Contemplating radiant heat amendments for floors in 1st and basement and had questions.

I'm a home gamer located in the metropolitan area of MN. I've been researching a ton of stuff since buying a house and one of these undertakings has been my radiant heat system. This includes watching/listening to a Taco "webinar" on circulators vs zone-valves and how to make those calculations for heating requirements. There is zero forced air in the house so everything is radiant.

What I have:

• 1,806 sq/ft, one story house with a basement
• Slant Fin S-90 EDP Boiler S/N: s0008878
• Copper pipes in the ceiling/attic of the 1st floor
  • Supply starts in the basement and supplies the loops. Supply manifold must be in the attic as it isn't visible in the utility room.
  • Manual Valves on the return manifold
  • Mixing valve being used here (behind the black bell and gossett circulator)
  • Bell and Gossett circulator is on the supply side.
• One loop in the basement feeds (5 or 6) baseboard heaters with its own circulator (green Taco).
  • Taco circulator is on the return side.
• Expansion tank
• Separate water heater for potable water

What I would like to do:

• Add (4 zones?) in-floor heat for the 1st floor
  • Pex with transfer plates?
• Finish basement.
• In-floor heat in the basement.
  • Not sure how cost-effective this would be. T
  • The room height would suffer, which is already less than 9 feet.
  • At least 4 zones is desired.
  • I want to remove the baseboard heaters since this system has had a leak before we purchased and each baseboard has bleeders in addition to each high-point of the plumbing with bleeders. Also finishing would be much easier for me and they do take up some space in the room.

My Questions:

• I've been reading that my boiler type isn't ideal for floor heat and a mixing valve would be required. If I already have a mixing valve, how detrimental to efficiency would adding a second mixing valve?
• Is using a water-heater a feasible solution? I've been reading some websites that claim they are far more effective as home-heating than previously (radianttec.com). Also claimed to be able to handle cold-rush temps?
• If floor heat is doable without being too detrimental to my pocket and heating system, I've been considering a zone-valved manifold solution with a circulator (pardon my shite jargon). Would the following items be what I would want to accomplish my goals?
  • Zone actuator
  • "Mixing Station" (manifold and gauges, flow meters, valves, bleeders, etc)
  • end caps and appropriate loop-fittings
  • appropriately sized pex-a (HE-pex?)

Pretty obvious that leaving things the way they are will be cheapest, and I can live with things the way they are, but the bleeders being in the basement ceilings and on the baseboards kinda sit wrong with me if we're going to finish the basement space.

I appreciate any information on this. Definite noober that likes to do cool things to my house - sometimes despite the cost (as with anything that will increase the comfort levels of my home).

Pics: http://imgur.com/a/CtU3M

submitted by /u/cannottouchethis
[link] [comments]