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

[noluck]

well the progress is happening, all the carpet is gone and reupholstering is starting to happen. the lines for the router are laid out works out to a bit over 50' in the floor, next step is to mount the webasto under the coach just ahead of the propane tank and drill some holes through the floor for the hoses

[Blue~Go]

well the progress is happening, all the carpet is gone and reupholstering is starting to happen. the lines for the router are laid out works out to a bit over 50' in the floor...

I'm curious about something. Presuming your Chinook is similar to my 1999 (1999 still has the plywood floor, not the fiberglass composite floor), how deep are the router channels going to be?

Reason I ask is that the floor in mine is 1-1/2" thick, made up of a sandwich of 1/2" plywood, 1/2" styrofoam insulation, 1/2" plywood. At least in the areas where I have cut into it (specifically I cut into the entryway hall adjacent to the shower for an access hatch to get to my grey tank plumbing).

I believe there are some solid wood "core" areas to maintain strength and bonding between the layers, or for example where the chassis bolts go through, but I don't know exactly how they have set it up.

If yours is similar, then I presume you would be cutting all the way through the top 1/2" ply and into the 1/2" styrofoam (to accomodate the OD of the Pex), only leaving the bottom 1/2" ply layer. Any thoughts about maintaining or beefing back up the floor strength? And/or did you find something different than I suspected in the floor construction?

I'm not looking to do this, so asking mostly because I'm always interested in how things are put together and/or modded.

[noluck]

so far all i have found is two pieces of 3/4" plywood in the floor, channels will be 5/8" deep

[Blue~Go]

so far all i have found is two pieces of 3/4" plywood in the floor, channels will be 5/8" deep

You know that's what I always assumed the whole floor was made of: Two 3/4" pieces of plywood stuck together to make 1-1/2" of floor. And maybe most of it is? Places like the furnace-lowering cutout, the holes for the water heater overflow and generator wire-in also seemed to be solid.

The only place I have really cut out a square is just inboard of the shower in the hallway, which I did because it is right above the ABS drain pipe as it goes into the grey tank (to make a repair). In that spot the floor was 1/2" of top plywood, 1/2" of white styrofoam, and 1/2" of bottom plywood. Maybe that's just in one area I happened to be cutting in?

So I'm curious what you'll find.

[noluck]

i have a loop right in that area, i will let you know. mine is a 95 so things might have changed