Radiant Heat Cost + Overview Part 5/5 | MAD County Build

Full breakdown and cost comparison options. We look at the cost using the original "pink" insulation that I did my house with and an updated cost with the Hitz Halter insulation that I'm currently using. I walk through what the below slab, boiler, and controls all cost. I also calculated a price per square foot that will be a good estimator for your project.
Hitz Halter Insulation Details
www.mrpostframe.com/insulation
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0:00 Intro
1:05 Breakdown
1:56 Below Slab
6:22 Below Slab Cost
8:27 Below Slab Process
12:36 Boiler + Controls
17:56 Grand Total
18:42 Comparisons
20:19 Questions Answered
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[@nyhis5533]

Master of your kind.

[@Chilly383]

Thank you for putting this series together. Very informative.

[@agray103]

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing the info

[@birddog1220]

Thank you for another fantastic video.

[@heathermcfarland4644]

Great video!! Thanks for taking the time to make it! Great info!

[@joemizer]

You should add some glycol to your mix with DI water. 10 to 25 percent. Helps with corrosion. At least with inhibitors. Helps pumps/valves, etc.. you won’t see the benefits early but later.

[@bojangles_bonjangles8000]

Spot on! You’ll loose some efficiency on the boiler but the benefits out weigh the efficiency costs. DI water will eat copper tube because the purity of the water strips away the copper ions. It’s why in commercial buildings, computer room CRAC units are never piped in copper.

[@debwinfrey]

Thank you, very informative!!

[@dennismartin3562]

Wouldn’t it be slightly more efficient to use 5/8” pex rather than 1/2. The pump would be the same but it wouldn’t need to work as hard with a lower pressure and higher volume? Starting a similar size home myself, this spring

[@Thejakegee]

Great information. Thanks for sharing.

[@anthonytim.6393]

Great video and awesome information.

[@gregmeckley1013]

Great info, wish I could have watched this before I installed my own system!

[@davelindgren5245]

Thanks for all the data. The running cost seems to be a really good deal.

[@johnnycash5079]

Awesome video sir thanks so much

[@fredericrike5974]

Paul, that is a nice idea, to start a hydronic supply source; IDK about Kansas, but here in Texas, especially if you want to "give advice", somebody in your organization needs to get a Master Plumbing license. That said, it would give you the basis for also doing larger design for plumbing and heating as well as waste water install septic installations. Or to be a source to find and contract operators in your region that can do these things. As to what a 199K btu boiler can do, I had a client using one with two 119 gallon recirc tanks that needed work; some of it was the original plumber had little understanding about the importance of equal length piping between the two tanks and boiler. When I got done, I was running six bath's hot water, the six lavatories, two washing machines and a dishwasher for over 30 minutes and only saw a four degree temp decline in my recirc water. That is a lot of boiler; on another job, see if you can find someone to fit your demand- four loops at a half gallon a minute each is only two gallons a minute of "new hot water"- your boiler is 10x or so of that. Also, look into adding some sort of insulated tank and use the boiler to recirculate water and maintain the tank temp, the tank to supply HW for the floor tubes. That can reduce your boiler run time- and extend the life of the single most expensive and complicated part of your system. The next suggestion is to use a higher end variable speed single pump to distribute the hot water and then electric valving to send it where you need it. Continued success to you and Em, in all that you do! Fred PS; I just discovered that First Company here in Dallas makes a hot water evaporative coil heater with a DX AC coil for cooling- that would be for a latter addition brought into the system without floor hydronics

[@randyanderson1983]

You can put your vapor barrier on top the foam bored also to help with ice burg effect

[@stevepailet8258]

sure makes me glad that I heat and cool a much smaller space.. Depending upon how one provides power can certainly save a lot. With the cost of solar dropping I honestly can see installing a ground mount system inclusive of batteries for under $10K That said a lot of professionally installed could easily run $50 -75 K

[@anthonygoodrich6487]

Great info. Have you seen or done a double pad. A concrete slab, than indulge and and a finish slab over it.

[@danielkerska7783]

Great series! Question on slab thickness….if the pex is stapled to the insulation board and 6” slab, is the heating efficiency impacted vs having the pex closer to the slab surface? Secondly, if 6” slab, do use fiber mesh or rebar? Seems that rebar on chairs to get close to center of slab would be a challenge with stepping on the rebar while pouring and potential damage to pex? A video on this topic would be very beneficial. Review of the components inside the slab depending on thickness and practicality of building with rebar and pex stapled to the insulation. Thank you!

