Jennifer Boyer on tue 24 nov 98
Does anyone out there have radiant floor heating in their studio? I'm
considering it for a new studio , but wonder how pots dry. I have
baseboard hot water now, and have lived with forced air. I'm looking
for something that dries pots as evenly as possible: a big factor
considering our LONG heating season.
Jennifer, laboring over the graph paper
--
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Jennifer Boyer jboyer@plainfield.bypass.com
Thistle Hill Pottery
Vermont USA
http://www.vermontcrafts.com/members/JenniBoy892.html
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Keith Chervenak on wed 25 nov 98
Jennifer,
I don't have it but always thought it would be the ideal solution to keep
dust down in the studio. I plan to use it when I finally build a seperate
studio building. If you are worried about pots not drying you might want
to consider incorporating a drying box into your floor plan and running
extra coils through this area or even through the walls of the box.
November's issue of This Old House Magazine has an article on radiant floor
heat, you might want to pick it up. Let us know how it works if you decide
to go for it.
Keith
Keith Chervenak
kac2@po.cwru.edu
216-368-4944
Case Western Reserve University
Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases
Cleveland, Ohio U.S.A.
Christine Dubois on thu 26 nov 98
Regarding radiant floor heating for your studio. Do you mean from hot water in
hoses under a cement floor? I heard that if the hoses in the floor break,
repairing them is a major hassle-- and expensive.
Tom Wirt on thu 26 nov 98
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Does anyone out there have radiant floor heating in their studio? I'm
>considering it for a new studio , but wonder how pots dry. I have
>baseboard hot water now, and have lived with forced air. I'm looking
>for something that dries pots as evenly as possible: a big factor
>considering our LONG heating season.
>Jennifer, laboring over the graph paper
>--
>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hi Jennifer.
Yes,
we put in a radiant floor 4 plus years ago and I wouldn't work in cold temp
without one again. Prior to that I had worked 2 winters in Illinois in an
insulated garage and had to wear "duck shoes" and heavy socks. Now I wear
sandals all year round....even at -30 degF.
It's not hard to install. My recommendation is to get a copy of Fine
Homebuilding (Taunton Press) to get the names of many suppliers. Should be
able to find it at libraries or Barnes&Noble or Borders or other good bookstore.
Also send me your snail mail address and I'll send a couple of articles from
past issues you may want to see. (Got that floor in yet Kevin?) Same offer's
open to anyone else who might be interested.
Besides warm toes, you can set clay out the night before and have warm clay in
the morning. On really cold mornings you may need a bit of back up to warm the
air if your studios not well insulated and tight (ours isn't). Also, foundation
insulation is important. We have a small backup wood stove or sometime turn an
electric kiln on for 1/2 hour or so.
Energy efficiency is great. We initially set up a 20 x 40 equipment shed using
just one home 40 gallon water heater set at 100 deg. We added a 20 x 20 section
and are running that off the same heater with zone controls so we didn't have to
duplicate the heater and pump. It still keeps up and we've been down to minus
36 degF with it.
As I said at the top, if you can do it, you'll find it the best studio
improvement you can make.
Tom
Jeremy/Bonnie Hellman on fri 27 nov 98
Jennifer,
This past summer I built a studio in a separate building in our house in
SW Colorado at 8600+ feet. Needless to say it does get cold here. This
is a one-story building without a basement. I wanted a painted cement
floor (with floor drains to the outside so I could wet down the floor)
BUT I know how cold cement can feel in cold weather. Our solution was to
install in-floor hot water heating, powered by a propane fired boiler.
It's really not water in those pipes, but rather is anti-freeze. We don't
live in this house year round, so this has been the first opportunity for
me to really try it out for heating. (We didn't need heating in the
summer, which was the last time I was here.)
