simonb

Im thinking of adding electric in floor heating in my washroom. The only area i have to cover is about 3x10. Would this size be enough to heat the area?

I looked at a few places online and they all charge a fair amount of money. I found this company (http://www.vodoley91.com/) and was wondering if there is a difference between the big names and others. I can order what i need from here for about $150.

Also, what amperage do these usualy run at?

ponch37300

Personally i would use a well know name for the reason that this is not going to be accesable once the flooring(ceramic?) is done. And hopefully the brand name ones will last longer. The ones you show looks like it is a wire that you have to staple down or something, the ones i have used are a mat with the wire woven in it, real easy to install. I pay 100-150 depending on size for the matt and i believe 70 or so for the thermostat.

Steven62

Ponch is right. When you put something under tile, it should last. Suntouch has a ONE Page warranty. Not a lot of fine print or exclusions. Fully transferrable.
You are looking at 1 Amp per ten square feet at 120 volts, and 1200 btu/hr heat gain, at 12 watts per square foot. Suntouch Warmwire is comparable to the product you are looking at and has the advantage of being a quality name brand with a real warranty.
If you want more info, P.M. me or call Watts Radiant at 888-432-8932 and ask for tech support for the electric radiant flooring. They guys there will be glad to help you!

MattCoops

Home Depot sells a brand of radiant heat flooring mats with thermostat made by SunTouch. They work well.
There's a chain of tile stores called The Tile Shop. If you have one in your area they are worth a look at, and they have a heated matting system with thermostat that they sell there.

I prefer the one that's sold at The Tile Shop.

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Charlotte, NC
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scorrpio

Hydronic radiant can often be the only heat needed in the room. Electrical radiant, however, usually needs to be augmented by othr forms of heat.

simonb

Thanks for the input guys. I know if i go with a bigger name people trust them much more, but i find the price rediculous. At HD a thermostat alone is 179.99 and the matt is about $240 for an area of 3x10.

The room is currently not too bad, doesnt have a heat register but is on the second story of my house. I would give the room about 19c or so, so this would just be to top it off, having the timer warm up the room in the AM before work

The company i suggested does also sell the same wire woven in mesh like anyone else, but at a fraction of the cost. I figured instead of spending $500 for a little area i would try it out for $150 shipped! How bad can it really be if i test out the wire when itcomes in ?

ponch37300

Simon...You get what you pay for. The wire might be fine when it comes in but in 3 months it might go bad. Now your stuck with 150 bucks of garbage under your floor that if you want to fix you have to rip up and start over, huge mess. Who knows, if you want to go the cheap route it might last, it might not. From past experiences from buying the cheapest things(there is a reason they can make them so cheap) is they don't last. I'm not a big gambler and would sleep better at night with a quality system under the floor. Have you ever bought a cheap cordless drill or socket set or any other tool and had them break shortly after you bought them. I learned very young that if you buy the quality tools it will actually cost you less in the long run cause chances are you won't have to replace them. You can buy one snap on socket for 20 bucks or a whole set of cheapies for 5 bucks, there is a reason for that, just like you can buy a dewalt or milwaukee drill for 300 bucks or one for 20 bucks at the discount store. I have bought the mats from HD and haven't had any problems with them. Theie thermostats are about 70 for the normal one but sounds like you have to have the programable one which last time i checked at HD it was around 150. The choice is yours but i can just see a new thread titled "how do i rip out my new ceramic tile cause the electric heat failed?" Good luck either way

LawnGuyLandSparky

Call for a quote and ask for a sample of the wire, and the warranty. In floor radiant electric is pretty simple, straitfoward stuff. Some of the more expensive brands are just that - more expensive.

I installed it under my bath tile - a 1.5' x 12' mesh which was cut and reshaped to 3' x 6'. But it's imbedded in the mud, and from what I understand mud jobs are passe'.
I also used the under-laminate floating floor pads in a spare bedroom. I don't like the floor but the heat works great.

Unfortunately, the t-stats for these systems are pricy, because they're electronic 120/240 volt compatiable, include a built-in GFCI as per code, and need an external heat sensor which you bury under the floor with the heat. It IS possible to use a typical electric heat stat, if it's fed by a GFCI breaker, as long as you realize it's the temperature of the ROOM that'll be regulated, not the temperature of the floor.

In my bath, it's set for 72 degrees, so the floor is never cold to the barefoot. BUt the room itself is whatever temperature the normal house t-stat is set for. (Even in summer, I don't want a cold floor)

magiriano

Electric infloor heat wire by Sun stat is what I have all throught my basement.
It is a 900 sq ft 2 bedroom rental and I needed 2 240 V wires for the bedrooms and living room plus a 60 sq ft 120 V for a small hallway and the bathroom, since I wanna have it heated even in the summer, to keep it dry.
However , in Romania where my parents live, it wasn't available so I had to improvize.
In my mother's kitchen, to keep the floor warm, I run the hot water line that goes to the kitchen sink thru the kitchen's concrete floor, via 1/2 inch looped copper line.
It has a reroute valve so it goes directly to the sink in the summer, or thru the floor in the winter.
While my mother uses the sink during winter, the hot water heats up the floor, it is quite confortable and it doesn't need a pump.
The down side is that the heating is not consistent, however once warmed up it takes hours for the concrete floor to cool down. And it only costed me the copper lines, a couple of valves and some sand and thin set concrete.

magiriano

Read my previous post about improvising with copper plumbing in Romania.
However, since your washroom is on the second story, you probably don't wanna raise the floor too much.
No need to install the pad, I did my entire basement with True Confort from HD wire and it works. HD is overpriced, I got the same programmable thermostats at HD for 179(are you in Canada by the way?) just to find the same product, in Calgary at flooring store(GOLDEN FLOORING - GREAT GUYS!!!!!!!!) for half the price, however packed differently .
So HD matched the $99.00 price on the 2 thermostates that I allready had installed, and I returned the 3rd and installed the one I got at Golden.
Golden also have wire infloor heating cheaper than HD's True Confort, however it was too late, when I found it I allready had the HD's wire installed.
I just wouldn't go with the mats, wire is just as good under ceramic tile and not too hard to install.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, at Golden I was able to find extra sensors, which HD don't carry, so for each wire(and thermostat) I installed a spare sensor, just in case.
They only have a 1 yr warranty (the sensors) while the wire have a 25.
Funny how much of a hassle it would be if you have to change a sensor after let's say 14 mths? And it only costs $8.00CDN...........