Curious floor heat question

[8flyer]

Hello all. I am almost done with our new Oddessy install and before I spend a few thousand on heating the 44 ft bay I was wondering if anyone has heated thier bay with thier floor heat system? Is it possible? We are located in Central Illinois and it gets pretty cold in the winter! If not, what should I use to keep the bay above freezing? I was thinking of a radiant tube heater. Suggestions please! Thanks. -Kevin

 

[Bubbles Galore]

That is the path I would take.

 

[Waxman]

I use radiant heat to heat my auto bay. All I care about is that it stays above freezing.

I also have insulated overhead doors that cycle up and down in between washes. If I didn't have doors, there's no way the floor heat could keep the bay warm enough on days below 20*F.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

The floor heat won't keep the bay warm enough. I am in Ky. and had a Mark VII years ago that I tried to run without doors. The floor heat wouldn't even keep ice off of the tracks which were only 4" off the floor.

I use radiant heaters in my bays. I have a friend who uses a furnace in the eq. room to heat his autos. My bay heaters need enough maintainence that I wish I had gone his route.

 

[Waxman]

Can you describe how this works?

Is it a separate furnace that is in the pump room and blows heat into the bays?

I wonder if I could do this using my current Raypaks?

 

[Whale of a Wash]

The Radiant is a good idea, I don't have it though. I am heating the bays with floor heat only. I am heating the bays today at 40 degrees when its -12 outside with 185K boiler floor heat only- so it is possible. I always felt in my situation say 3-4 cars came in at same time, i would lose alot of heat, but the thermal mass makes it up in say 30 minutes or so . If a had an extra heater it would be much quicker for make up heat, My only analogy is driving a car 40vs 70 we both get there but one saved more gas.
John

 

[8flyer]

I use radiant heat to heat my auto bay. All I care about is that it stays above freezing.

I also have insulated overhead doors that cycle up and down in between washes. If I didn't have doors, there's no way the floor heat could keep the bay warm enough on days below 20*F.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I guess I should have stated that the bay has new Airlift doors installed as well. Will this help the floor heat keep the bay above 32?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Can you describe how this works?

Is it a separate furnace that is in the pump room and blows heat into the bays?

I wonder if I could do this using my current Raypaks?

It works just like it would in a house. The furnace is in the eq. room and forces air out to the autos. On his first wash I noticed that he had SS ductwork in the ceiling and asked him about it. He told me what he had done and also added that the SS ductwork cost $1200. I suggested that large PVC through the attic might have worked. He thought that was a good idea and used 10" white pipe on his next wash. That wash has been open for 5 years now and he is very happy with the decision. It is a 3 auto with the eq. room on the far left. On a single auto I would think forcing the air through a hole in the adjacent eq. room wall would suffice.

 

[Reds]

I have radiant tube heater in my IBA's and have good luck with them, even below zero. If I were to use floor heat I would make sure that it was on its own zone, with it's own Tstat. I take pictures of all my floor heat tubing when it is in place, just before they pour the concrete - lots of pics from different angles. Then if you ever have to cut or drill into the concrete you have a rough diagram of where the pex tubing is located. If the tubing is tied to wire concrete mesh you can count the squares to determine where the lines are located. I used these pictures to locate lines under my doors when I drilled to anchor a threshold and it worked well

 

[DavidM]

We have automatic bays with just the floor heat but they are touchless autos. When we added a friction machine the floor heat alone couldn't keep it warm enough. The foam stiffens and freezes very quickly with the doors opening and closing all the time. We added radiant heat and keep the bay around 40 degrees.

You could try it with just floor heat and the radiant heater would be easy to add if the floor heat isn't enough. Every site is different because of the size of the bay, the size of the boiler, the way the floor heat tubing is run and its distance from the boiler, the type of doors, insulation above the automatic bay, etc. We have one machine that actually circulates the antifreeze through the rails and that works like hot water heat in a house and keep the bay toasty warm.

David

 

[stevie g]

We use a Cambridge heating unit (forced air) that's installed on the roof of our facility and it blows a massive amount of heated air (like an air door) at the tunnel entrance to keep the mitters from becoming stiff as boards and getting icicles on CTA's, HCRP cloth, etc. We also have Reznor heaters in the drying bay and in the equipment room, and use a fast acting door at our tunnel exit.

If we really wanted to heat up the place (and spend $$$ on natural gas), we also have three 1,000,000 btu Absolut Aire jet heaters mounted above the exit of our drying bay.

We have floor heat in our lot, which we use sparingly because it's extremely expensive, but none in our tunnel.

 

[ToFarGone20]

Kevin-

I use my floor heat to keep it warm. It was 3 out this morning and when I got to work it was 35.2. I used Prodex insulation behind my FRP...its about 3/8 thick and flexible.

I am in southeast Iowa so if you want to send me a message you can come and have a look.

A.J.