underfloor heating

[djw1981]

Different world I know but the large receiving house here has underfloor COOLING in the auditorium. The whole of FOH is built on a plenum which is slightly pressurised with cool air--seats as required have a duct through the framework which allows cool air out onto the audience--on hot summer days the auditorium is brilliant!

 

An unforeseen advantage is that the whole plenum is useful for running unexpected extra cables--for example a "god mic" for directors can go under the floor a the mix area and come up wherever they've set the production desk. On hot days, running that cable through the plenum is a sought after job!

 

The stage itself has no heating (never needed) and more conventional air conditioning.

 

Usher Hall in Edinburgh has something similar but owing to the different climate, is used for heating, is full of concrete dust and rough concrete edges and no one wants that job.

[paulears]

Heating! My oft moaned about venue had large gas heaters flown left and right like speaker stacks. They could warm up the auditorium pretty quickly, as the theatre is totally uninsulated, and the North Sea wind bitter! However, the gas board arrived one day and asked if we had any gas appliances? Odd question, so we showed them the recently serviced heaters. They looked at the feed pipe - 50mm pipe to each one. They smiled. They climbed up our A-frame, turned them both off and put a seal on the valve. We can't use them any longer because whenever we turned them on, the gas pressure on the seafront dropped so low that the fish and chip and kebab shops cookers went out - air in the pipes was a possibility of explosion, so as we use so much gas, we got cut off. Early and late season shows can be so cold people put clothes ON to come inside. We hire in space heaters but they're pretty useless being on the same level as the entrance doors. Open two and all the heat gets sucked out. Underfloor heating would be great!

[Bobbsy]

How much height is there in that plenum?

 

About a metre at the lowest end (near the stage) up to almost 2 metres at the rear of the stalls--the raised floor also provides the slight rake to the seating.

 

This may give an idea of the slope of the seating which is mirrored by the plenum...the slab down below is flat.

 

http://www.tyeshepherd.com/InsideEmpire1.jpg

[powersolve]

Hello all

 

I am in the process of working with a design team on the conversion of a chapel to a performance space. One of the issues we are trying to resolve is how to heat the space, and underfloor heating has come up as a suggestion from the M&E chaps.

 

I have been told by one dance production manager that this would be a bad idea as it would cause feet to get sweaty, and may cause Marley floors to deform, or the tape not to stick properly, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience of it.

 

Any thoughts much appreciated!

 

Richard

We looked at underfloor heating for a church refurbishment in Manchester, but when we looked at the detail the advice was that the sub-floor water pipes would be installed into channels in pre-formed and foil-lined 2" foam tiles laid on a (new) suspended timber floor. However, the foil lining (which we were told could not be avoided) would interact badly with the phase-shifted multi-loop induction loop system that we needed to comply with DDA requirements, and which would be installed just under the floor covering - i.e. just a few inches above the foil-lined foam tiles. The result would be an expensive but sub-standard induction loop system. It's not a huge hall, at about 16m x 12m, but a simple induction loop around the perimeter couldn't produce the required field strength across the room.

 

This, coupled with the relatively high cost of the subfloor heating system (which surprised me), meant that we eventually opted for wall-mounted fan convector units fed by a hot water heating system. They warm the space up in 2-3 hours, and we find that on their slowest fan speed they're easily quiet enough to leave running during even teh quietest concert performances (and church services). (It's a fairly well insulated building - not a conventional Victorian church layout.)

 

So, in summary I'd suggest thinking about any requirements you might have for a sub-floor induction loop system, and checking that this would not be adversely affected by any subfloor heating. Happy to provide more details of our set-up if you want.

[Light Console]

Well my venue has both underfloor heating and HVAC at stage floor level and under each seat in the auditorium.

I haven't noticed the tape issue, although our low smoke machine works better in the summer when the heating is off. Biggest problem for is is the point load, we can't use a scissor lift for example.

What I have recently noticed is that the wooden floor is starting to lift under the Harlequin flooring.

The HVAC is controlled by outside air temperature, switching to cooling when it is 19c or above, although the four sensors inside do seem to work well in maintaining 19c inside.

Something not well thought out here was the location of the extraction of stale air from the hall, located behind our acoustic baffles...which required cleaning recently...with lots of extension poles for the vacuum!

More info here, although I'm not sure about the underfloor heating only being used for rehearsals...everything is on timers. http://www.menerga.co.uk/casestudies/ThorndenSchool.htm