Kinda, what I meant is that the back behind the wheel well for us is after a step, so it's at a different height than the rest of the bus. It's 3/4" + 1/2" taller than the front, because it still has the same lower foam and subfloor.
Thank you for the info! I assumed your system would work, it was well crafted, but it's so nice to hear that something did work, doesn't always happen on this forum
I SEE IT! You routered it in directly to the subfloor, and sheeted with 1/2... thats more along the lines of my thinking. I would essentailly do the whole floor this way. The only thermal bridge going down through the wood if any would be to the insulation. Yes, somehwhat a shame to do the nice osb routering, but whatever. Im likely only going to have 1 zone of tube in the floor. almost dead center running front/back. As anything else would end up underneath a cabinet of some sort if it went to far on the sides.
"Engine heat" is heating the hydronic via a heat exchanger. I plumbed in the original front bus heater core to the front hydronic heat loop. I eliminated the original rear heaters. Basically the original heater hoses from the engine just go to a water to water heat exchanger.
Ahh yes, I've done some digging on that site. Makes a bit more sense now. So just some added runs of ply on the floor spaced to allow the pex in. I wonder how much reflection youd get if a guy were to put a thin layer of aluminum on the sub floor before laying the pex plates down...I think my explanation is still poor, for the back, there isn't any routering involved!
There is a complete 3/4" layer, then a layer of 3/4" strips that match the spacing of the layout (8" on center - 3/4" = 7-1/4" strips IIRC). Then finally the 1/2" sheath.
It costs you some height, but might make a stronger product.
Or at least be easier than routering the subfloor
Take a look at the earlier link from Radiantec.
Interesting. Is that heat exchanger temperature controlled? Being that the bus engine temps can exceed 200 degrees, wouldnt that be almost the max for the pex?
No temperature control I assume there is some heat loss at the exchanger. Being an old guy I take some chances and assume that most things have some wiggle room on specs. I did look at the specs and since it's not a high pressure system figured I could get away with it. I have had no problems in 12 years.
So, another one off question, being that there is no temperature controllers, are you just running your zones with mechanical valves?
I'm wondering how to program some switches to then have them somehow automated. Thats the part that im like hmmm. someone needs to make some sort of programmable system in that realm? im not to keen on coding or writing software, and to be frank its not something I necessarily have the time to learn. Otherwise I might be more interested.
Here’s a question for you then. The “Switch” turns off the pump for the drivers heater? Is that correct?Nothing anywhere near that fancy. The pumps are controlled by an old fashioned mechanical thermostat. One in each of the back three rooms. The front is simply a switch, on the driver dash panel, for when I get hot.
I've found out that Chatgpt is pretty good at coding for Arduino. Once I learned how to talk to it. I just finished, in about a week, a project that would have taken all winter to code and it wouldn't have been nearly as pretty. It also doesn't get upset when I tell it it's wrong. It is NOT good at drawing wiring diagrams. I'm building a dashboard using a Nextion display. It will monitor, engine temp with cooling fan control, oil pressure, engine RPM, amps, volts, speed. It will also handle glow plug control with timer, and the starter button will be on the screen. At this point I have the controls working with readings to the screen. Now have to make it pretty. I've got all winter.
Right. The engine coolant is separated via a flat plate exchanger hooked to the factory bus heater core (for defrost/driver heat). The main loop (being glycol) from the boiler is plumbed into the exchanger for domestic hot water. My reason for keeping that large of a tank (11gallon domestic hot) is so the boiler will make sure that is up to temp first in the event I need to say, heat water, but not heat the floors. Maybe im being dumb, but thats how it makes sense in my head anyways.
Right! Thats exactly what I was thinking. My marine heater also has an element in it. Ive read that I can actually swap out the 120v for a 24v element. I actually have two tanks at my house I ordered to size them up. One being the 11 gallon, one being 6 gallon. How much hot water do you have on board?
