Can A Water Heater Be Used For Radiant Floor Heat

This is called a dual purpose system.

Can a water heater be used for radiant floor heat.

We ve been doing this longer than anyone with great success. A hot water heater saves money when used in this way. The system designer may have to increase the size of the radiators to account for the lower water temperature. The saving are extraordinary.

Also there is very little maintenance which can be done by the homeowner. The author s radiant distribution system consists of a primary loop with a heat exchanger for domestic hot water and secondary loops for each heating zone. Water heated by the tankless heater flows directly through the floor tubing while a heat exchanger provides heat for the dhw supply. That temperature is safe and comfortable as well as being efficient.

Water based radiant floor heaters are expensive to connect since they require a water source a boiler and pump unit. Dual purpose systems a dual purpose system relies on only one water heater to supply both the hot water requirements for the home and the warm water needed for the radiant floor heat. Since most conventional boilers are designed to produce super hot water 185 degrees radiant floor company builds what we call split manifolds for multiple zone closed systems that use radiant floor heat in combination with standard baseboard radiators fan coils cast iron radiators or any other hydronic heating device that requires super hot temperatures. Radiant floor company pioneered the use of on demand tank less water heaters for radiant floor heating nearly 20 years ago when many in the heating industry believed that on demand water heaters would never work for radiant heat we disagreed.

Certainly cost is important but there are many other important factors as well. However once installed they are exponentially cheaper to operate than electric heaters and as such after the second year recover their initial cost. Use a water heater to make radiant floor heat instead of a boiler many people use a water heater instead of a boiler for radiant floor heat because it costs less. Water heaters are good for radiant floor heating because they maintain a low temperature.

For most residential applications you can use the same hot water heater to heat water for the radiant heat system and for domestic drinking water showers cleaning etc use. Water heaters on the other hand are perfectly happy being fed 55 f supply water and chugging along at 110 f to 140 f perfect for radiant floors and more than adequate for many baseboard and panel radiator applications. In fact an electric hot water tank can be used to heat a house with in floor radiant and they are thousands of dollars cheaper than boilers and if they fail cost very little to replace.