electric radiant floor heating? , has anyone tried it or heard about it? ?

I been wondering if I should at least try from home depot their radiant floor heating cables. They come in a mat or you can just get the bare cable and set it up the way you want, I thinking of putting it above the floors polyisio and under the plywood floor. ..


Here what I talking about:
http://m.homedepot.com/b/Flooring-Under-Floor-Heating/N-5yc1vZapte

If this works, This may finally work for keeping the floor/ feet warm, this may only work for whomever has shore power. I wonder how good source of heat this would be for sub freezing Temps. ....

Thanks for sharing your ideas! !!

The one I looked at was 120V 300W.   :s

That will kill the battery quicker than a microwave.

Well, Free Range Chicken did say shore power. But it seems like a lot unless you're going to stay in campgrounds all the time.

It's gotten me curious about an off grid version. Plumb your water heater through Pex in the floor with a circulator? Would use lots of propane...

TMG51 said:

Well, Free Range Chicken did say shore power. But it seems like a lot unless you're going to stay in campgrounds all the time.

It's gotten me curious about an off grid version. Plumb your water heater through Pex in the floor with a circulator? Would use lots of propane...

Click to expand...

As well as electricity for the pump.

heating with electricity is very inefficient. doesn't matter if you have shore power or not. it is still the most inefficient way to heat. highdesertranger

as long as you have shore power, floor heating is a nice comfort. I'd have to find the links but I know of one that had heated carpets cut to fit his class C. Each is lower draw but overall nice even heat.

Again with shore power but possible a lower cost solution would be heated bathroom mats. I have one that is 135w @120V and while it is slow to heat up, once it gets there it does well.

Another thing to consider is your floor insulation. You will be competing with the cold leeching in and that may eat a lot of your heat. It's not the same as just heating the air.

There's a build I've been following that uses under-floor heat, and its a system designed to use either shore power OR an espar heater, which I believe is diesel. I'll link to the page where he starts doing it, as its over 20 pages now. But if you're not doing anything, its a pretty amazing read. On good days I find it inspiring to see what's actually possible...and on bad days it makes me feel plain inadequate ;P

http://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27592&page=10

Hello, thanks for all your replies and for reading me.

I may be a stubborn builder, but I decided to go ahead and buy  "warm tiles" radiant heater from menards ( I already gave it back). It's just a roll of several feet of wire. I tested it and I judged it as too much hazzle. Perhaps doable, but with the low output, having to install it under the plywood floor, considering the heat loss from below the plywood , and the safety risks that involve drilling a hole under the plywood and breaking / perforating the cable. Or even spilling water may be a safety risk in this case. I gave up on that.

But didn't give up on having my feet / the floor cold.



SO I got myself these heated rubber mats, for 25.99 each:
The name is "Heated mat foot warmer"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000079896

I got it 15 days ago and I am loving them!!!!

I tested 2 and then decided to get 4 of them, so I can heat more or less all my van's floor.

My floor ( see my build thread) has half inch of polyisio under the plywood,  which breaks extremely well the cold. Right now is ten degrees outside and the mats are still at 125 degrees (I have a multimeter with thermometer).

There are several advantages on these ones that made me consider them:

- They are water proof, which makes them safer to use, the seller even recommends them to melt snow.
- No installation! just plug, put them on your floor, and enjoy!
- Super slim at only 1/4 inch.  I didn't want to lose the ability to stand up in the van. I didn't!!!!
- I could even walk bare foot and be very comfy.



I am still testing them, will be testing them this winter,  and these are my observations:

- You can read all the amazon reviews, they are useful
- they reach their maximum warmth in about 45 minutes.
- the 6 mats that I got are not enough for warming up the van.  . I still need the ceramic heater. I would imagine that 10+ mats may be enough to replace the ceramic heater perhaps...  But both combined are an excellent solution that warms everything !!! IT is so cozy (62) in there when outside is 28 degrees. and I  not even half way done with my insulation build!!!!!, Moreover, since my feet were warm,  it didn't feel like 62 degrees. it felt like more!!!
-  I am testing them running all night and day to see if they make any kind of bowing / warping on my cdx plywood floor. So far, after 24 hrs of continuous run no signs of damage on my plywood. (but it's been below freezing the past 24 hrs) The seller didn't recommend this on top of wood but I am doing my own test.
- each one consumes 90w, so you could use up to 18  mats in a regular house connection  ( 15 amps).


I will post more details in my build thread (slow but hopefully successful conversion) by this spring.

Everyone stay warm.