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[chadley]

Is there anyone out there that has an OWB heating a house on slab floor?  Our slab house is cold (as expected) at the floor level. I want to find someone that has an OWB and a slab floor house to see if they can tell a difference in floor temperature.  I know this is difficult to judge since the "coldness" comes from the ground but i was curious if the OWB made any improvement in that area.  Thanks.

[muffin]

Not sure what you mean.  If you have radiant heating in the slab it will make a huge difference.  Otherwise, what heating system are you comparing it too?

[woodfuel]

Slab floor... meaning no basement/foundation? Heat always rises so better have a radiant heat setup or thick carpet.

[chadley]

I am referring to a slab floor with no crawl space or basement and no radiant heat.  I completely understand that there is not much we can do to make the floors warmer without radiant heat, carpet etc.  We have hardwood floors and the cold ground causes our slab to be cold.  My wife hates how cold our floors are.  She wants to know if the OWB will make the floors any warmer. 

My best answer to her was:  The warmer the inside temp is, the warmer the floors will be (even though they wont be nearly as warm as with radiat heat etc.)  In addition, we aren't going to find any warmer air than OWB air. 

Sorry for the long post but part of our problem is we have electric heat (which is the coldest) so my wife is keeping our house at 60 which is making our floors even colder.  Am I right in assuming that if we kept our house at say 75 with an OWB our floors would be warmer than keeping our house at 60 with electric heat?  I hope what I am asking makes sense.  Thanks

[Ridgekid]

Yes the floors would be warmer with warmer room temperature. How much warmer would have to be determined on how well the slab was insulated when it was poured.

[RSI]

If you use baseboard heaters it might radiate some of the heat into the floor and warm it up.
Ceiling fans are probably going to make the most difference.

[Mrplow]

You can run small pex lines over your subfloor to get very toasty floors with the hot water from your OWB, gauranteed happy wife and feet...
Check out the Heatshield panels---http://www.warmzone.com/site/page/heated-floors

[willieG]

heat sheild panels look wonderful but i f i was going to take up my flor and install them, i think i would opt for losing another inch in height and put another full inch of insualtion under them (just my thoughts)
 the more the better (insulation anyway)

[RSI]

Do you have the edges of the slab insulated? If not, I would insulate it and run the insulation down into the ground as far as possible.

[chadley]

I don't know anything about pex lines.  I'll have to research that. 

As for outside insulation of slab.  yes our slab is insulated from the outside.

Help me understand how the ceiling fans will make the biggest difference....

On the same topic.  Hypothetically speaking- if our house were on 60 with electric heat and we switched to 60 with an  OWB, would our floors be warmer with the OWB than with the electric?  Obviously wood heat is hotter than electric or gas heat but with all things being equal in temps would the floor be warmer?

[RSI]

Heat rises so the floor is the coldest place. Having a ceiling fan running will push it down and move the warm air across it helping to warm it up some.

If you notice any real difference will depend on how you set it up.
Do you have forced air now? If so will you just put a heat exchanger in the air duct? Doing that will not feel much different unless you have fairly cool air coming out the vents.

If you use radiators or baseboard heaters the floor may absorb some radiant heat and feel warmer.

[petemoss]

 She wants to know if the OWB will make the floors any warmer. answer is no ! if you have hardwood flooring on top of cold concrete the floor will be cold. I'm in the same situation. in slab radiant is the best period, for warm feet. when your feet are warm your more comfortible. it's nearly impossible to warm the air in a home enough to warm the concrete because of the mass of the concrete & the fact that heat rises. if the slab is not insulated properly it would be hard to do even with radiant in floor. you could add radiant to your floor, but it would not be a small project. Google radiant floor heat. hope this helps. good luck whatever you decide.

[dirtryder]

On the same topic.  Hypothetically speaking- if our house were on 60 with electric heat and we switched to 60 with an  OWB, would our floors be warmer with the OWB than with the electric?  Obviously wood heat is hotter than electric or gas heat but with all things being equal in temps would the floor be warmer?

Well, considering we keep our house @ 75  without paying a penny for propane......if you do that your floors "should" be much warmer

[chadley]

RSI

we will be putting a coil in the ductwork to do our heating.  You say this won't be much warmer?  Warmer than what we have now (electic heat)?  Maybe I missed your point. 

[muffin]

Do you have the edges of the slab insulated? If not, I would insulate it and run the insulation down into the ground as far as possible.

How do you insulate a slab?  I would be interested in doing this to my pool room.  Can it be done post-construction; on a completed structure?