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Kiko Denzer on Art



[Cob] RE: Solar radiant floor

Chuck & Linda clearned at bminet.com
Sun Jan 23 22:07:34 CST 2005


Climbing out of lurk,

Karl wrote:
my current plan is as follows:
i'd like to incorporate solar hydronic heat into my earthen floor. the
method that has intrigued me the most is to incorporate a large sand
bed under my earthen floor and run pex trough it heated by solar
collectors....
Karl on the strawbale listserve and in the recent edition of the Last Straw
they addressed the issue of the bubble wrap based on research in Canada. The
stuff did not perform well at all below grade. That said, I agree with your
thinking regarding the deep heat solar radiant concept. I am doing exactly
that on my home under construction.
It has 2-3' of sand and sand/gravel mix with the tubes at the bottom. There
is plastic and somewhere between R20-30 of rigid foam. So it is an insulated
box so to speak. The more sand you can afford probably the better, some have
put in as much as 6' !!! Then in Aug start pumping the heat in. If you have
a super insulated structure and a fairly decent sunny climate this should
cover most or all of your heat if the house is detailed well. In a small
cabin you could probably get by with 6 collectors.
Chuck in Wisconsin

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