If you have our kind of weather...

[Frank S]

I have seriously considered installing radiant heat in the slab of my shop once I get around to pouring the slab that is. If I do I will go the route of laying 100's of feat of urethane tubing in the floor a couple inches below the surface since the slab will most likely only be around 5000 sq ft If I do this I plan on having 5 to 8 zones rather than how I have seen some slabs of that size done with 1 to 3 zones. Hot water systems seem to work better with more zones rather than fewer, I wouldn't plan on having the radiant floor heat do all of the heating for the shop just to keep the floor mass warm enough so as not to feel cold if having to lay on the floor under a truck or piece of equipment the remaining heat could be wood fired. A boiler could be incorporated in the wood fired furnace as well.on my property I have enough dead wood to run a wood furnace for 50 years I might even make it duel to a nearly full passive system by also constructing solar panels and installing them on the roof since the building will have the eves facing east to west giving me at least 2800 sq ft of south facing surface The trick would be to use hot water in the summer by constructing an absorption chiller like a heat pump to condense the Freon in the AC system Again with the size of the possible roof system I could have 2 or 3 evaporators and air handlers about the only energy that would be required to power the system would be a couple of small pumps and the fans in the air handlers. It might take a GOV grant to fund an experimental system but the feasibility of function has sound proven research behind it