Hot Water Heat Cheap

[sylvie]

A group of us visited a guy's setup that was so simple and small that it was exhilarating.
First, he's a plumber, so it was probably easier for him than would be for me.
He made a small box of 2 1/2 " by 8" pipe, placed a used unit from an on demand water heater inside, ran it to a distributing tank. He ran Pex tubing to every floor in his big house and with a small pump heats his entire house with this radiant floor set up. It's a self contained recirculating water system. $60 per month to heat 7 bedrooms, great room, extra large kitchen, etc.
His house is double insulated, put extra stud walls on the inside of the exterior walls so he has 6" of foam board insulation.

Pex tubing alone costs some bucks but it is worth considering.

He is thinking of offering this to customers in the future.

 

[PamsPride]

So, if I understand this correctly, he used the hot water on demand box and attatched that to what I would think of as radiant heat flooring and then has it recirculating back through itself? So, he had to of installed the radiant heat flooring...or tubing...before he put down his flooring? Did he build the whole house himself?

 

[sylvie]

So, if I understand this correctly, he used the hot water on demand box and attatched that to what I would think of as radiant heat flooring and then has it recirculating back through itself? So, he had to of installed the radiant heat flooring...or tubing...before he put down his flooring? Did he build the whole house himself?

This was an older 1930's home. He said ground floors were tough in the nearly non existent crawl space. He insulated from underneath, too. The drywall/ lathe & plaster ceilings of lower rooms had to come off anyways so he could easily install the upper floors heat at that time. There was one small room like an old coal storage room under the house that was converted into the mothership of pex, the tank and the pump. You could really see the workings from this small room. All floors are wood, all pex on hangers.

 

[MorelCabin]

I went to look at a house that was for sale here one time that had a very similar set up. The previous owner was ironicaly a plumber as well. That house had so much mold in it from sweating pipes and what not that I couldn't stay inside for more than a few minutes.
Where we live winters are cold and power frequently goes out. I would never depend on it here, but it may work elsewhere, who knows?

 

[PamsPride]

Is Pex a bendable tubing?

 

[sylvie]

I went to look at a house that was for sale here one time that had a very similar set up. The previous owner was ironicaly a plumber as well. That house had so much mold in it from sweating pipes and what not that I couldn't stay inside for more than a few minutes.
Where we live winters are cold and power frequently goes out. I would never depend on it here, but it may work elsewhere, who knows?

I'm sure that he has a generator or two for outages. Everyone around here does. I didn't notice any moisture problems but maybe I'm not sensitive to molds. Visually nothing indicating mold and we got the top to bottom tour. The little coal room was warm and dry, too.
You bring up good points and worth considering.

 

[sylvie]

Is Pex a bendable tubing?

Yes it is and it's like a transparent colored plastic hose. There's Pex rated for hot water that he recommended. It was red.
I know Pex is being used for geothermal applications, too. They just unwind a loose coil like a slinky and bury it.

 

[PamsPride]

How much Pex would you need for a 10x10 room?

 

[patandchickens]

Nothing wrong with the idea (although, you'd want GOOD plumbing skills, as leaks in a hot-water heating system can be a real pain in the butt as they invariably occur in the least accessible place and arent' noticed til they have soaked important structural elements... she says, having grown up in a house with a less than totally reliably plumbed hot water baseboard heating system).

However I'd guess that an awful lot of the reason his heating bill is so low is those 6" walls and all that insulation...


Pat

 

[PamsPride]

I would agree that all the insulation has made a big difference! The more insulating we do the warmer our house stays on a daily basis.
A failure in the tubing in the middle of the floor for a second story would ruin the drywall and flooring below exspecially if it is hardwood floors. A piping leak on a first floor would probably take a while to notice if it was over a crawl space. I would imagine the floor would nearly be rotted out before you discover it!