Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
Last winter, I sold a 48' Ocean motor yacht for a customer who had been a liveaboard. All 3 heads on that boat had radiant electric heat under the ceramic tile flooring. There was a little thermostat in each head. He said it made it really comfy on cold mornings, and with the cabinet left open helped prevent fresh water system ice-up in the plumbing. If I were a liveaboard in a cold climate, I'd sure look into this.
Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
You have to have a base to put the piping in. Like, if you do it in a house with a wood floor, you need to bascailly use a grout material to lay the piping in.
Then, because radiant heat floors can't accept the hot water from the boiler, you need to put in mixing valves to get it down to around 120deg max.
I think putting in baseboards or radiators would be a lot easier and more practical in a boat.
Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
Lets see, the saloon already as the floor heated from the engine room, so only 2 areas need to be laid, the masters cabin and the galley/v berth areas. I have most of the man runs for the coolant ran from the hydronics system so getting the system wired in should not be too big of a hassle. I have enough room in these areas to lose an inch. As for regulating the temperature of the flooring, that is where it might get a lil sticky but maybe not, a thermostat to control the temp going in.... will ave to see. Not too many runs either as these are small areas to begin with.
Electric is not what i am looking for as I have the basics set up with the hydronic heater for the coolant system. Not sure what I can use as an underlayment yet, maybe a hard foam?
Noel
Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
Rob,
You had a great setup when I saw it the other day, I am looking into this as i had to tear out the carpet as stated in another post so why not look at all possibilities... Great idea about the fuel line hoses being added... think the heat transfer will be enough? might I want to consider another manifold for the hot coolant to run the flooring? BTW, the circuit board on the heater was the issue as to the thermostats not running right it seems.
will need to cogitate on this a bit more....
Thanks,
Noel
Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
Okay, Spoke to a guy from the radiant design institute (http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/page71.html) or some thing like that, he stated why not hang some foil, double bubble, foil insulation from the "joists" and then route out the slots for the plex tubing like he did for his RV. This way the plex won't move and it will also heat the wood floor directly when we place it right over the plex. Also, he thinks the heater won't get the coolant over 120 so that should be fine too. I will check with the manufacturer to be sure but... might work :D. As for the pump, i will use the one already installed so that will be easy and just take the runs off of the ones already placed in the boat to the plex (easier too). If the routing goes as planned, woohoo we have lift off.
Noel
Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
I don't have a big enough Hat to do this but you got me thinking....Wouldn't the heating and subsequent cooling of a wooden floor eventually lead to its destruction? Not to mention the moisture that would buildup around the pipes that you'd install. Just curious. Sounds like a really neat idea.
Re: Radiant Heat Flooring
check out this: http://www.warmboard.com/
My dad has this stuff in his house and it works great. I think the only way to do it in a boat would be remove the sub-floor and start with the warm board, otherwise it would add too much height.