Is in floor heat a good source of heat for a maintenance shop which has a large number of air exchanges?
In designing a mechanic/maintenance facility in a very cold climate, I am wondering how I can achieve the most efficient design possible for heating considering this facility will have several overhead doors which may be open several times a day.
My first approach would be to install in floor heat over an insulated slab to provide a constant base heat load via thermal mass, and then supplement this with gas-fire unit heaters. My building envelope isn’t likely to be very tight even when the doors are closed, due to past history, and non-existent when any/all of the doors are open. The building itself will have better insulation compared to similar structures in the area.
In this climate, the heating days required far outweigh the number of cooling days.
Any advice would be appreciated.
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Replies
Logan,
The source of your heat is less important than the design of your building envelope. Emphasize airtight construction methods; increase insulation levels beyond the minimum code requirements; and install high quality weatherstripping on the overhead doors.
Depending on the nature of the work being performed in the building, you could abandon the idea of heating the entire space -- and instead use radiant heaters (either electric or gas) to direct radiant heat at workers, while leaving the rest of the building cold.
Martin,
Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, I'll never get an air-tight building because I am designing it, not installing it or even supervising the installation. Also, with the large overhead doors which each may be opened several times a day, the building will be losing its heat in large sums. I will be using better insulation to retain the heat I have though, that is certain.
I do appreciate the advice on radiant heaters directly towards the workers or work areas, I think that's a philosophy I will apply on future buildings of similar usage.