Hydronics is the use of liquid water or gaseous water or a water solution as heat-transfer medium in heating and cooling systems. The name differentiates such systems from oil and refrigerant systems. This is the basic definition of hydronics. Our new Office and Web studio has Hydronic "above grade" in floor heating. Since our place is on pillars and not a poured pad, we are installing our coils above the subfloor within a "sleeper system" or we will "staple up" beneath the subfloor and still insulate below.
This is useful particularly if you have an old slab and wish to "retrofit" a hydronic heating system, but for us, this is just too much weight and we need to insulate our floors anyways. So we have chosen to do the "staple up" or "sleeper system". Regardless of what way we configure our water coils; we will be utilizing an outdoor wood boiler for providing the hot water. Since we are off grid, in an area with plenty of wood available for burning, this would be the best method for us. We plan on having a propane hot water heater as a backup, in case we travel for the holidays or vacations.
Hydronic heating has been used for decades but with the prevalence of pex tubing and modern technology. In floor hydronic heating has become a popular choice. It is so economical and if you use wood to heat your water, so very sustainable and inexpensive after initial set up. It also vastly improves Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and reduces the transmission of airborne viruses, germs and dust (85% fewer dust mites). Radiant heat can improve circulation and reduce symptoms of asthma and arthritis. With no fans cycling on and off all night it's a perfectly silent system and there's no dry air or blowing dust inside your house and absolutely no ducts to clean. Also, you can use different zones and thermostats to heat only certain areas of your home, turning back heat in bedrooms during the day and main living areas during the night. You also can run this as a closed system, with a heat exchanger to also hear the water to provide hot water for your baths, showers, and faucets.
I admit these systems look very complex, with all the valves, tubes and lines. Our outdoor boiler has been a pain in the ass...we definitely picked the wrong company to work with, although the product specs were exactly what we needed. My parents have the same hydronic system (with a different wood boiler) but they use old fashioned radiators ( although mom admitted she should have gone with in floor but she wanted to keep hardwood flooring which can be tricky with in floor heat), they have heated their home with a outdoor wood boiler for over a decade and a half. There is some maintenance, just like anything else, but the system has paid for itself many times over during their use. Here is a picture of the same closed system we use, however instead of a standard domestic water heater, our water gets heated by our wood boiler and the water is piped underground from the wood boiler outside ( 50ish feet away) underground via insulated pex lines. It's a pretty ingenious way to do it, and thus far we couldn't have been happier.
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I hope to add more pics of our installation of this unit (the woodstove) and the piping soon to this page. There are a TON of companies who specialize in radiant heat, and most of them will give you a free design if you buy all the parts to set it up through them. THey also offer tech support during install and replacement parts and maintenance tools as well. I highly recommend www.blueridgecompany.com and www.radientec.com (no I don't get any benefit from these links, they just have provided me with a wealth of information and assistance) and WoodMaster (https://www.woodmaster.com/outdoor/traditional-wood-furnaces/) , Crown (https://www.crownroyalstoves.com/) , or Central Boiler (https://www.centralboiler.com) for your outdoor wood boiler needs!
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