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[agriffinjd]

If you are doing only in-floor radiant heat, do you set the OWB to only heat the water to like 130 degrees instead of the 180 degrees for a force air setup?  I don't have my OWB yet, and I'm planning on forced air, so this is just a question for my curiosity. 

[mlappin]

Running that low on the OWB will cause em to rust out faster. You'll have condensation in the firebox and the cooler the water the more free oxygen it can carry. Run as hot as you can and get some tempering valves to control your radiant heat temps.

[slimjim]

Run it hot.

[LittleJohn]

I run the OWB at 180 with 10 degree difference; have Water to water heat exchangers in both the house and detached garage (so I can run them closed loop with a glycol mix),  and run water temperatures in floor of about 100 to 120 (with an Belimo mixing valve) but a thermostatic would also work.

You would not want to run a OWB with 130 water temperature, run the risk of condensation in the firebox.  I run a CB eClassic 2400 (Gasser) it required a bypass to be installed between the OWB and any heating application; is basically sends water back to the OWB if its below 140, so that you do not shock the boiler and prevent it from forming condensation

[agriffinjd]

Thanks all.  Interesting to learn even if not how I'm going to do it.

[ITO]

Thanks all.  Interesting to learn even if not how I'm going to do it.

 That's funny! I have radiant heat and it is just so much more powerful at higher temps especially noticeable in cold temps. I need higher temps for my DHW tank anyway but when I run it down lower it seems the call for heat goes on and on because the return temps pull the boiler temps down easily.
 Besides the obvious condensation problem which it sounds like you are going to ignore, you can ignore this observation also. LOL!

[agriffinjd]

Thanks all.  Interesting to learn even if not how I'm going to do it.

 That's funny! I have radiant heat and it is just so much more powerful at higher temps especially noticeable in cold temps. I need higher temps for my DHW tank anyway but when I run it down lower it seems the call for heat goes on and on because the return temps pull the boiler temps down easily.
 Besides the obvious condensation problem which it sounds like you are going to ignore, you can ignore this observation also. LOL!

By ignore what do you mean?  My original post was out of curiosity because I'm going with forced air when I do the install.  I was just wondering if if I were to be doing in-floor radiant instead of forced air, would I (or could I) run the water temp lower.

[ITO]

 Sorry Grif, when you wrote
"Thanks all.  Interesting to learn even if not how I'm going to do it."
 It sounded to me like you were going to ignore the advice of keeping the boiler temp up higher. Didn't mean to offend, I see what you meant now!

[ffbare]

Griffin I plan on doing the same thing your going to do it sounds. What kinda heat plates under the floor do you plan to use?

[ffbare]

Alot of the guys here recommend ultra fin. I'm thinking about going with that

[ITO]

Alot of the guys here recommend ultra fin. I'm thinking about going with that

 When he says in-floor I am assuming he means pex poured in concrete, ultra fin is under floor product. In-floor usually uses a mixing valve to limit heat but ultra fin runs at boiler temp.

[LittleJohn]

Good catch ITO

In slab temperature generally top out about 130F, and you can run them hotter, but in my opinion it puts too much stress (thermal) on the concrete and may cause excessive cracking or breakage.  Also at those kind of temps you can easily overshoot thermostat and/or have hot spots in the floor; where pipes are close together or near manifolds

For Staple up. heat emission plate or other underfloor applications, temperatures top about about 160f, and you can run them hotter, but just like inslab if the water is too hot you could get into situation where your feet are uncomfortably hot, or worse - excessive heat is not good for all types of flooring (think solid wood floors - WARPPING & SHRINKAGE).

[ffbare]

I would be doing a staple up myself, I didn't know you could run that warm wow 160? I have an old sub floor running on an angle, sub floor on that, 3/4 flooring on that and to top it off new hard wood bamboo on top of that. I should drill and see how deep or thick my flooring is. Ultra fin hangs a few inches off the bottom, does anyone know is the heat plates that screw to the underside are better?

[slimjim]

That's the whole idea with Ultra fin, you heat the air-space not the wood and that convects into the wood or whatever evenly

[mlappin]

I would be doing a staple up myself, I didn't know you could run that warm wow 160? I have an old sub floor running on an angle, sub floor on that, 3/4 flooring on that and to top it off new hard wood bamboo on top of that. I should drill and see how deep or thick my flooring is. Ultra fin hangs a few inches off the bottom, does anyone know is the heat plates that screw to the underside are better?

After reading about them I'd go with the ultra fin if I was doing it.

Wish I had known about them last spring when I remodeled our bedroom. Would have been a piece of cake to install then as I even removed the floor joists (over a crawl space) and replaced those as well. But, after new windows, refilling the walls with blow in, house wrap and new siding I don't even have a heat duct in that room and it doesn't get cold. Also on the west side of the house with a windbreak fifty feet from the house.