Radiant Floor heating - nonliquid?

I see a lot of "Radiant Floor Heating" with a rubbery tubing stapled under the floor. SInce I tend to be in horror of any kind of leaks, I wonder why they don't use some compresses gas instead?

Mind you, I have even had experience with central venting "leaking": I haven't used a/c since my folks died but my uncle's a/c duct sweats onto my ceiling. That's the price for freeloading (hot air rises) off his a/c.

Reply to
vjp2.at
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Gas does not transmit heat very well. Gas is often used as an insulator to prevent thermal transfer, not to enhance it.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I've wondered about leaks myself. I think the tubing is pretty thick walled and a decent quality plastic such as polypropylene.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Some do, including the Romans. Not so much compressed gas as just gas/air.

Plenty of solar air heaters use air as the transfer medium.

The 'tubing' required is substantially bigger tho.

Thats a different effect, inadequately insulated ducts.

Reply to
Rod Speed

Eeyore wrote

And they are usually organised so the joints arent in the floor proper.

Reply to
Rod Speed

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote

Also, gas can leak just as easily as liquid -- in some cases (e.g., monatomic molecules and/or high pressure).

However, you can also get under-floor heating that is simply electric resistance heat. Not necessarily cheap or efficient, but you don't have to worry as much about leaks...

Reply to
John Weiss

But you can still get failures in that which while not damaging anything that matters, still need to be fixed if you want the heating to continue.

Reply to
Rod Speed

AIUI they avoid that specifically.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Get the jackhammer out !

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

So what?!? ANYTHING is subject to failure! The OP SPECIFICALLY said he doesn't want LEAKS!

Reply to
John Weiss

And you dont usually need to do that with water based underfloor heating, because the joints arent usually embedded in the floor with properly designed systems, and its usually the joints that fail, not the body of the piping.

And it isnt hard to have leak detection which shuts the system down too.

Reply to
Rod Speed

John Weiss wrote

matters, still need to be fixed if you

So that approach has some real downsides in addition to the ones you listed.

SOME approaches are a hell of a lot easier to fix when they do fail.

The OP is completely irrelevant to the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to radiant floor heating.

Reply to
Rod Speed

Non liqued, yes its called forced air with ducts.

Reply to
ransley

Gotcha. Now you're on record as saying the OP is irrelevant.

We'll see how long it takes to contradict yourself on this one...

Reply to
John Weiss

John Weiss wrote

various approaches to radiant floor heating.

Just another of your pathetic little drug crazed fantasys.

Never said anything even remotely resembling anything like that, liar.

Just how many of you are there between those ears, f****it ?

Reply to
Rod Speed

Nothing has a greater heat capacity than water (per pound). You would need to run a *lot* of air through the system, that's why forced air systems have large ducts and run hotter.

Even mini duct systems need to run the same *volume* of air as their larger brethren. Now think of running several hundred cfm through even a

1" tube. Daunting and a lot of loss both in pumping and line loss. Completely impractical.

Leaks really aren't a problem in underfloor staple up systems. The runs tend to be in one piece for each room.

I believe the better underfloor systems use not "rubber" hoses but PEX (cross linked polyethelene with oxygen barriers) with heat spreaders.

The only problem I've heard of with that (PEX) has been rodents.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Actually, the better installations I've seen have 2 interleaved runs for a room. The idea is: if in fact one leaks, the other still handles the room...

Reply to
David Lesher

A miserable form of heating IMHO.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

A few lies and contradictions will do it with no trouble.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Tell me more about how this electricity 'leaks' please.

Are you 'trailer trash' by any chance ?

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

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