[AT] More radiant heat.

[Cecil Bearden]

When I built my 40 x 102 building a few years back, we put 2 inch  foil 
backed styrofoam under 4 inches of sand then 4 inches of concrete.  The 
intent was to prevent having the pipe in the concrete. I was concerned about 
cracking of the concrete from the heat of hydration combined with the summer 
heat and the foil backed styrofoam under the concrete.  We do not have ice 
available in cement in OK....  The concrete did crack....  I had 4000 psi 
cement with all the additives to make it easier for the contractor. 
However, his temporary foreman decided that It needed water added so the 
guarantee on the cement was null and void.  Contractor was a coffee drinking 
buddy of my Dad's and all he would say was "They always add water before 
they pour, those additives you had them put in ruined it."
I have been an engineer working with large foundations and huge concrete 
pours for 30 years, and I guess I will never know anything about concrete 
according to family..........

Anyhow, 3 years later we hooked the pipes from one section up to 2 electric 
water heaters because we do not have gas available, only propane.  It ran 2 
weeks and we had a $800 electric bill.  I got the concrete slab up to 78 
degrees after 10 days and it really felt good on that end of the barn... 
The dog and the cats sure liked that end.  It was difficult to describe, but 
it just felt GOOD when you walked to that end of the barn.  It sorta warmed 
you all over.  We have not used it since, I am trying to find the time to 
build a tube boiler and fire it with used oil.   That should work a lot 
better.  I know we lose a lot by having the pipe in the sand, but after the 
sand gets warm, it should work pretty good.  I will nte that when we 
compacted the sand with a plate compactor, the pipe would work to the 
surface...

Cecil in OK


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <chesnimnus at juno.com>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Cc: <andyglines at hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] More radiant heat.


>
> Forgive my ignorance, but I got this message in my daily digest of 27 
> October; the message by Andy mentions "all of your input", yet when I 
> check back in the AT digests from the last 5 days, I see nothing about 
> this topic.  What was the original question?  I used to sell and design 
> radiant heat systems, I would like to know what we are talking about.
> -Colin Rush
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:21:26 -0400
> From: "Andy Glines" <>
> Subject: [AT] More radiant heat.
> To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> Message-ID: <BAY104-F238DDB2BDCE6C27E6AC121C7690 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> Thanks for all of your input on radiant heat.  Someone asked me about the
> stove.  The only ID I found on the stove is a brass plate on the front 
> that
> says Omega.  I looked around on the net and couldnt find a picture for 
> you.
> The stove is about 1/4" plate construction about 36"W 18"D &
> 36"H?  The
> stack comes out the top and the top plates are slanted instead of having a
> flat surface.  The stove has a heavy steel door with round air vents the
> thread open and closed (I often see these on inserts)  Underneath is a
> damper & ash pan.  This stove has a built in blower as well.  The
> consrtuction of the blower is pretty neat.  The blower blows air from 
> front
> to back through a duct that actually goes through the firebox.  This 
> system
> must be pretty darn good at taking heat from the fire and putting it in 
> the
> room.  Overall the unit is heavy duty and pretty nice.  It was probably 
> made
> for inside of a house.  Someone else mentioned bubble wrap as insulation. 
> I
> actually saw this product advertised for this purpose while I was 
> searching
> for info on the web.  I was really surprised that one of our members from 
> a
> Scandanavian coutry said that they use up to 250mm of foam under the slab.
> 250mm = 9.84"  (1" = 25.4mm)!  Those guys definitely aren't losing
> heat to
> the ground.  One site that I visited suggested that you insulate around 
> the
> perimiter but leave an area in the center uninsulated.  They said that the
> soil would act as a heat sink in this area storing heat in case of a power
> outage.  A member of SIAM is a retired concrete finisher and I asked for 
> his
> input.  He said that everyone who has it loves it and there aren't many
> problems.  One thing he suggested was a thicker slab as he thought that 
> the
> imbedded tubing may weaken the floor a bit.  I tend to agree whith his
> thinking.  Has anyone heard that the floor should be thicker?  How much?
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at