It is GREAT!!!!! The floor is comfortably warm, feet stay warm, there are
no air currents to dry pots unevenly. We were told that the trick is to
work with someone who has done it before, and knows to test the system
BEFORE the cement floor is poured. You also want to work with a cement
person who knows what he/she is doing, so that the cement doesn't destroy
the pipes, etc. In other words, once your cement floor is poured, what
you have is what will be there. If the system does not stay closed, and
there is a leak, you won't have heat.
We took the advice of other Clayarters and used an epoxy paint on the
studio floor. We happened to use the Sherwin Williams product, which is
usually sold for industrial/factory use. You can color it any of their
paint colors. However, it was not cheap. You need a minimum of 2 gallons
at about $47/gallon, one of part A and the other of Part B, which get
mixed together. You do a minimum of 2 coats, one thinned a bit with
something toxic. My less than 600 sq ft surface needed a total of 4
gallons. Much of the studio got 3 coats (the thinned first coat, and 2
full strength coats) because there was mixed stuff left over after 2
coats. It dries hard, looks great, and cleans up beautifully.
BTW we also retro-fitted the house with hot water baseboard heating,
fueled by a propane burning boiler. It, too, provides nice heat, but it
is definitely warmer near the baseboards than in the middle of the rooms.
The in floor heating is just warm all over.
Bonnie
Bonnie Hellman
Jennifer Boyer on fri 27 nov 98
HI Keith,
Thanks for the info, especially about the mag article...I'm not worried about
pots NOT drying, but drying too fast. I have that problem in my present
studio in the winter. It's next to the furnace room and if I leave the door
open, the pots dry unevenly. But it sounds like radiant heat is very even with
no air currents. I'll definitely report back if I do this studio building
project.
Take Care
Jennifer
Keith Chervenak wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Jennifer,
>
> I don't have it but always thought it would be the ideal solution to keep
> dust down in the studio. I plan to use it when I finally build a seperate
> studio building. If you are worried about pots not drying you might want
> to consider incorporating a drying box into your floor plan and running
> extra coils through this area or even through the walls of the box.
>
> November's issue of This Old House Magazine has an article on radiant floor
> heat, you might want to pick it up. Let us know how it works if you decide
> to go for it.
>
> Keith
>
> Keith Chervenak
> kac2@po.cwru.edu
> 216-368-4944
> Case Western Reserve University
> Department of Medicine
> Division of Infectious Diseases
> Cleveland, Ohio U.S.A.
--
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jennifer Boyer jboyer@plainfield.bypass.com
Thistle Hill Pottery
Vermont USA
http://www.vermontcrafts.com/members/JenniBoy892.html
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rick Sherman on fri 27 nov 98
This was a real problem with the older radiant heating using copper
tubing. When they bagan to corrode, the repair tool was a jackhammer.
The newer synthetic materials have solved this problem. Tom Wirt's
response is on target. If unsure about radient heating, talk with a
contractor who has installed it as well as folks who have had it for a
few years.
Rick Sherman
San Jose, CA USofA
sherman@ricochet.net
----------------------------Original message------------------------
Christine Responded:
Regarding radiant floor heating for your studio. Do you mean from hot
water in hoses under a cement floor? I heard that if the hoses in the
floor break, repairing them is a major hassle-- and expensive.
>----------------------------Original message------------------------
>Does anyone out there have radiant floor heating in their studio? I'm
>considering it for a new studio , but wonder how pots dry. I have
>baseboard hot water now, and have lived with forced air. I'm looking
>for something that dries pots as evenly as possible: a big factor
>considering our LONG heating season.
>Jennifer, laboring over the graph paper
Dave/Janice Schiman on sat 28 nov 98
Hi Jennifer:
I have radiant floor heating. I just built my studio from the ground up
last year so it was easy to install before the cement was poured. It is
a wonderful way to heat a building. I find that the temperature is very
comfortable at 17 C or probably around 65 F. When your feet are warm,
you are warm. Even up north here where the temperature goes to -40 C, I
have had no problem.
