The past two weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind. Rachel and I usually clip along at a pretty brisk pace—always working on some project or another—but with the move to New Hampshire, things have been even more chaotic than usual. That being said, the hard part of having our lives upended is over (or at least mostly over) for the time being. Now, it is time to really work.
Some context: as we finish building our new home on the land in Franklin, we are living in the small cabin that Rachel’s parents built here years ago. It is a beautiful spot and what it lacks in size and running water and a bathroom, it makes up for in handcrafted charm. Altogether, its about 780 square feet of living space, which, in addition to the shed we had installed last year, is just enough to fit our lives inside. And while I am all about using our composting toilet and taking outdoor showers (what I call “Peace Corps lite” or for the Paraguayans and RPCV’s “chuchi Peace Corps”), these cold spring nights that still dip below freezing make the desire to finish the house all the more real. To these ends, we were fortunate enough this past week to have my good friend/older brother Tom Storm—who also happens to be a fellow homesteader from Lehighton, Pennsylvania—up to the land to work on installing some radiant flooring.
Now, to answer your burning question: Why radiant flooring? Of all the heating systems in the world, why go with a hydronic radiant system? What a great question, I’m glad you asked. If you know me, then you know that I am about to offer unsolicited a long and substantially-overthought answer to this question, but alas, that’s what this blog is for. Forgive the self-indulgence.
Radiant flooring systems are all the rage in certain circles, but not necessarily common, especially in residential construction. There is one sort-of downside to radiant heating: you have to put the infrastructure in place early on (i.e. before the foundation is poured). Once it is laid and the foundation poured, its set in place and can’t really be changed. But so long as it is set up correctly, it will serve as a reliable heating system for many decades. At the same time, there are a number of other benefits to radiant heating: it is incredibly energy efficient and cost-effective, not to mention, it is an uber-comfortable way of heating a home (who doesn’t love having warm feet?). Along with the woodstove that we plan to install, a hydronic radiant system that runs off of electricity will allow us to be completely energy self-sufficient and off-grid once we hook our house up to solar (but that is another future project).
One of the tricks to adding a radiant system to a house is figuring out zones and loops. Let me explain. When heated water flows through the radiant piping, it looses heat over time to the concrete slab, which is how the whole system works (i.e. heated water radiates energy into the concrete slab as it flows). After a certain distance, so much heat has been dissipated that the water does not have any more to offer. So in order to work, each loop in a hydronic system can only be so long. In our case, with 1/2 inch PEX tubing, the maximum length per loop is around 300 feet. Since we need roughly 5 loops to cover the square footage of our house, that means integrating 5 different loops into a single zone, which can be controlled with a thermostat. It sounds complicated, but its really not. For anyone with questions, feel free to reach out or, if you are interested in reading more, might I recommend this surprisingly-funny and delightful book Hydronic Radiant Heating: A Practical Guide for the Nonengineer Installer by Dan Holohan.
Despite all its benefits, installing radiant tubing can sometimes be a pain in the ass, requiring staples and measurements and many hours bent over trying to conform rebellious plastic tubing to one’s geometric whims. But our contractor recommended we use something called Nudura, which is a foam insulating barrier with built in tracks for running radiant tubing. It is super easy to install and makes running lines (and re-running them when you inevitably have to make changes) super simple. In practice, it works just as advertised, and the whole process of laying out the loops for our entire single-story home took less than a few hours. Not bad for half a day’s work.
Pics included below!
