Machinery
Going back and forth between in floor heat and radiant heat. What’s everybody got? Any experience with either?
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I worked several years in a shop with only radiant tube heaters. The managers of the place turned the heat down at night and back up in the morning. All the steel, concrete, walls and everything else got cold over night. It took several hours to bring all that mass back up to 60 deg. Somewhere in that time frame someone had to crawl up on top of a truck and try and work. It had to be near 100...
Hands down the floor heat is superior. We’ve had both, the air temp at the 4’ level is the same as the air temp at the 20’ level...... very efficient
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I’ve got a shop 60x60 with 20’ walls with in floor radiant heat. Heating with only a 200,000btu boiler and a 100,000btu hanging reznor. It’s the perfect combination IMO for lasting heat and quick recovery when bringing in cold equipment. The in floor heat takes care of 90% of the heating and the Reznor only runs when the doors open.
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You get alot of bang for your buck out of radiant and easy service. Prices are on www.directpivotparts.com
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We have radiant heat in our 40x90x16 shop. I have read an article in one of the farm magazines and they talked about the best heat for shops and radiant had the best heat recovery. But at the same time I wish we had floor heat for working under equipment.
In floor !
Nothing else
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Floor heat by far the best. Don't make your runs too long. Shorter runs or loops heat better.
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Small 40X60 service center used every day we are not in the field is functional maybe won't win the beauty contest we heat with a wood boiler outside we have a ready supply of used pallets and miles of fence lines that keep expanding yearly maintenance of these fence lines provides all types of hard and softwoods at minimal cost compared to gas furnace heat
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We have a ground source heat pump in floor for our 70x92. We're in it everyday all day 80% of the year. We leave it set at 63 all the time. It usually warms up to 65-66 during the day after it shuts off. During the coldest month it gets to a little over $4 a day. We put 2 in styrofoam under the concrete, 3-4 spray foam in the walls and 18in blow in in the ceiling. Pricey up front, but we thought ...
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Find a good radiant designer. Spacing, tube size, run length are all important As well as insulation in floor.
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Definitely in-floor heat. We made the mistake of spacing the tubes too wide, though. Keep them closer to 12 inches and don't forget to put an insulator between the indoor concrete and outdoor. Otherwise the cold outdoor concrete and temps will draw heat away. Set your in floor at the temp you want to maintain. Then, if that isn't doing what you want, add a small Reznor or radiant tube heater to qu...
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We insulated our shop and installed a waste oil heater save all our motor oil and the extra fuel from when we change filters over the year in a 250 gal tote then have a couple of our neighbors do the same instead of paying to get rid of the oil we heat our shop for free all winter
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Definitely worth it we run floor heat for our office and shop floor, when propane got over $5 we had a waste oil furnace installed makes a big difference in make up air when servicing trucks quick in the winter.
Thanks everyone for all the responses! I think we will look into floor heat for sure! I really appreciate it guys!
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We put up a shop in 2012 with floor heat. It’s amazing. The heat recovery in the winter after having the doors open is very quick. The difference between the floor and working on top of a combine is about 2 degrees. The shop is 81x105 and we keep it at 64. No seconds thoughts about using floor heat.
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For everyone with in-floor heat.
How do you mount to the floor?
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Heard rumors that a bosses son cut expansion joints in a floor with heat too deep. When they started the system, there were a bunch of little wet marks all over. Was said he had to carefully chisel out the spots, splice the lines, and patch the concrete. Definitely not ideal, but it can be fixed.
Seems like that’s still taking a risk.
One mistake and your in-floor heat is done.
To each their own...but when so much stuff gets mounted to the floor, you’d have to be careful
Definitely have a plan if you're gonna mount anything to the floor. You can measure and map the lines before pouring the concrete as long as they are tied to the rebar.
I worked in one shop where the guy had pex hose run every 2 feet parallel with the long wall (1st line was 1' on center from wall) so you could safely drill anchors at 2' on center +/- 6" as long as you were more than 2' from the s...
It goes down prior to concrete. Before you pour take a 100’ tape measure and stretch it across the floor in several places and take pictures. Or use a thermal camera when you first start the heat on a cold floor. Lines will show up (or so I’m told) where the pex is. Won’t work as good once the floor is warm. Preplan expansion ideas as much as possible before you pour concrete. If you want a lift i...
