sizing boiler

jp_2

what if you did some ceiling radiant 3-4 ft wide along the glass areas? or perimeters of high lose rooms?

is every room near max'd out?

kev

boiler sizing

New house install with baseboard to heat the rooms. The house sits on a large hill and is mostly glass . I have enough footage for required baseboard to heat rooms per my heat loss but no room for that extra just in case. GC has asked the air conditioning installer to add hot water coils to his ducted system and wants me to heat these coils if our baseboard cant keep up, just in case. My question is how do I size the boiler, my load plus the full coil load? If So this means my boiler will be double the size I have planned for. Only a few rooms are facing the hill and the A/C system is zoned. If it was needed I cant see all the fanzones calling at once. If there is more to this problem I am missing please share. Thank you.

ALH_4

or

Have you tried dual-element baseboard or panel radiators?

Mike T., Swampeast MO

As long as you've sized by generally accepted standards, such already compensates for "that extra just in case". If you do want to oversize the baseboard somewhat (to allow for lowered operating temps and higher efficiency with a condensing/modulating boiler), consider high-output variety where space is tight and don't neglect to oversize everything else by the same amount.

Installing hydronic coils in the air handler "just in case" and oversizing the boiler to drive both the coils and the baseboards (when the coils probably won't ever be needed) is the worst thing you can do for boiler efficiency! If you utterly demand "backup" from the air handlers, I'd suggest electric resistance. While it may be quite expensive to operate (depending on your electric rates) you probably won't ever need and electric resistance heaters are dirt cheap...

kev

boiler sizing

Thanks for the replys. In most rooms I am maxed out for available footage for baseboard at 180 degrees. As with most jobs there is a budget so adding radiant is out. Also boiler is oil fired so no modulation, which would help out sizing. I will research the electric coil option. Thanks.