So far it is very even drying. The only air that moves is when I open
the front door and that is at the other end of the studio from my drying
shelves. I am drying a lot of tiles right now, they are multi-leveled
so that I can't put a board on top, so I just made a tent. They are all
flat so far. I can't say enough about radiant floor heating, only that
I wish my entire house had it.
e-mail me privately if you want some more information. I'll give you
what I got.
Janice Schiman
Moose Jaw, Sask., Canada
d.schiman@sk.sympatico.ca
Jennifer Boyer wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Does anyone out there have radiant floor heating in their studio? I'm
> considering it for a new studio , but wonder how pots dry. I have
> baseboard hot water now, and have lived with forced air. I'm looking
> for something that dries pots as evenly as possible: a big factor
> considering our LONG heating season.
> Jennifer, laboring over the graph paper
> --
> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
> Jennifer Boyer jboyer@plainfield.bypass.com
> Thistle Hill Pottery
> Vermont USA
> http://www.vermontcrafts.com/members/JenniBoy892.html
> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Penny Hosler on sat 28 nov 98
Jennifer,
Kate's absolutely correct re the radiant tubing that Heatways sells. We did
our research this year before building our house and found that you need
cross-linked polyethelene tubing rather than the Heatways type by Goodyear.
We decided on Wirsbo and as a matter of fact my husband and I just installed
it last week and had the floors poured a couple of days later. We had the
ground floor poured with regular concrete and the second floor has
"gypcrete" poured over the tubing. Wirsbo hasn't had any failures, ever,
and has been in business forever. They've used it extensively in Europe.
But to answer your question, the heat is wonderful. Very very even. I
think you'll find no changes, except for the better, in your clay work.
You'll also have much less dust floating around, which is nice when you're
glazing. And warm feet, of course. Expensive to install, but pays for
itself in 5 yrs and then you really start to see the $$ savings.
Penny in northern Washington
-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Boyer
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Tuesday, November 24, 1998 6:47 AM
Subject: Radiant floor heating in studio
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Does anyone out there have radiant floor heating in their studio? I'm
>considering it for a new studio , but wonder how pots dry. I have
>baseboard hot water now, and have lived with forced air. I'm looking
>for something that dries pots as evenly as possible: a big factor
>considering our LONG heating season.
>Jennifer, laboring over the graph paper
>--
>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>Jennifer Boyer jboyer@plainfield.bypass.com
>Thistle Hill Pottery
>Vermont USA
>http://www.vermontcrafts.com/members/JenniBoy892.html
>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>
amy parker on wed 2 dec 98
This was a real problem with the older radiant heating using copper
tubing. When they bagan to corrode, the repair tool was a jackhammer.
The newer synthetic materials have solved this problem. Tom Wirt's
response is on target. If unsure about radient heating, talk with a
contractor who has installed it as well as folks who have had it for a
few years.
Rick Sherman
------------
We have this type of heat in conjunction with our baseboard hot water heat,
running thru the floors in our bathrooms. Our house was built by a plumber
in 1972 & all systems are still GO, thank God! It is absolutely the most
wonderful heating system I have ever lived with!!! Hopefully, our copper
will outlast us, but I do think the newer synthetics would be better,
especially if the floor shifts over time.
amy parker Lithonia, GA
amyp@sd-software.com
Janice Alexander on fri 4 dec 98
My husband and I lived in a house on the Intercoastal Waterway in Wilmington,
North Carolina (what a glorious place!) in a house that was built in the 50's.
It had radiant hot water heat and was it ever the best. The coils must have
been copper because of when it was built, and even this old, it still worked
great! Heated the place in no time, and of course, was it ever nice to walk
around in just your socks.
We rented the house and unfortunately, the owners are now going to bulldoze
the house and build a new (yuck) one. The house had such character, it is
really too bad. Was built by an artist who evidently loved to garden, and her
husband who was a professor of astronomy. Beautiful camillas, flowers, even an
automated tracking telescope stand in the back yard---and of course, a
gorgeous view of the water. Oh, well, we must have progress ....
Janice in Burgaw, NC
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