How can you guarantee you won’t hit a water line when you mount to the floor?
You’ve got a few options but the basics are either staple it down to your foam boards and then lay rebar or wire on top or the reverse. Get your wire sheets or rebar down first then lay out your pex on top and zip or wire tie it down.
Go with in floor and you won't regret it.
-Feet are never cold, Its great to be able to crawl on the floor under a piece of equipment when it's -40 outside and not freeze.
-More consistent temperature.
-Faster temperature recovery time (thermal mass for the win!!)
-You can have zonal control if you have a nice manifold put in to control flow in different rooms or sections.
-Way more effici...
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I have undersized geothermal for a 40 x80 shop using floor heat. This harvest we brought the combine in many days full of snow. 35 foot door with the thermostat stuck on 54degrees the entire shop and combine were always dry in the morning. The temp is within a couple of degrees weather under the combine or on top of it with in 10 minutes . Costs under 500 to heat for entire winter. And if you le...
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80’x100’ shop with overhead doors, largest being 35’. You just can’t beat the recovery time of floor heat. We put this bubble wrap coated with this aluminum foil looking stuff below the tubes and 2” foam around the inside of the footing to insulate them, 7” thick slab. Try not to open the doors when it’s super cold but sometimes it just can’t be helped. If the largest door is open for 30-60 secon...
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In floor radiant heat, there’s no comparison. Heat constantly rise’s, you can put an iced up piece of equipment in there overnight and will be completely thawed out and dried off by morning, very quick recovery after a door has been opened, floors are always dry or dry quickly.
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We have hot water heat in the floor and love it. we heat the water with wood. it sure is nice to have a warm floor.
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An airtight building is the key to efficiency. We have spray foam in the walls and cellulose in the ceiling. The insulation blocks air infiltration. We have floor heat and the air temperature near the floor is about three degrees warmer than the 18-foot ceiling. Our building is 54 x 75 and we use a water heater to heat the building. We are using 1200 feet of 3/4 inch sdr11 pipe. We have more...
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Have a 60x80ft shop 18’ height, with 33’ hyd. Door. System: 4ton geothermal heat pump that heats methanol in hoses in the floor. Dad did the calculations on it a couple years ago and it was 350ish dollars a year to heat and cool the shop. Household dehumidifier running to keep floor dry in summer.
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I have one shop with floor heat and two with the old hanging propane fired heaters. The way to get the efficiency out of an old propane heater is to wall off the water supply in your shop in a small room and heat only that area full time. Then put your low efficiency hanging propane heater on a timer that runs from 6 am to 4 pm. we cut our propane use by 2/3rds when we run the heater on a 24 h...
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In floor heat, keep your floor warm and dry, heat ours with electric heat, because propane was high the years we worked it out and decided, I think either way would be good, with in floor heat you do not need to worry about the days you are not using it, leave it on but if many days of none use, go ahead and and turn it down, warm feet are a real bonus, old shop had radiant tube heat and had cold ...
I think it depends on frequency of use. If you are in it everyday I would go with floor heat...set it and leave it.
If you aren't I would go with radiant like we did. I can turn it down to 45 when we aren't in it to save on heating cost. It doesn't take long to heat it back up with radiant heat.
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I have one shop with floor heat and one with radiant heat. If you work in it every day, the floor heat is worth it. If you were going to use it just a few days per month in the winter, then the radiant heat is much more efficient on gas and cheaper to install. You can turn the heat down when you’re not working in the shop and turn it up when you get there because it will warm up quite quickly. Flo...
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In floor heat is great. Spend the money on the system and insulate it to the max. You will love it.
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I used to work as a propane service tech. Talked to guys with all kinds of systems. Also installed some tube heaters. Have a few observations. If you put in floor heat. Put in ceiling fans or your chore tractor won’t always melt off. Also there is a BIG difference in tube heaters. Most techs make the mistake of oversizeing the install on tube heaters. I preferred Detroit Radiant tube heaters. They...
