hydronic heat conversion

[noluck]

has anyone changed to hydronic heating? i am gathering the stuff to get rid of my furnace and build radiant in floor heating. since i have diesel and a old generator nipple on my tank i have a easy diesel source for the webasto heater. this will get rid of the noisy, spot heating unit that burns alot of propane to get a quite consistent heat. my plan is to router in the channels to lay the pex piping into the floor then epoxy in place, 1/4 inch door skin, then my new laminate flooring

[chance2fly]

I have not done a hydronic system but have some experience with residential radiant heating systems. I think you could get the same effect of having pex tubing installed in the floor without all of the work by installing 3 or 4 small radiators with small DC fans blowing the heat on the floors. There is so little floor area in the Chinook I don't think it will be effective at producing enough radiant heat to maintain temperature, especially in cold temperatures. It would also take hours to warm up initially. I think the floor systems usually have radiators used for 2nd stage heating when the floor is unable to warm the space in a period specified by the thermostat. DC fans are nearly silent when compared to the noisy fan on the stock heating system.

[noluck]

I have not done a hydronic system but have some experience with residential radiant heating systems. I think you could get the same effect of having pex tubing installed in the floor without all of the work by installing 3 or 4 small radiators with small DC fans blowing the heat on the floors. There is so little floor area in the Chinook I don't think it will be effective at producing enough radiant heat to maintain temperature, especially in cold temperatures. It would also take hours to warm up initially. I think the floor systems usually have radiators used for 2nd stage heating when the floor is unable to warm the space in a period specified by the thermostat. DC fans are nearly silent when compared to the noisy fan on the stock heating system.

i had thought of that, and that is how my 40' pusher is. but don't want to loose the storage space of running the lines and the rads. as you say there is not much floor area and i will have the dinette and couch out when i pull out all the blue carpet. so a perfect time to put pipe in the floor. i also did all the radiant in the house, and it is such a nice heat. after camping this weekend the interior remodel will start.

[chance2fly]

If there is a way to get the hydronic tubing under the shower or in the wall between the bath and kitchen you could get some heat into the bathroom too. It would help if you tried to get at least one radiator to speed up heating when needed.

[noluck]

i will commission the system before the floor is finished