Can I Use A Hot Water Heater For Radiant Heat

Using water heaters for radiant heat gas fired water heaters can provide reliable efficient space heating as well as domestic hot water by bill clinton jurnal of light construction web page from 1999 six years ago i nervously installed my first hot water heating system fired not by a boiler but by an ordinary gas fired storage water heater.

Can i use a hot water heater for radiant heat. So using the unit for radiant heating generally has little or no effect on the sizing calculation. You really only need a maximum of 120 f for your floor. We will also be installing 2 separate water heaters. Use a water heater to make radiant floor heat instead of a boiler.

Either a hot water heater or a boiler handles all the heated water necessary to power the radiant floor heating needs. This model has the most impressive flow rate it is well made and it comes with all you are going to need. That temperature is safe and comfortable as well as being efficient. Sample temperature curve for an on demand unit.

The best tankless water heater for radiant floor heat is the takagi th3 natural gas. A hot water heater saves money when used in this way. Many people use a water heater instead of a boiler for radiant floor heat because it costs less. You will need to be aware of the incoming groundwater temperature as cold water will drop the overall water temperature.

A water heater heats water that is constantly being replenished since it is connected to taps. Water heaters are good for radiant floor heating because they maintain a low temperature. A boiler is a device used to heat a home using steam and radiant heat techniques and is a closed system which rarely replenishes its supply of water from an external source. Meanwhile a separate hot water heater takes care of the household hot water.

Because the slab installations will require less than 140 deg f water it is safe to use a water heater to heat the radiant slabs. You will need to make a few modifications to the heater and have knowledge of basic plumbing techniques. Most radiant heating installations use a boiler to heat the water but a simple hot water heater can do the job and save you several hundred to a few thousand dollars. We ve been doing this longer than anyone with great success.

On demand water heaters 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. Though they are sold primarily for domestic hot water tankless heaters are actually well suited for radiant heating which operates at low temperatures compared with for example hot water baseboard. Certainly cost is important but there are many other important factors as well.