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I spray foamed a building that didn’t have floor heat, so I got a forced air corn furnace, it works great and is very efficient, I put a 300bu hopper bin beside the shop with a auger going through the wall so it makes filling it a breeze, love it so much looking for one for my house also.
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I bought a corn furnace, not stove, at an auction. It was planned to go into my garage and be tied into our house duct work sir supplemental heating. Hasn’t happened, likely won’t for a long time. It’s been cleaned and the fan checked out but I haven’t fired it yet. I’d be willing to part with it and can send pics. I’m in SE CO, if you’re interested let me know.
Our shop is 45 years old. Wish we had installed in floor heat but not sure was available then. Measures 70' x 100' x14. Have walls & ceiling insulated with the spray on foam. Able to keep warm with a waste oil furnace which solves two problems. Not hard to find extra oil it you don't have enough.
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We have in floor radiant that was put in in early 80s and has no insulation in the floor . But for a shop definitely that is the best . We run a corn boiler to heat the water works pretty good . Only thing I would change is insulate it better not that the corn cost us much to heat it but it would definitely hold it better with some more insulation . And could use a ceiling fan or 2 to circulate th...
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We have the radiant tube heaters. 50’x125’ shop. 2 heaters and they only cover the front 75 percent of shop. We keep it at 45 at night and 50 during the day. Works well for us.
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I think the tube heaters would be great if you’re not going to heat it everyday. My father in law has them in his 80x160 shop and they warm up quick when you need it.
What is your fuel source? I am considering putting up tube heaters in my shop but heard they are not very efficient with propane. I will be heating a 60'X100' shop but not everyday.
As long as you don't open the doors too much, you will like floor heat.....but it is not an instant heat, turn it on in fall and leave it on all winter
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I have radiant floor heat in my shop. Fast recovery after opening doors. Floors dry very quickly in the winter, usually over night. Shop is 60x80 cost was around $7000 in 2012, Floor is warm to lay on. If you don't open the big doors it will stay above freezing for several days with the heat shut off in the dead of winter.
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I'm putting in radiant floor heat in my shop. It's a bite up front, even doing all the work myself, but from everyone I've talked to that has it, loves it. I'm looking at about $8k for a floor heat setup for a 60x80 vs $13-16k for someone else to do it. I'm going with a heat sink in the middle and just insulating the perimeter of the floor. Depending on what boiler I decide on I might be able to c...
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put the pex in cement with 2 to 3 inches of stiro foam under concrete pex in concrete and a propane boiler . warm floor warm workers and same temp.to the ceiling.
**** I’m thinking about it because we’ll be pouring concrete when it still freezes at night. Even though the concrete will be poured after the walls and doors are up, I think it’ll cure better if I can keep a little heat inside. Maybe I’m wrong there.
****, do not be afraid to put in a smaller hanging Reznor LP fired heater if you need to recover the heat quickly when you open the doors in cold weather.
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I put up a 60x80 with pex in floor heat and used 1 1/2” styrofoam under the whole floor to conserve heat and be more efficient. Another company in Manitoba used 3” styrofoam under a the concrete in a new shop build and are convinced that the heat bill is much less. I recommend insulating the floor somewhat
Keep an eye out for when Menards or Home Depot etc have a sale on pex tubing. If nothing else, put the pex in the floor. You only get one chance to do that.
Hoping to put up a shop in the next year or two, I just want to get all the details worked out so we get it right the first time
Yeah, it’s sounds cheesy but that’s what was the final selling point to me on floor heat vs radiant tubes. I’m excited to get the shop put up. Keep running into delays so might not even get to use the floor heat until next year. Right now completion date is being pushed into mid-March.
My father in law has radiant tube heaters in his shop and they warm the floor a bit, not as much as in floor heat but I agree. If my feet are warm, I’m comfortable.
I like the heated floor. Had it for 10 years in a 70 by 70 shop with a 40 ft door
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My in floor heat is the BEST floor is always dry, if doors are open with the concrete warm it will feel warm within minutes of closing them. Heating bill for a 80X120 building runs under 200.00 with natural gas. Workers are very pleased! Wouldn't put in anything else. Going to install in my house too. I pull loaded semi's in to keep the snow off in the winter with the concrete 8" thick floor is s...