Radiant heat with carpet??
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We are planning a new home in the mountains of central Arizona. I would like to use radiant heat, but understand the negative impact of carpet (especially wall-to-wall).
Does anyone have experiece with the combination? My wife doesn’t like the idea of ruling out carpeting all together…
Replies
Yes, I have designed a few systems of infloor heat in rooms with carpet. It is not the best combination, but if the details are inplace, a knowledgeable heating contractor and/or their local Wirsbo (or some less desirable alternative ;>) distributor can determine the necessary installation and operational parameters so that it will work. Tube size & spacing and water temperature can selected to accomodate what you will install and it will work. Change you mind or refuse to decide and you are asking for trouble.
This is the link to the Carpet and Rug Institute:
Article Titled: Carpet Over Heated Floors
http://www.carpet-rug.com/drill_down_2.cfm?page=6&sub=9
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A bit of trival information: all floor coverings make great radiators except those that are highly polished and ultra smooth...like mirror or glass. In fact carpet and tile when operarting at the same surface temperature radiant simlar amounts of energy. The only difference is it takes hotter fluid and or greater pipe densities to raise the carpets surface temperature.
RBean
http://www.healthyheating.com
http://www.healthyheating.com/blog
Edited 1/24/2005 9:43 am ET by RB
Carpet over radiant floor gets a bad rap for two main reasons:
The PAD under it needs to be slab rubber with R value of about 2. You can find these on the web. Don't believe the guy at the carpet store. One of those pads with bits of shredded foam or the waffle rubber kind are too insulative for enough heat to ever get through to the load..you'll end up sending water back to the boiler at almost the same temp it come out at.
The whole system is sometimes designed so poorly that carpet on the floor is the last straw. Factors such as a real leaky or poorly insulated envelope, tubes hung in the air in the joist spaces poorly or improperly insulated, tubing circuits so long that no way can you heat the last portion of the loop. When this kind of radically out of whack design stuff happens, the only solution is to ramp the fluid temperatures to try to get the living space above 60. And then someone points to the carpet and pad as the culprit.
So really, if you do some basic homework on radiant floor systems and then discuss what you've found out with your radiant floor contractor...or if your contractor can provide you with numerous sucess stories...go ahead and carpet away within reason. OR, compromise with hardwood or tile and then use quality area rugs so you still get more direct radiation from the bare portions. There's nothing wrong with a warm rug underfoot.
Also, with the design temps you'll be dealing with (even in the mountains) in Arizona, getting enough heat through the carpet will be less of a challenge than reponsiveness of the system....meaning you'll probably be getting alot of solar gain that you'll have to factor in.
Edited 1/24/2005 11:05 am ET by johnnyd