

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...


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