Noisy Hydronic kick heaters
woobagoobaa
| Posted in General Questions on
I’m near settling a hydronic heat plan for a kitchen reno which is complicated by the need to flatten a baldly sagging floor. The subfloor will be coming up and a joist sistering plan will prohibit under floor radiant. So we are headed towards abovesub-floor radiant or kick heaters.
The kick heaters will be the far less expensive option. My past (dated?) experience with hydronic or electric kick heaters is that they are noisy.
Anyone have recommendations for hydronic kicks that are easy on the ears?
Cheers
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We replaced the subfloor during a recent remodel with warmboard. That may a third option. In the past did you bleed the air. Typically hydronic heating is very quiet.
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Pricey stuff. Do you recall what kind of lead time was required for the warmboard ordering process? I am wary of the lack of accessibility for maintenance.
Yep the price is worth it. The warmboard was ordered early in the project so it sat in the garage while the old OSB sub floor removed. All of the maintenance is in the mechanical room. I did has to install an air hammer for the humidifier but maintenance is low. Caveat, I grew up with hydronic heat so I really dislike air burners, I mean furnaces. My only mistake was not listening to Dana Dorset, should have installed a heat pump.
I've had no issues with installing ultra-fins with sistered joists. Very quick install. Depending on the spacing, you might have a hard time turning the pipes around at the joist end, when that is the case, I loop them through the next joist, almost like a backstich pattern.
Joists are already 12" on center.
Other plates are narrower than that.
The ultra-fins only need one pipe per joist bay, 12OC should be no problem. You can even run the piping perpendicular through the joists, but that would be a lot drilling with 3.5" of lumber there.
The one item to watch while working with these is the joist bays need to be air sealed especially at the rim joists. Since it is heating a small cavity bellow the subfloor, air leaks there can kill your heating efficiency.
I have tried various other types of floor heat, these are effective, cheap and easiest to install. Plus you never have to worry about accidentally putting a nail through a pipe as with many of the other setups.
Like any fan, over-sizing it and then running at low speed will help. 33 dB is quiet for a kitchen.
https://smithsep.com/decibel-levels/#:~:text=This%20is%20why%20we%20named,dBA%20level%20on%20low%20speed.
The Smiths Environmentals are the quietest I've ever encountered . Have you thought about radiant ceiling though ?
Kickspace heater fans need to be cleaned regularly. Dust bunnies on the fan blades will be noisy.