http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm

This guy has a nice step by step blog style of what he did.
http://www.arttec.net/Solar/BarnHeat.html

-Jim

__________________
1995 S350D, Green with black leather interior.
Bought January 2008 w/ 233,xxx miles.
I did 22,000 miles during the first year of ownership.

any of you naysayers, have NO idea how comfortable a radiant slab is to work on. the blast heaters will eventually heat up the garage, but the slab heats JUST YOU AND THE CAR. really, no burns from hot blasts of air, no cold motor parts to touch, amazing really. I am toying with the idea of a 1.5" slab made out of .5" foilbacked insulating board, and a 1" pour of devcon, or urethane with either an electric heater in it, or the .5" pex tubing... I will show tons of helpfull quick ideas, and simple cheats.
John
NC HVAC Mechanical Boiler and A/C tech.

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

My 12 by 22 shed is insulated and has radiant tubing installed.

I put a layer of construction bubble wrap under the slab. (It is a sandwich of foil, two layers of bubbles, and one layer of plastic. Foil to earth. Plastic to concrete.) I also put a 2 inch thick layer of borated foam around the edge of the slab.
On top of that there is 9 tons of gravel, shaped and sloped. There is also 9 cubic yards of concrete to finish it off. It is a 6 inch thick slab with 1 foot below grade on the edges.

There are 5 solar water heating panels on the roof for a total of 200 square feet of collectors. Inside is a 560 gallon tank of water. It is plumbed up to collect heat from the collectors and I have the tubing run under ground to the house but that is it. I need to hook it up to the tubing in the slab and put a heat exchanger in the HVAC ducting in the house.

This summer I turned on the collector pump controllers and let it run. Within a couple of weeks I had evaporated off half of the water in the tank (the top was off) and my shed was consistantly 170F and HUMID! Since then I have pretty much kept it turned off.

I work too much and can't get it done. I have not found a local I trust to do the work yet.

-Jim

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
1995 S350D, Green with black leather interior.
Bought January 2008 w/ 233,xxx miles.
I did 22,000 miles during the first year of ownership.

I picked up some Coroplast pre folded sheets, they use them for signs in front of conveince stores, they are always changing them out, so they are readily available at the station by me. I picked up about 3 brand new pkg's the guy at the store gave me for free plus some huge zip ties are in the package, used to secure the signs to poles. The sheets are 4' x 5' they fold down to about 4' x 2' and I carry one in the back of my car in case I need to do some emergency roadwork (240D). Fluids wipe off easily and they store quite nice in the garage. It's not as nice an option as vstech describes, but beats the heck out laying on the cold/hot or wet floor or wrestling with heavy stuff. If's Free...

__________________
Collector of Fine Hose Clamps
'77 240D 'AVA' is in heaven now
'80 240D Kanarienvogel
'82 300TD 343k was my daily driver 'ADOLPH' In Surgery for a severe Deer Bite to the Nose
'88 560SL 102k 'White One'

Ran across this thread and thought I'd add my couple pennies! I'm not a naysayer but for anyone not quite ready to make the jump into the OP's plan, I simply use the thin fan fold insulation that is applied to a structure prior to vinyl siding installation. Not very thick but is very effective at beating back the radiating cold trying to make it to the bones! (Sorry if this has already been mentioned..)

__________________
Dale

for new members.

__________________
ASE Master Mechanic
https://whunter.carrd.co/

Prototype R&D/testing:
Thermal & Aerodynamic System Engineering (TASE) Senior vehicle instrumentation technician.
Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
Dynamometer.
Heat exchanger durability.
HV-A/C Climate Control.
Vehicle build.
Fleet Durability
Technical Quality Auditor.
Automotive Technical Writer

1985 300SD
1983 300D
2003 Volvo V70

https://www.boldegoist.com/