Concrete Floor Heat Sink

When installed on top of a concrete slab without insulation it is generally accepted that a radiant floor heating system will take the chill away from the floor and provide a small amount of warmth.

Concrete floor heat sink.

The central 30 of the slab was left uninsulated. Radiant heat can be an electrical heating element embedded into a very thin concrete overlay then tiled carpeted or have wood flooring installed over it. This article explains how to avoid some fatal mistakes when installing radiant heat in a concrete floor slab by describing an incompetent radiant heat floor installation along with an explanation of why things went wrong and how to avoid these errors. Radiant heating system design or installation mistakes that must be avoided.

Both of these installations utilized the heat sink option i e. The concrete slab is often placed on a layer of sand for drainage or to act as a cushion. The exact amount should be calculated as part of the design process. This is true with any floor warming system.

Houses built on a slab lack crawlspaces and there is no space under the floor. Concrete slab floors should be 100 200mm thick for the best performance while thermal mass walls should be 100 150mm thick. Very thick thermal mass walls and floors may take too long to heat while those that are too thin won t store enough heat. When installing a floor heating over a concrete slab.

A concrete slab floor provides excellent thermal mass. The slab will always act as a heat sink some of the heat that would otherwise be transferred to the flooring surface will remain in the slab causing the floor s surface temperature to be considerably lower. For maximum heat absorption the surface should. Notice the wide comfortable bends then the 16 on center spacing on the straightaways.

The workers in the photograph at page top where our concrete slab. While most drainpipes descend below the concrete and run through the soil or sand layer beneath if the home has radiant in floor heating cutting through the coils can destroy the entire system. Heat sink slab installation the two slab installations above use 7 8 pex tubing 16 on center.