Quote:
Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile
1. Potential for leaks
2. Copper piping is extremely expensive right now
3. Need for a second HW heater
4. Not cheap to run the heating
5. steel piping can rust
6. PVC piping in the slab can spall
That said, there are a lot of these sort of under-slab or in-slab radiant heating systems that work well for a long time. The type/quality of heat provided is amazing. I had the pleasure of visiting Mies Van Der Rohe's Crown Hall at IIT in the dead of winter several years ago. It's quite something to have the brutality of a Chicago winter only inches away on the other side of large expanses of single-paned glass but the radiant heat keeping you completely comfortable. It makes the experience like watching it in just enough of a detached way to make it something one appreciates without making it SO detached it's like watching it on television (which is often what the experience is like behind double and triple-paned glass and walls so packed with insulation it's like being in a spacecraft).
Efficient? Hardly. But an amazing experience. Radiant floors rock if done correctly.
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Running the heating is less expensive than forced air, if done correctly. Even thermal-mass-storage electric heating cables can be more efficient, esp when there is an off-peak rate (usually at night) when you can heat the slab/mass.
Hot-water in-floor heat (Wirsbo, et al) is usually Polyethelyne Cross Link (PEX) that should last forever with no problems. So no copper, steel, or PVC. Since it is flexible, there are no joints and laying it in place is easy and usually tied to rebar grid.
I'm really not sure where your comments are based