Hi, I'm new to this forum and have some questions on my radiant heat system in my ranch house with fully finished basement.
So I have lived in this house for four years now and one of the selling points, along with the fully finished basement, was the radiant heating system. However, after the first winter in this house (upstate New York) I ended up spending nearly 4k in propane using the system. It seemed to take forever to heat the floors and when it finally did it took a lot to keep the temperature constant. I turned to a wood burning insert I installed and use space heaters in the bedrooms and basement to save money.
Long story short, I'm tired of dealing with wood and after the electric bills went crazy this last winter I decided to do some research on the best way to revert back to my propane. In this research I have discovered that my radiant floor system seems to be installed incorrectly. After removing some drop ceiling tiles and insulation I found that the entire system is installed perpendicular through the floor joists rather that inside the floor joist wells!! Not only that but it about 3 inches below the underside of the sub floor with no heat exchange plates. So basically the inefficiency of the system is due to the tubes having to heat up all the space between the insulation and the sub floor before it even starts heating the sub floor. I don't even understand how idiotic the installers could have been to do the system this way when I was able to do three minutes of research to figure out how it is supposed to be installed and also how the heck did this system pass inspection by the town!
Anyway, my question is how expensive could this problem be in trying to install it properly. I imagine all my drop ceilings will need to be taken down , insulation removed and pex tubes some how drained and removed leaving holes bored all through my floor joists, then reinstalled the proper way. Or is there a way I can work with how it currently is to make it more efficient? The tubes do not seems flexible enough in between the floor joists to push them up and try to get heat exchange plates onto the small portions of tubing between the joists.
And if I have to remove my entire basement ceiling which is over 1000 square feet in six different rooms and hallway is it worth reinstalling the radiant system or having forced air ducts installed instead? Is there a better system to go with at this point and how expensive could this whole screwed up mess cost me?!
I already spent $16k on this basement my first year in the house after it flooded and I had to take all my walls down for a company to come waterproof my whole inside and outside of the basement with a new drain system then I rebuilt the finished basement myself. I'd hate to have to do this all over again in this money pit!
Thanks in advance for any advice that can be given!
So I have lived in this house for four years now and one of the selling points, along with the fully finished basement, was the radiant heating system. However, after the first winter in this house (upstate New York) I ended up spending nearly 4k in propane using the system. It seemed to take forever to heat the floors and when it finally did it took a lot to keep the temperature constant. I turned to a wood burning insert I installed and use space heaters in the bedrooms and basement to save money.
Long story short, I'm tired of dealing with wood and after the electric bills went crazy this last winter I decided to do some research on the best way to revert back to my propane. In this research I have discovered that my radiant floor system seems to be installed incorrectly. After removing some drop ceiling tiles and insulation I found that the entire system is installed perpendicular through the floor joists rather that inside the floor joist wells!! Not only that but it about 3 inches below the underside of the sub floor with no heat exchange plates. So basically the inefficiency of the system is due to the tubes having to heat up all the space between the insulation and the sub floor before it even starts heating the sub floor. I don't even understand how idiotic the installers could have been to do the system this way when I was able to do three minutes of research to figure out how it is supposed to be installed and also how the heck did this system pass inspection by the town!
Anyway, my question is how expensive could this problem be in trying to install it properly. I imagine all my drop ceilings will need to be taken down , insulation removed and pex tubes some how drained and removed leaving holes bored all through my floor joists, then reinstalled the proper way. Or is there a way I can work with how it currently is to make it more efficient? The tubes do not seems flexible enough in between the floor joists to push them up and try to get heat exchange plates onto the small portions of tubing between the joists.
And if I have to remove my entire basement ceiling which is over 1000 square feet in six different rooms and hallway is it worth reinstalling the radiant system or having forced air ducts installed instead? Is there a better system to go with at this point and how expensive could this whole screwed up mess cost me?!
I already spent $16k on this basement my first year in the house after it flooded and I had to take all my walls down for a company to come waterproof my whole inside and outside of the basement with a new drain system then I rebuilt the finished basement myself. I'd hate to have to do this all over again in this money pit!
Thanks in advance for any advice that can be given!