Radiant Floor No Slab Insulation vs Ground Heat Lost in Post Frame Building

No slab insulation using a Thermal Mass build versus heat lost to ground , does it pay to have slab insulation? Using a planned thermal mass build, your heat loss to ground is minimal ( 5 to 10%). So it will take 35-40 YEARS before you recover the cost of the slab insulation !!

[@repoman6034]

Thanks for the clear value analysis!

[@LightGesture]

The cost break down makes sense. On one hand, if you have the money now, it can save you when you don't have money...
But it's still money into the market that wouldn't need to be spent otherwise, as it's going to take so much money to recoup...
I think this'll do for if I want to thermally break my slab before I do radiant or not... I have 8" of concrete! Plus the next however much for the radiant! I hope the thermal mass will be so large, it will actually work in my favor..?

[@JasonYouTube]

Just make sure that you have enough tubing for whatever thickness of concrete as a basic 4" slab will need less tubing then a 8" thick slab. Too little tubing , and the concrete will take forever to heat up and may not reach temperature

[@clemmersmetalworx7012]

I agree with you completely. I am doing a 2,000sqft building in Northern MN and I will definitely not be doing foam board underneath.

[@JasonYouTube]

During the summer, you will get natural ac as ground is cooler. Added bonus. Thanks for watching and take a guess on the coin amount video .

[@bobskowronek6691]

Great video. If nothing else spend the floor insulation bucks to even better insulate your shell

[@JasonYouTube]

Thats true, upgrade from r13 to r19 in walls will be a bigger difference then slab insulation. Thanks for watching

[@badqtip]

do u ever have condensation issues on your floor?

[@tennesseetrucker1921]

I'm planning a shop to work on my semi trucks and other equipment here in Tennessee. Thinking about heating the shop floor as you've described, however my concern is driving heavy trucks across the floor how that might affect the tubing in the concrete? I suppose if I put heavy rebar in the floor I would think that should help with strengthening the concrete. What are your thoughts?

[@JasonYouTube]

My tubing is in the sand, about 12 inches below the concrete top. I could drive 50 tons over it since the sand won't compact. Now my concrete would break, lol

[@cmiller8006]

How much did you spend on the sand? Im on the fence as far as which way to build.

[@JasonYouTube]

I knew someone who had landscaping business , so he had a few dump trucks and helped me out. The sand was only like $3 a yard but the most of the cost was for trucking it. I paid him about 3K for everything , I think it was like close to 200-240 yds . But I had a slope where 1 side had over 3 ft to build up , as you can see in my first build videos. You might get lucky and have some developments going in by you , just ask if they would truck the sand to you . Depending on your location , you may get it dirt cheap, if it saves them mileage and time. I didn't have any developments around my place, so that wasn't an option. Otherwise need to go to a sand/gravel pit and they would charge you less then any landscape supply business.

[@cmiller8006]

@@JasonRUclips Yea see that's what I was wondering, I already had rhe stone brought in before the building was built. With how much sand you brought in it now a days it's cheaper to go insulation. I think I'm going to go with just 1.5 inch and I can get rhat for about 2,000 here. 2880 square feet.

[@JasonYouTube]

@@cmiller8006 Not really , for you all you need is 1 ft of sand per sq ft, so you would need around 100 -110 yds. So either 10 loads with a dump truck or 5 loads with a side dumper semi . So probably would come out a little cheaper , but still need perimeter insulation. With a Thermal mass build, if gas goes up in price, most places will have off-peak electric rates that are low. So you could switch out boiler and run it at off peak hours (10pm-6am) for like .07 per kilowatt . The sand will retain that heat all day and will recharge at night. Once you go the insulation under slab , your slab will cool off and will not save money . So different points . Like having a big battery on phone or a smaller mah battery , they both work. But the bigger battery will last longer before a charge . Thermal mass you can leverage that by having warmer days so it will extend the length of your heat retention of your slab.