Concrete Floor Heat Sink

Radiant heat can be an electrical heating element embedded into a very thin concrete overlay then tiled carpeted or have wood flooring installed over it.

Concrete floor heat sink.

Quite simply concrete floor radiant heat is a system of pex tubes that carry hot water throughout a concrete floor or slab. Adding insulation on top of the slab and beneath any floor heating system will allow a greater percentage of the heat generated to transfer to the. Radiant heating system design or installation mistakes that must be avoided. The concrete slab is often placed on a layer of sand for drainage or to act as a cushion.

When installing a floor heating over a concrete slab. This is true with any floor warming system. Be exposed or be covered with a high density material such as tile or slate have a dark colour or a textured or matt finish. Heat sink slab installation the two slab installations above use 7 8 pex tubing 16 on center.

The workers in the photograph at page top where our concrete slab. Houses built on a slab lack crawlspaces and there is no space under the floor. Notice the wide comfortable bends then the 16 on center spacing on the straightaways. While most drainpipes descend below the concrete and run through the soil or sand layer beneath if the home has radiant in floor heating cutting through the coils can destroy the entire system.

Very thick thermal mass walls and floors may take too long to heat while those that are too thin won t store enough heat. When installed on top of a concrete slab without insulation it is generally accepted that a radiant floor heating system will take the chill away from the floor and provide a small amount of warmth. The exact amount should be calculated as part of the design process. The slab will always act as a heat sink some of the heat that would otherwise be transferred to the flooring surface will remain in the slab causing the floor s surface temperature to be considerably lower.

Concrete slab floors should be 100 200mm thick for the best performance while thermal mass walls should be 100 150mm thick. A concrete slab floor provides excellent thermal mass. This article explains how to avoid some fatal mistakes when installing radiant heat in a concrete floor slab by describing an incompetent radiant heat floor installation along with an explanation of why things went wrong and how to avoid these errors.