Best Of

Thank you for your kind words and confidence in Energy Kinetics, @2Luckysat .

The stackable Frontier EK1 is an excellent choice based upon your description. Because your home is will be so tight, it may be under negative pressure; for that reason you may want to consider a sidewall vented version, which will also save the chimney costs. The vent fan is quiet and should last a long time, it does not add significant complexity as there is only on additional proving switch and the fan motor. Today's oilheat is ultra low sulfur fuel which means boiler scale buildup is virtually eliminated. Going in the natural draft chimney direction (at least 10' high), we recommend a 5" corrugated metal liner although a 6" liner would also be more than adequate.

I think that it makes sense to install a heat pump for anyone replacing or installing a new AC system. The hybrid solution with a boiler and high efficiency water heater affords great flexibility and peace of mind in a potentially uncertain energy future. I agree with your two zone approach as well. For some extremely tight homes (near the passive house standard for heat loss); I saw a presentation where PVC was connected through rooms with a bathroom fan to redistribute the heating/cooling effectively with a single heat pump; the key in all applications is to make sure that distribution is adequate make all rooms similarly comfortable.

For the heat loss calculation, your heating and AC pro should be able to provide the calculations. As you mentioned John Hachmann, I'm sure he can facilitate your request if needed.

Adding further detail for @DCContrarian , after 400 kWh consumption, the all electric rate drops by about $0.04/kWh for PSE&G Long Island (see this link). @Hot_water_fan , good comments regarding output - one of the best sources and analysis that takes into account many field performance studies of heat pumps can be found here. This demonstrates that high efficiency cold climate heat pumps operate at a COP from about 2.0 to 2.5 at 30°F, and efficiency drops further as temperatures fall (a COP of 2, or 200% efficiency would lower $0.25/kWh to $0.125 or about $5.00/gal of oil equivalent; this compares to oil at $3.50 per gallon at 85% efficiency or $4.11 equivalent - a lower cost to operate with added comfort and quietness of operation). This reinforces the hybrid solution for heating economy, comfort, and emissions reductions with an efficient boiler and biodiesel blends.

Best,

Roger

What are your local utility costs? Around me oil is about 3x the operating cost of a heat pump so it makes no sense for a new build.

You area already adding ducting for AC, so your additional cost is only the up charge to a heat pump which will be a fraction of the cost of oil tank, boiler, plumbing and rads.

18/BTU per sqft in zone 4 sound very high for a tight new construction. I would doublecheck the manual J assumption as something is off. It should be closer to 8-12btu/sqft.

Even assuming 39k is correct you could heat the house with a combination of:

https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/64682/7/25000/95/7500/0///0

and

https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/64684/7/25000/95/7500/0///0

These are modulating units, if you look at the turndown on cooling it is pretty decent so even though it is oversized for cooling load, it should still turn down enough.

My guess once you get your manual J dialed in, a single 2 or 2.5 ton cold climate heat pump can heat and cool your place without issues.

Bonus of a heat pump is the SEER rating on it is much higher than your typical AC, so your cooling costs will also be significantly less.

There is a timer called ThermGuard that connects across your thermostat and will turn on your boiler for a programable set amont of time and a programable number of times per hour. It has a defult setting of turning on the boiler for 5 minutes every half hour. I purchased one for an area in the home that I didnt plan to heat but never installed it so I cant say anything about its reliability.

ThermGuard (bearmountaindesign.com)

A word of caution, if there is any interface between your domestic hot water and the circulating heat system, then you must use only propylene glycol, never ethylene.