Hi. I've installed the piping in the concrete slab of my new shop and
am wondering about an alternative way of heating the glycol. The
boiler systems are fairly expensive. I know of some people who have
used hot water tanks to heat the fluid. Has anyone here had any
experience with this type of installation? The shop is 24' X 20' and
it has 4 loops of tubing. Any info or rundown of equipment required
would be helpful. Thanks.

wrote:
Hi. I've installed the piping in the concrete slab of my new shop and
am wondering about an alternative way of heating the glycol. The
boiler systems are fairly expensive. I know of some people who have
used hot water tanks to heat the fluid. Has anyone here had any
experience with this type of installation? The shop is 24' X 20' and
it has 4 loops of tubing. Any info or rundown of equipment required
would be helpful. Thanks.

You can, but hot water heater are not very efficient compared to a
boiler. with oil at 3 bucks a gallon, 'expensive' becomes relative.

"yourname" wrote in message
news:BtSVf.542$st.452@trndny05...
wrote:
Hi. I've installed the piping in the concrete slab of my new shop and
am wondering about an alternative way of heating the glycol. The
boiler systems are fairly expensive. I know of some people who have
used hot water tanks to heat the fluid. Has anyone here had any
experience with this type of installation? The shop is 24' X 20' and
it has 4 loops of tubing. Any info or rundown of equipment required
would be helpful. Thanks.

You can, but hot water heater are not very efficient compared to a
boiler. with oil at 3 bucks a gallon, 'expensive' becomes relative.

We heated the floor of a pig pen in IL. with a water heater and a small
circulation pump. It worked well. Can't say if a boiler would be more
efficient or not. The thing that bothers me is: I can understand wanting a
warm floor, but is it a good way to heat the shop? I'm guessing it depends
on how cold it gets in your area??

Al

You can, but hot water heater are not very efficient compared to a
boiler. with oil at 3 bucks a gallon, 'expensive' becomes relative.

I live in Manitoba where electricity is very cheap, so I'd be looking
at an electric hot water tank to do the heating.

Bubba wrote:
On 27 Mar 2006 12:03:26 -0800, wrote:


You can, but hot water heater are not very efficient compared to a
boiler. with oil at 3 bucks a gallon, 'expensive' becomes relative.

I live in Manitoba where electricity is very cheap, so I'd be looking
at an electric hot water tank to do the heating.

Woodstove.

Not catching the drift. Do you use a woodstove to heat your glycol or
are you suggesting I get one? Getting one seems kind of pointless
since I'd have to always keep it stoked to make sure the shop was
always heated.

wrote in message
oups.com...

Bubba wrote:
On 27 Mar 2006 12:03:26 -0800, wrote:


You can, but hot water heater are not very efficient compared to a
boiler. with oil at 3 bucks a gallon, 'expensive' becomes relative.

I live in Manitoba where electricity is very cheap, so I'd be looking
at an electric hot water tank to do the heating.

Woodstove.

Not catching the drift. Do you use a woodstove to heat your glycol or
are you suggesting I get one? Getting one seems kind of pointless
since I'd have to always keep it stoked to make sure the shop was
always heated.

In which case it doesn't matter what he meant. You're not able/ willing to
stoke it so it's a null point (no offense intended there). Keep it simple
and go with the water heaters. A friend in the western hills of PA uses
three of them to do different zones in his huge shop (40'x60' I believe).

On 27 Mar 2006 05:44:24 -0800, wrote:

Hi. I've installed the piping in the concrete slab of my new shop and
am wondering about an alternative way of heating the glycol. The
boiler systems are fairly expensive. I know of some people who have
used hot water tanks to heat the fluid. Has anyone here had any
experience with this type of installation? The shop is 24' X 20' and
it has 4 loops of tubing. Any info or rundown of equipment required
would be helpful. Thanks.

Might want to ask this over in rec.woodworking

You mostly need to figure out if a water heater can supply enough
heat, and that depends on how cold it gets, how well insulated the
shop is, number of windows and doors, etc.

Paul

there are those super high efficency heaters 98% designed to provide
domestic hot water AND radiant floor heat.I lost the link but think it
pelonis as one of those available...

"Big Al" wrote in message
...

"yourname" wrote in message
news:BtSVf.542$st.452@trndny05...
wrote:
Hi. I've installed the piping in the concrete slab of my new shop and
am wondering about an alternative way of heating the glycol. The
boiler systems are fairly expensive. I know of some people who have
used hot water tanks to heat the fluid. Has anyone here had any
experience with this type of installation? The shop is 24' X 20' and
it has 4 loops of tubing. Any info or rundown of equipment required
would be helpful. Thanks.

You can, but hot water heater are not very efficient compared to a
boiler. with oil at 3 bucks a gallon, 'expensive' becomes relative.

We heated the floor of a pig pen in IL. with a water heater and a small
circulation pump. It worked well. Can't say if a boiler would be more
efficient or not. The thing that bothers me is: I can understand wanting a
warm floor, but is it a good way to heat the shop? I'm guessing it depends
on how cold it gets in your area??


A WH would work okay, provided you have the necessary BTU's to supply the
heat. An average WH is between 35K and 40K input. If your heat loss is
more than that, it won't keep up.

A boiler is a more efficient way to heat the water.

In which case it doesn't matter what he meant. You're not able/ willing to
stoke it so it's a null point (no offense intended there). Keep it simple
and go with the water heaters. A friend in the western hills of PA uses
three of them to do different zones in his huge shop (40'x60' I believe).

Do you know how he setup his system? What kind of components did he
use? I'm guessing the hot water tank, a low volume cirulating pump and
some sort of pressure tank.

We heated the floor of a pig pen in IL. with a water heater and a small
circulation pump. It worked well. Can't say if a boiler would be more
efficient or not. The thing that bothers me is: I can understand wanting a
warm floor, but is it a good way to heat the shop? I'm guessing it depends
on how cold it gets in your area??

Al

I live in Manitoba and winter runs from the end of October until the
end of March. Temperature can run as low as -40C, more with the
windchill. That's why I need heat for my shop.

wrote:
Hi. I've installed the piping in the concrete slab of my new shop and
am wondering about an alternative way of heating the glycol. The
boiler systems are fairly expensive. I know of some people who have
used hot water tanks to heat the fluid. Has anyone here had any
experience with this type of installation? The shop is 24' X 20' and
it has 4 loops of tubing. Any info or rundown of equipment required
would be helpful. Thanks.

Been there, done that. In our experience you have only one choice.
Install on demand tankless water heater. The one that we use is called
"Luna Baxi". It has the capacity to heat the floor and the hot water at
the same time. Check out:
http://www.ontario-home-builder.com/...r_Heaters.html
A
href="http://www.ontario-home-builder.com/Tankless_Water_Heaters.html"
Sane money with tankless water heaters.../A