How to heat water for radiant floor heat?

[K2Orion]

A friend is building a shop and is considering using radiant heat. After seeing the "What I'd do different thread" I am trying to convince him it is a good idea. At the very least he should put the tubing in the slab.

But his question was "How do I heat the water?".
I now have the same question. What are the most efficient, least expensive initially, most green, and most creative ways to heat the water? How much $$$ do you have in your setup?
He was originally planning to use a wood stove for heat. I guess a wood fired boiler wood be an option.
What about a used oil fired boiler?
Geothermal?
Radiant solar?
Electric water heater powered by hamsters in a wheel?

Lets hear your ideas/experiences.

[Jeepermat]

One at work is a gas powered boiler unit. One at my house is also a gas powered boiler.

[jstarnes]

ground source and a takagi

or radiant roof collectors and a takagi

[stssts]

You can use any of the tankless water heaters or you could use a regular hot water tank for the floor and for the sink or water ever. Using a heater for both uses would be the most universal and easiest to install

[gustav129]

I've seen the boiler method used also, but the one I saw was wood fueled. It headed both the house and the shop.

[CJ]

I am going to run a boiler for the floor and a plate and frame heat exchanger for the domestic.

I still do not know what brand of boiler I am going to run yet.

I know someone with a Munchkin that has had zero problems except a board that went bad because a mouse got in the panel and nested in there then pissed all over the board.

I know someone with a Baxi that likes it.

I may go with the Larrs mini therm because I can get it from work.

So I will be watching this thread since I have not made my mind up yet. There are too many choices.

[bighair]

it really depends on your area.. Some areas natural gas is cheap, others propane is cheap and others using electric is cheap.. I'm in Canada and our power is fairly cheap, so I went electric. I have a tankless water heater I was going to use, but apparently the pump I was using didn't have a strong enough(it was free) flow rate to activate the heater so I put a 50 gallon tank heater for this winter as it was Dec when I finished it. and didn't want my pipes to freeze from the cold. this summer I'll get a 3speed pump for 80$ and try it.

You only need moderate heat for the system to work so a tank heater works fine just not as efficient. the ideal setup would be solar or even thermo where it's a natural heat but at that point $$ comes into play. I got to admit, the heat is nice might of added 40$ to my powerbill a month, and that's running my tools an the heater for the garage.. no too bad I'd think.

[romoranger]

last house I worked on ran a gas boiler. worked really well.

[1wook]

How big is the shop and how well insulated.

Use a natural gas fire hot water heater.

[PAToyota]

Originally Posted by jstarnes

or radiant roof collectors and a takagi

I've been thinking about adding roof collectors to my system. I figure that I can likely keep the workshop above freezing with just the roof collectors during the day - if not substantially higher - and then supplement that with an instant hot water system for when I'm actually out there. Things will stay above freezing for a couple days down into the teens just from the solar gain from the windows.

Geothermal could be an option, but the install cost is usually pretty high if you need wells - unless you have enough land and a backhoe to do a coil system yourself.

[big specht]

I'm useing 2 60 gallon water heater (way it was set up not my idea) basicly too seperate systems in one building its a 40 by 80 pole barn with 16' celings and insolated good like 19 walls and 30 celing . It heats great with around 100 deg inlet temp water and is always 68 to 70 deg inside and is cheap to heat free gas. We set it up with gas so if we ever lose the free gas we could convert it over to propain pretty easly.