Floor Heat

[beartoo]

How well does the in-floor, hot water heating work?

[Ann n Gene]

It’s a mixed bag. Tags several hours to work and is not real uniform but will definitely take the chill off the floor and put heat into the air above and the basement below. We really liked ours and used it a lot but because of the time it takes to heat the floor takes a little advance planning. All JMHO

[brobox]

Floor heat works fine once it heats up. Depending on the how cold it is, about 10 hours before it's felt, after that ....nice. We have heated our coach with just the floor heat and fireplace to take the morning chill off.


Hot water, the earlier models had stir pump problems that required constant changing of the motor. The newer models have Buhler pumps and have had no problems. The hot water is constant and endless as advertised, easy to set the temperature to your comfort level if the factory setting is not desirable. The newer model works much better and set better than my older model was. I have had to do nothing to the 19. The 14, everything had to be adjusted and motors changed. JME

[Gary.Jones]

I agree also. Floor heats works fine but in our experience takes maybe more like close to a full day on our Anthem to get warm and nice.... And, the tubes run fairly widely spaced through the floors so as someone earlier mentioned, there is a lot of unevenness in the floor temperature in our Anthem. Have not had an opportunity to try floor heating in this new Cornerstone, so have no way to evaluate it on this coach yet, but we liked it on the Anthem.....

Gary

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by beartoo

How well does the in-floor, hot water heating work?

I may be misinterpreting your question, but the floor heat comes from circulating boiler fluid, not hot water.

Like others have said, it works well after it’s been on for a while, so it’s not something you turn on and off each day.

[Cruzer]

In-floor heating is always great when you have tile floors. If you are comparing it to an electric in-floor heating grid I wouldn't let the choice of hydronic or electric in-floor heating sway you either way when selecting a coach.

The electric grids heat up faster and provide more even heat so those are two benefits of electric over hydronic. However, the electric grids can fail and they are right beneath your tile so it will be a major task to repair. You also have to be careful if you place a large rug or dog bed on a floor with electric heating because the concentrated heat can cause the grid to overheat and fail. Doesn't do much good for the dog bed either. Most manufacturers use the electric version but they really don't have the ability to go with a hydronic heating loop unlike Entegra with their thick wooden floor.

The hydronic heat, as mentioned in the previous posts, takes a while to heat up. The heat also isn't as evenly distributed as an electric grid. But it does provide a good deal of heat and you can put heavy rugs or dog beds on the floor without any worries. If you are paying for your campground electricity you'll save some money ads well because the hydronic loop doesn't burn the kilowatts that an electric grid does. Plus you can use it while dry camping because the diesel burner will keep the heating loop hot.

So there's pros and cons to either system.

[W0GEN]

Beartoo
I am glad you asked this question as we will have our first heating season coming up.
So while on shore power do I use the electric element for this in floor heating system, or do I need to have the diesel burner on?

I am sure the answer may be based on outside temps? Lets just use two temps for the answer:
35 degrees outside - Electric or Diesel?
-20 degrees outside - Electric or Diesel?

I understand that zone two is the infloor heat system, and looking at our thermostat it cycles through OFF, GAS, or Electric... NO LP on board, so I am assuming the gas mode controls the diesel side?

We are from Iowa, and yes we do see negative temps!
Thanks

[brobox]

My limited experience is electric will not keep up for floor heat in cold weather. When it get cold enough that the heat pumps no longer put out heat, electric heat, except for the fireplace is past the comfort point.

[buddy110]

Originally Posted by W0GEN

Beartoo
I am glad you asked this question as we will have our first heating season coming up.
So while on shore power do I use the electric element for this in floor heating system, or do I need to have the diesel burner on?

I am sure the answer may be based on outside temps? Lets just use two temps for the answer:
35 degrees outside - Electric or Diesel?
-20 degrees outside - Electric or Diesel?

I understand that zone two is the infloor heat system, and looking at our thermostat it cycles through OFF, GAS, or Electric... NO LP on board, so I am assuming the gas mode controls the diesel side?

We are from Iowa, and yes we do see negative temps!
Thanks

You'll need your furnace (diesel) for anything below 50 degrees. I would use both the hydronic and furnace for best results. Remember, hydronic heat takes about 12 hours to get to fu8ll strength. Electric heat pump will not deliver heat below 45-50 degrees

[Cruzer]

You'll generally need to use the diesel burner to heat the floor, especially in those temperatures. In Wisconsin I rarely can use just the electric to heat the floor unless the temps are above 40 degrees.

Your thermostat controls the modes, such as cooling or heating as well as the heat sources. When your system is in the cooling mode the thermostat controls the rooftop air conditioners. In this case zone 2 controls the middle air conditioner. When your system is in the heating mode, "electric" controls the rooftop air conditioners operating in heat pump mode. When the zones are placed in "gas" they control the Aqua-Hot hydronic heating system. Don't let the "gas" label confuse you. It controls the Aqua-Hot regardless of whether the boiler is operating on the diesel burner or in the electric mode.

Zone 2 is the in-floor heat or the center air conditioner in heat pump mode. When zone 2 cycles to "electric" it's the heat pump. When zone 2 is on "gas" it's the Aqua-Hot in-floor heat. Keep in mind that you need to set the in-floor heat thermostat higher than what you would set zones 1 or 3 to. Generally it takes about 10-11 degrees higher. The sensor for zone 2 needs to balance its sensing for the overhead heat pump as well as the in-floor heat so you'll need to bump it up substantially to get the desired results.

[W0GEN]

Thanks for the education!!

[beartoo]

Thanks for all the replies now I can add more coaches to my search, lol.

Thanks

Beartoo

[W0GEN]

Few more questions..
While I am driving the coach during cold weather, What settings should I have to run the Aquahot?
Thermostat set for "Gas", and then have the electric and diesel switch set to off?
What about the engine heat switch, should that be on to provide heat from engine back to AH?

[Cruzer]

When driving the electric rocker switch on the Aqua-Hot panel won't do anything unless you are running the generator, which isn't likely to happen when driving in cold weather. The motoraide feature is when the engine's cooling system provides hot water to heat the boiler when driving. But it only puts out maybe 12,000 BTU whereas the diesel boiler puts out 65,000 BTU. You will still need to operate the diesel boiler if you want any sort of heat output when driving although the motoraide feature will shorten the amount of time that the diesel burner has to run.

You leave the Preheat rocker switch off when driving. The engine's water pump provides the transfer of heat from the engine to the boiler. The only time you use the preheat switch is when the engine is not running and you want to preheat the engine for cold starts via the hot Aqua-Hot boiler. The switch activates an electric pump that circulates the boiler heat to the engine in reverse flow via the same heater hoses that the motoraide feature uses.