Heated Floors?

[petrel]

Toying with the idea of a flooring and furniture upgrade. Just learned that heated floors become an option when replacing the flooring. The class A motor coach set raves about it on the rv forums, but those guys think everything in their bus is the greatest thing since pockets on pants.

How sayeth the TC crowd? Are heated floors worth it?

[#90-GTSC]

Former TC wannabe, now a Prevost bus conversion owner.

We don't have heated floors in our coach. We do have a single Coronet 120 volt heater in the toe kick by the shower. Living in Wisconsin we often use the coach in cold weather; our record cold is 3 degrees in Green Bay and 2 degrees in La Crosse the following night … then we headed south. During our 78 days this past winter on the road from Florida to California, we had many cold mornings. The tile floors were COLD.

If I could wave a magic wand and get one thing in our coach, it would probably be heated tile floors. Yes I could upgrade, but I don't want to go through the work of tearing up the current tile, etc, etc.

If you're going to remodel, I can't recommend the heated floors more highly. It shouldn't be too expensive to put them in your TC if you're going to be replacing the existing floors. Put the thermostat in an easy to access place … like maybe next to your bed?

I admit we probably have a few too many pockets and an over abundance of watch fobs in our Liberty Prevost … but lots of those things are nice to have.

[petrel]

thanks for your insights

[Doug Ambrisko]

We have a hydronic system and ran the hot water return from the heaters through the floor. It's nice having warm tile floors on a cold morning. A lot better then our prior 5th wheel or our house's cold floors.

[samcrimm]

How are you going to power the floors Petrel? Won't that add thickness to the floor? Door rubbin etc. Where would you put the hydronic system? Or you could do solar and a hot water heater with a circulation pump....
I agree my tile are COLD in the morning!
Sam

[petrel]

First, we don't have tile, we have carpet. Dated, but in perfect condition, brown carpet. Considering upgrading to Luxury Vinyl Tile, with an electric heating element pad under the floor. It doesn't appear to add much thickness.

I confess that I saw the electric floor heating on a youtube video. However, when I inquired about it with the RV remodeler, he said that they do quite a few of them. It would be 24V electric with two zones, powered through an inverter.

Although I like the idea of Hydronic heating, we just don't have room for the furnace itself. Just can't sacrifice the storage. However, with that said, we hope to take a trip up to Elkhart to a couple RV remodelers this winter. If the propane tank could be moved in-frame, a bay would be freed up for a hydronic system.

[bushpilot]

1) I would say Tile the entire damn coach...front to rear....2nd im not a fan of hydronic heat... its unnecessarily complicated and replacement/repair parts are EXPENSIVE...if that systems dies you lose a lot of stuff - hot water, heat etc.

hydronic systems cant recover fast enough on electric so you're forced to burn diesel fuel even in the best camp grounds...

Oh and they take up basement storage and have ton plumbing lines.

if its REALLY cold, we use space heaters or the propane fired heater (its rare) but fuel consumption is minimal.

Our 10 gallon Suburban (gas/electric) water heater does very well....we have had back to back showers (including 3 kids) and not run out of water - true theyre not unlimited hotter - but neither are there size of our tanks. The water heater can be run entirely on electric - and able to keep up, even with a long shower.

we use some luxuriously thick throw rugs outside the shower, even in the summer.

[Stekay]

I have electric heated engineered wood flooring in my coach. Three zones. Best option ever.

[LargeMarge]

Our rig:
1997 Ford CF8000 housetruck.
The commercial box measures 7.5w x 12.5long x 7h box. About 650 cubic feet.

Our situation:
We boondock exclusively.

RVing Perpetual Travelers, we designed our rig for safety and comfort. We investigated underfloor pads; comparing output to battery-burn dissuaded us. However, we are open to suggestions.

Here is the way we engineered our TinyHomeOnWheels:
Inside the box, the first layer of insulation is acoustic.
Second layer is pink foamboard.
Third layer is two-inch foil-covered foamboard.

Our windows are 2x1 sliders, dual-pane, eye-level while standing inside. About eight-feet above ground level.

Our visual floor is bamboo around the perimeter, slate tile down the middle. Socks in winter isolate our tender tootsies from chilly floors. Coincidentally, we wear socks to bed, so no big.

Our rig stays comfy with one of a pair of catalyst heaters. We rarely crank-up the furnace. On three walls, three of our four windows are always open a quarter-inch, more if we get hot. Cross-flow reduces humidity from breathing cooking showers.

Propane is cheap and efficient, but requires two CO detectors plus two smoke detectors, each from different manufacturers. Cross-redundancy.

Our inside temperature tends toward keeping pace with outside temperatures. Instead of maintaining a constant 68F in winter, we internally adjust our body requirements by keeping the rig cooler. This mitigates the shock of stepping outside; the transition from dry warmth to damp cold stuffs-up my sinuses... and we can't have that.

[bushpilot]

Originally Posted by Stekay

I have electric heated engineered wood flooring in my coach. Three zones. Best option ever.

now ELECTRIC (pads)...theres a (better) option that I hadn't considered!

radiant (fluid) floor heat in a house is fine....since it doesn't shack rattle and roll (California excluded) going down the highway.

anyone have more info, as were considering ripping out carpet and replacing entirely with "wood" looking tile.

[Bottomland4x4]

Look up heated flooring at lowes or Home Depot, I'm sure if you went electric it would be easy using what they have available.

[Doug Ambrisko]

You might want to look at the Ditra solution. We used Ditra to decouple from the wood underlayment to tile. They have a heat option. We used epoxy grout.

[petrel]

I'll look into it. Thanks

[#90-GTSC]

We just returned from a 100 day trip ... WI to FL to TX/NM to WY back to WI. Started on December 28, 2018.

After we left Florida it was "cool" and that's being kind even though we were in the south. Especially in the morning.

I really, really wish had a heated floors. I like the idea of three zones ... rear (bedroom), middle (lavatory, shower, toilet room), and front (kitchen, "salon").

Operating cost ... most of the time we're plugged into 50 amp in the campground paying by the night or week or on our own generator.

If you're updating your floors ... think seriously about heated floors!

[bushpilot]

Originally Posted by Doug Ambrisko

You might want to look at the Ditra solution. We used Ditra to decouple from the wood underlayment to tile. They have a heat option. We used epoxy grout.

https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us...T/p/DITRA_HEAT

[petrel]

Originally Posted by bushpilot

https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us...T/p/DITRA_HEAT

Copy that. Have added it to my research list.