Radiant Heat in Slab | Infloor Heat High Mass

Infloor heating that is in concrete or gypcrete is a high mass heating system. What this means is that there is a lot of weight and area that is required to be heated by the pex pipe before the room is heated. The heating medium will be completely heated, then the room will be heated by the entire medium. Both concrete and Gypcrete are good conductors of heat. Therefore in both applications your complete floor will act as a radiant heater.

Radiant Heat in Concrete

Infloor heating in concrete is usually for garages, basements, snowmelt systems, or slab on grade. The pex in these case will need to be fastened to either a special Styrofoam insulation or to rebar.

Radiant Heating in Gypcrete

Infloor heating in Gypcrete is normally a system of pipes that is stapled to the floor from above. The gypcrete is poured over the pex, creating a concrete like finish. This takes up approximately 1 ½ inches of space. In this particular situation the doors have to be taken into consideration as well as the drywall, as there should be an extra plate installed at the bottom. And the structure of the building must be considered as there will be much more weight on the structure when compared to other systems.

Radiant heating considerations with high mass.

     Concrete will need rebar for the pex to be tied to

     May need insulation in basements, garages and snowmelts

     Need extra reinforcement for structure if using on floor other than in the slab

     Radiant Heat in high mass has a  response time is much slower

     If the pex is run properly you will have a more even heat