FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Some of my best clients are owner builders.
If you have some technical ability and or worked with various tools this is an excellent option and I often recommend.
We provide all the design layout, materials and phone support and the ability to hire any tools you may need for the installation. Never had a problem with this method for my clients, any issues we always find a solution. No one takes more interest in your home build than that of yourselves.

I advocate this on many occasions you get one chance to run the pipes in the slab during the build.
Its cheap to install and great option to have down the track; the heat source can be installed many years after the house is completed.

For cooling maybe correct but certainly not for heating.
Ground temperature of say 13 degrees is a big difference to that of the heated water temperature of 40 degrees. The thermal capacity for the ground is effectively for a house infinite, you can never really heat the under the slab to store heat it will be lost to the ground, its wasted heat.
You must have a thermal break (insulation) to the ground from the concrete slab, all the empirical evidence around the world will support this fact; its simple physics.

When waffle pods first appeared 30 years they had an R value of 2.0 this was quickly downgraded to an R value 1.0 but in recent years has been downgraded to 0.5 R value. New Zealand rate pods to 0.2 R value.
If I were building my home I would not rely on waffle pods for an insulated concrete slab design, .

Yes hydronics have a higher installation cost but lower running costs.
Its silent, its effective and efficient but also the nicest and best method when health and safety are concerned. No air is blown around the house or building; air borne viruses cannot spread through the facility or home.
Ducted vents are rarely zoned well, if at all, the ducting has little insulation sitting in a unconditioned ceiling space, add to how poorly they are often installed, it just not a great system.
The ducts are never cleaned, often damaged with tradesman working on the house over the years.

There is a reason why Nursing homes and childcare centers prefer hydronic heating:
Hydronic heating is by far a superior system and the most popular form of heating throughout Europe and North America. Radiant heating is much nicer heat than convection.

We are somewhat bias on this topic having spent some time and effort creating the best zoning system.
If you want the most comfortable heating (cooling) for your home, you need to zone.
If you want the most economical running costs for your home, you need to zone. Which is better for the environment.
If you want different temperatures for each room, you need to zone.
If you would like to heat a bathroom outside the heating season, you need to zone.
If it’s a holiday home or you travel a lot, remote access is a wonderful feature to have.

It’s a common misconception to keep the heat going all winter long even if the rooms do not need heating or no one is home during the day.
Slabs that are well insulated you are feeling the heat rising through the concrete within two hours and most rooms are warming within 4 hours from colder starts. We always recommend having a wind back temperature when the system is off, improving the response time for when heating the home.
Considerably cheaper than leaving the system running.
Uninsulated slabs are also worth turning off if no one home or rooms not being used, once again from my experience, you start to feel the heat through the slab within 2 hours on most occasions. I would never recommend turning off the system completely unless going away for extended periods.

The heating effect from electric radiant is identical whether using in slab electrical cable or water pipes.
It all comes done to running costs.
Solar PV is extremely unlikely to be large enough to heat the average home.
If we took say an average install of 5 kw of PV panels, it would produce around 15kwh over a sunny day during the winter months (yes dependent orientation, angle, but ok for a guidance in the Canberra Australia region).
You would be lucky if that could heat the whole house for an hour in a cooler region.
Electric inslab cables can consume per square metre 100w of electricity per hour.
A 200m2 house could consume 20kwh.
Most states in Australia has a policy that the electricity your PV panels produced must be consumed simultaneously, to get the full benefit.

Hydronics has the ability to use various heat sources:

• Electric heat Pump with a very high COP 1kw input versus 4.5kw output; way more efficient than electric inslab resistances cable.
  If looking at utilizing your PV panels you could install a large water tank 1000 litres or greater, where the heat pump heats the water during the day and that stored energy can used at night when needed.
• Wood boiler
• Condensing gas boiler at least half to a third the price of electric in-slab heating to run.
• Solar thermal: sun heating the hot water to directly, extremely cheap to run but expensive for initial install.

Our company could quite easily install electric inslab cable if we thought it the best option.
My experience would lead me to believe that many homeowners with electric in-slab cable are extremely unhappy even those with PV panels.
More detail on much of the above is possible but this gives some understanding why we believe hydronic heating is the superior choice.