Home Improvement Asked on July 11, 2021
My home has a hydronic heating system, with fully enclosed floor radiators. In one room, there is a radiator that runs the length of the room, on the outside wall which is about 20′ long. In the center of this run, I want to install a set of french doors to the outside. In order to do so, I will have to have about 7 feet of that run diverted into the floor. So it will run down the wall, dive down into the floor on one side of the door, and then pop back up on the other side and continue on as it was.
Will losing this amount of radiator have a significant impact on its ability to heat the room in winter? This is Ohio and it’s a west facing wall (windward side).
Some additional information, from comments:
Maybe I am missing something here but the entire loop will still be in the room so there will be heat in the wall And the floor with a longer loop. but my concern would be air trapped in this loop could kill the loop if you don’t have flow restrictors on your manifold.
Correct answer by Ed Beal on July 11, 2021
7 feet? That is one third of the radiator. Unless it was massively oversized when it was installed then the room will take longer to heat up to temperature and may well feel cold.
Also, if the walls are insulated, adding the french windows will increase the heat losses anyway so you have two negative effects - less radiator and more heat loss.
So you might find you will need to compensate for that.
Answered by Solar Mike on July 11, 2021
TL;DR
That room will become one-third less comfortable.
Hydronic heating works best when installed near a cold/draft source such as a window so that the cold air falls into the heater and gets released back out as warm air; this is why it is on your outside walls.
Removing 7 feet and placing 6 foot wide french door (presumably windowed not solid wood) is going to produce cold air which gets sucked into radiators elsewhere. So from the cold source you will notice a continuous draft at your feet. In addition to that you are removing 33% of that room's heating capabilities so it will likely feel colder than it used to.
If you want to combat this issue then can look into placing vents in every floor bay for that 6 foot door span so that the cold air can be exchanged for warm air efficiently. as you will get zero heating benefit from having the radiator beneath your floor.
Ignoring the information about an existing window nor the french door of similar size your question boils down to:
I want to remove 33% of the radiant heat from a single room, what will happen?
Answered by MonkeyZeus on July 11, 2021
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