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Heating and cooling: Makeshift underfloor heating using radiator pipework....

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    I've got a room (combined living/kitchen space) which will have a combi boiler in one corner and the radiator probably almost in the opposite corner.

    Obviously there will be pipework between boiler and radiator. This pipework will only serve that radiator (all other radiators are in the other direction from the boiler position) so water will only circulate through it when that radiator is turned on.

    So I was thinking, there's no need to insulate any of that pipework because any heat lost from it will just go into the room that the radiator is trying to heat anyway.

    Now I'm wondering, does it make sense to deliberately make the pipework take an unnecessarily circuitous route around the room in order to reach the radiator? Would this help to distribute the heat more evenly, in the manner of proper underfloor heating?

    I suspect this is a stupid idea but would be interested to hear reasons why.
    • CommentAuthoran02ew
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012
     
    I suspect some heat will filter into the room but to make a real difference you would have to latice the floor with pipework as real underfloor heating is done, also using the right pipe will help, copper looses more heat than say standard plastic and underfloor heating pipe somewhere betweeen the two. Having said all of that any heat lost from the pipes into the room will only serve to activate the TVR sooner shutting down the radiator, so really no gain just a warmish floor over the pipes
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012
     
    Rads need a high water temperature - might make floor too hot to walk on in places.

    What floor covering? If tiles there would be a risk of differential expansion between hot and normal parts. Vinyl/lino floor can also be damaged by high UFH temperatures.
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      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012
     
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: CWatters</cite>Rads need a high water temperature - might make floor too hot to walk on in places.</blockquote>

    It does! Whoever laid the heating pipes in our current house (they are buried in the concrete slab) laid one run of pipes across the middle of our bathroom floor and also across the floor of the adjoining loo. The floor in both rooms used to get too hot to comfortably walk on in places when I used to run the old boiler at a much higher flow temperature (around 55 to 60 deg C IIRC).

    It's sort of OK with the new condensing boiler, that I run at cooler flow temperatures since adding lots of insulation to the house, but still a bit uncomfortable in the bathroom, as the hot spot is right in front of the basin. Our fix has been to lay a rug over it, to make the temperature acceptable for bare feet.
  5.  
    The floor's just simple floorboards on timber joists. The pipe wouldn't be embedded in anything, just running between the joists, with some rockwool underneath it.
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      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012
     
    Well, maybe put a little insulation above them (and between them to avoid making a counter-current heat exchanger short-cut!) to mitigate the effect.

    Rgds

    Damon
    • CommentAuthorRobinB
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012
     
    Not a stupid idea at all! My favourite spot to stand on a cold day was where the hot water pipe ran under a quarry tile floor. Convinced me I wanted underfloor heating in the new house.
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      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012
     
    don't you have to fight the cat, dog or drunk for it though
    • CommentAuthorRobinB
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2012 edited
     
    cat! Fortunately she wasn't 14ft long.
    • CommentAuthoralec
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2012
     
    I run UFH pipes off compensated boilers...it works better as the flow temps settles around 50c...

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