Whats the best source of heat for in-floor-heat?

by Water Heaters on August 4, 2010

I have all the tubes run under my garage floor, and found boilers to be pretty expensive. Ive heard of people using water heaters, on-demand water heaters, and everything else under the sun. Whats the poor mans solution here????


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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Leo C August 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm

Radiant heat tubes in the floor of your garage could be heated with either a water heater or a boiler, BUT!! there are reasons for and against both. The boiler is desigened to provide a vast quantity of hot water, which is needed in a garage due to the heat loss associated with a building that has a large door opening creating big heat temperature losses when opened. The down side, radiant tubes are not designed for high water temperatures, usually no higher then 135 degrees. Boilers generally run between 180-200 degrees. Water heaters on the other hand run right at that temperature so you would think that it would be ideal, but Alas no, they have a temperature recovery problems, in severe weather they just will not keep up. They might work just fine if you never open the doors and keep the temperature at the same level all of the time. Good luck

Michael K August 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm

boilers is the only efficient way.

Mustbcrazy August 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm

The poor mans solution is a high efficiency hot water tank. BUT…you better have your insulation factor high as well so that you don’t overwhelm the heat source. A boiler system is made for mass production of hot water heat whereas a hot water heater is not. An exterior wood fired boiler is the cheapest in the long run however.

justcurious August 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm

We have an on-demand boiler.We have saved 50% on our heating bill. Which quickly pays for the initial cost of the boiler. Usually the expensive part comes from putting the tubing in. Why do you have the tubing but not the source?

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