Hydronic Floor Heating

Hydronic floor heating has been put into the slab. There are three return pipes to a manifold which runs off a boiler. The boiler, a linear is a fireplace and although heating the living room and looking nice as a fireplace is primarily heating water for the floor heating. orginally we wanted to have a wetback on a combustion stove, however further investigation lead us to believe that a combustion stove only gets about 15kw of power and floor heating requires around 20. You can still run  it through a combustion stove, but its shelf life would shorten dramatically. A separate boiler was the answer and a fire in winter (although probably not really needed) was the answer. Our flooring cover is the next issue we will have solve as we are avoiding any glues etc that will be emitted as VOC's once the floor heating is activated. We are thinking floor boards which will stop alot of the heat from the floor heating, however the main purpose of the heating is to take the chill of the insulated slab, which it will do quite well, next to find some well seasoned timber.

Bush fire retardant our top priority

Bushfire proofing (well a retardant house anyway). Our location does not gives us the opportunity to flee, too much bush and a winding road through the bush to get out. First the roof, magnesium oxide sheeting under the colourbond roof, no heat transfer. It is incorporated into the eaves and fascia as well. The product we chose was too brittle and hard to use, but had specs for bushfires. The walls, easy as strawbale walls are cobbed so the render is sufficient to deter fire. Shutters on windows and fire retardant (hardwood door). A store room with all of the above surrounding it with air tanks is where we will see out the passing inferno.

A long time between bales

So what has been happening, the house has continued to progress slowly, work committments, unforseen difficulties (like the bridge being washed away, but good things come to those wait. The most important factor to date that has not been published is our attempt to prepare for bushfires. So the next few posts will hopefully shed some light onto how this has influence our final design. I will also put some photos up with our progress to date which includes a slab, frame, roof, shed fit out, the start of vegie garden, chook house, brick chimney and soon to have windows. We (my partner Sonya and I) are still embarking on a great journey and I hope this gives others a buzz to either start such an adventure or just lifts the spirits of those who have already started.