Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:31:59 -0500
Reply-To: 80 Westy Pokey <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: 80 Westy Pokey <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
Subject: Re: Winters in the van... HYDRONIC HEAT
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hydronic Heating is really great, I use it in the basement of
my house. A few things come to mind:
1) Thermal mass: Hydronic systems rely on a thermal mass
which they heat up. Once the mass is warm it is easier to
keep it warm. I think you would find it difficult to
duplicate a thermal mass on the floor of you van.
Regular concrete is too heavy but hypothetically you could
use the same lightweight self leveling concrete that is used
in homes, but I do not know if there would be too much flex
in the floor (ie: if it flexes too much it will crack).
2) I would not run it between the plywood, wood tends to warp
when heated... this will mess up your floor.
3) The boiler in my house separates drinking water from water
for heat. One of the main reasons they do this is that
Hydronic floors are generally "closed systems" that is to say
they are filled with water and the same water is recirculated
continuously. Because the water compeletly fills the floor
pipes, very little pump effort is required to move the water
along.
4) Typical hydronic hose is somewhat rigid, meaning it may be
difficult to turn the hose in small enough U's for the floor
area you are covering.
5) The boiler in my house would be too big for your
application but it has another cool feature "on demand" hot
water. I do not have a hot water tank in my house, when I
turn on a tap, the boiler senses the presure drop then fires
up and heats the water up as I use it. Thusly I can never run
out of hot water. The vanagon equivalent would be a
www.zodi.com hot shower heater.
Thanks,
Chris
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:49:42 -0800
>From: Eric Spletzer <eric@SENIORNET.ORG>
>Subject: Re: Winters in the van...
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
>Thanks to everyone who responded. Turned out to be a great
thread.
>
>After attending a workshop on hydronic radiant heating this
weekend, I'm
>somewhat interested in the possibility of using this. I'm
shooting from the
>hip here - so if I'm missing something. Please let me know.
Humor me though
>- this could have potential.
>
>What if there was a submersible water heater/pump that would
heat your water
>to say.... 130 degrees. Not hot enough to melt your tank,
but enough to
>keep it really warm. This (130-140 degrees) is roughly the
temp that goes
>through the radiant piping in a home. Then you could use
this pump to
>circulate the hot water through KITEC tubing that you lay
under your carpet
>in the cabin.
>
>This is basically the concept behind a hydronic radiant
heating system in
>your home. If you did this in the van, it could be a
permanent
>installation, and all you have to do is turn on the heater
and you serve two
>purposes: keep your water warm and unfrozen, and heat the
van safely at the
>same time.
>
>Drawbacks I can see right now:
>1. The water you get from this sink would be really hot and
I don't know if
>you can get a pump/heater that you can use on potable
water. (But you don't
>really want cold water in the winter anyway.)
>2. To install the piping correctly, you would fill in the
spaces in between
>the pipes with plywood or something similar, which might
suck in the case of
>an accident.
>
>Now that said - it's not nearly as simple as an electric
blanket or a lil
>block heater from WalMart - but could be a realy cool (er...
Warm) way of
>keeping your water handy and keeping the van warm.
>
>Any thoughts/comments/noticeable problems with this?
>
>--eric
>----------------------
>'85 GL Camper (Moby)
>San Francisco, CA
