Single side powered vs. dual side powered ?? 120V vs. 240V?
Created Jun 25 2006 by W., M.
To
choose which ELEKTRA mat to use for the radiant in-floor
heating please measure the square footage of the 'walkable' floor area
ONLY.
-
The floor is to be heated only where it is not
covered completely by appliances, shower stalls, cabinets etc. This is a
radically different approach from the situation when the floor covering such as
tiles are chosen and ordered when 110-120% of the TOTAL square footage is needed
because of cuts, fitting etc. The In-floor heating mat square footage needed
will be as little as 40% to as much as 80% of the final floor covering material.
E.g. 200 sq.ft. coverage @ 9Watts/sq.ft. =
1800Watts - usually too much for 120V power as this is 15 Amps. But
1800Watts/240V = ‘cool’ 7.5 Amps. only.
Please note how the MG heating wire of the mat is one
continuous loop starting and ending in the same spot of the room (RH far
corner), near where the thermostat is to be located on the wall.
The mat is laid out in a way that nothing is left over, no
overlapping is permitted, no cutting OF THE HEATING ELEMENT and the
heating wire of the mat is never too close together. (1.5"-2" minimum separation
is a must).
|
ELEKTRA MD or MG mats? An electrical device with two power
cords? |
Like almost everything electric, the mat has
the power cord (often called "the cold lead wire"). In this case and since it is
to be hardwired to the thermostat, without any electrical plug(s).
If it
uses one power cord (usually white), (like your typical household appliance)
then the mat (or the heating cable on the spool) is called single
side powered.
This is to distinguish it from a much thinner,
very slim 1/8" mat called dual side powered, which
comes with 2 POWER CORDS! Here is how:
The reason for this is to make
everything so thin that it will disappear into the mortar holding the tiles.
Connection is just as easy as a hardwired wall light! Each power cord is 10'
long and can be extended by approved methods.
MG mat, with two cords:
The reason for this is to make everything so thin that it
will disappear into the mortar holding the tiles.
Connection is just as easy as a hardwired wall light! Each
power cord is 10' long and can be extended by approved methods.
vs.
MD mat with one cord:
MG
mat
vs.
MD mat
Either mat can be 9 Watts/sq.ft. or 14
Watts/sq.ft.
Either mat can be for 120Volts AC or
240Volts AC.
MG mat (2 power
cords)
MD mat (1 power
cord) (Largest mat: 133
sq.ft.)
(Largest mat: 111
sq.ft.)
How the mat's heating
cable is composed:
ELEKTRA MG mat heating cable.
One heating wire powered at both ends. MG mats have two
connecting cords. Sounds confusing? Connection is easier than it
sounds.
This is to show what's inside. The woven copper is the ground
wire for protection and safety.
The
heating wire is never to be cut like this.
ELEKTRA MD mat heating cable.
Two heating wires powered at one end.
MD mats have one connecting cord.
This is to show what's inside. The woven copper is the ground
wire for protection and safety.
The
heating wire is never to be cut like
this.
MG vs. MD?
Which one
to choose? Either one is good. Both will do the job equally well and both will
last a long, long time. MG is thinner and easier to be covered by thinset.
MD is a bit easier to connect.
Often, the size of the
coverage will help to determine what kind of the mats to use.
For example,
pictured here are two MG100/12.0/240V mats covering 266 sq.ft. with some areas
of the 290 sq.ft. room still not covered. If the ‘MD’ mats (single connecting
wire) should be chosen, where the largest model is 111 sq.ft., then three
smaller MD mats will be needed instead of two MG larger models, making the cost
per sq.ft. higher and requiring more thinset.
Please note the excellent craftmanhip of this job. The quality
shines! Congratulatons Dan & Shirley!
WHEN
INSTALLING THE MAT(S):
MAINTAIN
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HEATING COILS!
This
is NOT OK:
1"
IS THE ABSOLUTE MININUM. 2"-3" IS BEST.
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