[@adubbelde1]

I have a 900 SF attached garage. The foundation is ICFs and I put 2" of EPS under the slab. I have 3 loops of PEX. The walls are 2x6 insulated with Fiberglass and the attic is blown fiberglass 16" deep. I have the thermostat set at 58 degrees. The heat seldom runs and often I find the garage several degrees warmer than the set point of the stat. It seems if we drive both of our vehicles, that the latent heat of the engine is more than sufficient to keep the garage warm. I'm in the mountains of western South Dakota. I also put pex in the basement of the 1500 SF house which is also ICF's. I recently shut the heat off down there to cool it off while finishing the family room. Consequently I don't have that warmth below the main floor and it shows in the morning when I get up. The house is 3 or 4 degrees cooler than it has been. I don't run heat during the night. We were out of town last week and I had all thermostats set to mid 50's. The house never got below 60.

[@charlesbartus1025]

What do you recommend for a build where gas isn’t available? My property is 100% electric. Do you think in floor heating is still worth it? I am doing a multi zone mini split system for cooling. They are also capable of heating. Would it be more cost effective to heat with those, or use an electric boiler and heat the slab? I’ve had a hard time finding an answer while researching. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

[@scopo911]

This is GREAT, thank you! When you use radiant heat for whole home heating, what are you using for A/C? Can you use hardwood or tile floors in the home or does it have to be finished concrete?

[@MrPostFrame]

We have traditional HVAC, we use the fan mode in the winter to circulate air and then the AC when needed in the summer.

[@user-ep2wf5eq4l]

Great Video! Would it be smart to not run the heater hose under your refrigerator and perhaps kitchen appliances?

[@pegleg402]

It depends, but typically no you don't want to heat the floor in spaces where your feet wont benefit from the heated floor. Are you space heating or floor warming? If space heating, get a load calculation and you will know how much tubing, loops, and spacing you will need to overcome your worst case scenario and you may need some tubing in places as you mentioned. Stay clear of toilets.

[@tylernorton6682]

ok so do you put frost board in between house and garage to seperate zones?

[@zapman2100]

any info on radiant floors with either mesh reinforced or rebar/wire reinforced concrete?

[@coreym5072]

How do you like NTI boiler? I’ve seen lots of breakdowns with these

[@stevepailet8258]

Just wondered if you have ever gone to a larger single pump Seems to me that a larger pump will still use less power than 4 pumps. Plus the savings of One larger pump that is perhaps $100 more than each of those four pumps would also save atleat $400

[@zachhinton9678]

Do you have some form of forced air for the second floor or the radiant is enough?

[@Sea-Doopilot]

Great video! lots of good info. We used this foam in my friends build and it worked well. I plan on using it in my shop build. Sent you an email for a quote. It's a simple 30x50' red iron building on a 5" pour.

[@MrPostFrame]

I’m glad it was helpful. The new insulation we use is awesome.

[@jordancraig5822]

Where did you get your pre-made control board from?

[@KelliKronemeyer]

HI - what do you think about just using sand and not gravel?

[@derrick_builds]

I'm not a big fan of punching staples into a vapor barrier. Is there a better way? Thanks for making these videos.

[@MrPostFrame]

The Hitz Halter product has a vapor barrier on both sides of the product.

[@usmarshall336]

My curiosity would be, could you use a heat pump water heater as a hydronic heat system. You wouldn't have to worry about propane.. Some people say yes some people say no depends on where you're at. With using a tankless hot water heater is not necessarily maintenance-free that's a cost Factor..

[@pegleg402]

No, most don't have the BTUs required for most projects, and you will need a buffer tank, which negates the cost savings. Unless you have a very small space. ie, just a bathroom. Go Geothermal hydronic if you want to get away from gas.

[@zackdreamcast]

Got quote for 3000sqt 3 zone - 46,000 usd. Apparently I am no longer doing radiant heat😢

[@Gruuvin1]

How about a cost breakdown of energy expense? 700 gallons of propane per year at $3 per gallon, works out to about $175 per month, but you probably need to heat the house less than six months a year, so maybe the heat bill is $400 per month. Is this relatively efficient?

[@tec-gnar]

I'll be your first customer if you want to start building pre made hydronic systems! 5500 sqft, 3 zones and I need help!

[@jamessanchez4411]

Have you considered air to water heat pumps

[@MrPostFrame]

Not yet anyway.

[@bsimon100]

Anyone have any good recommendations for a wood fired boiler?

[@bmiller1958]

Check out “Lumnah Acres” KZbin channel. They use a wood burning boiler in their house they built last year. He keeps his running all year.

[@bsimon100]

I’ll check it out, thanks