Shop Heat

[Scott]

I'm not really ready to show off the shop yet, although if you look in the topic around the first of the year about messy shops you'd see mine.

I just want to gloat about finally having heat in my shop! I have been working on it for about two and a half years, slowly buying parts as I could afford them. Last Saturday I fired it up and now have a warm shop!

I designed an in-floor hydronic radiant heating system, using a tankless water heater as the heat source. My Wife and I laid out the tubing and tied it to the reinforcing mesh before the floor slab was poured. I've done all the plumbing myself using Wirsbo PEX tubing. I managed to pick up two Aquastar 125 water heaters, one for the heat and the other for domestic hot water. I did pay a friend to run the gas line and vent the heaters. I ended up using a Grundfos circulating pump, and I did all the wiring myself. It fired right up and works great! Not bad considering this was the first time I had worked with most of this stuff - tankless water heaters, radiant heat, circulating pumps, pump controllers and thermostats.

My Wife is impressed enough that she is considering letting me do radiant heat in our cabin this Summer! If anybody has any questions I'd be glad to respond!

Scott.

 

[woodwish]

Congratulations Scott, sounds like a great job! Of course, living in Florida I have no idea what you really have done. I do think I have seen an episode of Bob Villa's show where they intalled a similar thing, while running my AC at the time. Still sounds like you did a good job, and anytime the wife is impressed it's bound to be good!

 

[Gary Max]

Sounds great to me--warm floor and heat.

 

[badwin]

Scott
Living up here in Canada I have tons of friends that have slab heating, not just in the garages but in basements too. It gives a very even heat that's awesome on the feet. As we all know heat rises so it rises from the floor to the ceiling evenly. We usually use a boiler with a circulating pump but I know a few that use a hot water tank with a circulating pump. Only problem you might have is it seems that there is quite a bit of condensation from this type of heat if it gets really cold. I know of a few people who have had to put dehumidifiers or an exhaust fan in the garage. Of course we get -40 here in the winter so if your area doesn't get that cold you might be allright. Should be some awesome projects come out of your shop all year round. Congratulations.
Brian

 

[Gregory Huey]

Sounds like you did a great job. I have to do something for heat in mine but the floor is already their so will have to use something like forced air.

 

[rtjw]

I cant wait to have heat and air in my shop. Hopefully will happen before August. Summer is not fun in Texas.