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Underfloor Heating???
is it a good idea economically... compared to what? heating with free wood? Heating with forced air?
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I'm thinking about using under floor heating as the only heat source in a two story 3600 sq.ft home that I'm building in Nfld. Is this even a good idea economically? I'm more concerned about the monthly/maintenance costs rather than the initial cost. I've been told that heat pumps don't work well in my area so what other options do I have? Im currently living in the Arctic so I have no resources available to me here. Ive called a few people in the area that Im building and I can practically hear the dollar signs in their heads. I dont know if I can trust them or if they are setting me up to be a life long customer. I just need to know if this is a good idea and if so what should I be looking at to keep the monthly bills down? Thanks.
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A source for information
Check out this thread at another forum with similar issues. In your climate it's envelope, envelope, envelope, and then your choice of heating system should be based on your own comfort and health expectations, not what the Contractors want to do.
Read this thread:
http://www.healthyheating.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=568
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This is my first house so I have nothing to compare it to and I have very little knowledge on the subject which is why I came here. I've had people tell me that under floor heating on it's own is not a good idea as the only heat source and will be expensive to operate. I have no idea what they are comparing it to but the common ones in NFLD are electric baseboard heaters and forced air.0 -
Warm Floors the best
Nothing like a warm floor. Assuming you can get a qualified heating engineer, they should be able to help you by calculating a detailed heatloss. With that information, floor coverings, and floor insulation, they should be able to design a radiant system that works for you.
Consider these points - The coldest part of your body - your feet - thats where the heat usually is in a radiant system. The entire floor can be your low temp radiator. You can potentially place furniture anywhere you want. Air humidity is much higher with radiant than with forced air systems. There is no dust, pollen, allergens being blown around your home. There should be no noise associated with the heating if its done properly.
There is no windchill effect. Imagine holding a thermometer a few inches infront of you right now. Lets say it reads 70F and your comfortable. Now fan yourself with a piece of cardboard. What happened? You feel cool right? But the imaginary thermometer, it didn't change. What's happening is the moisture from your skin is evaportating and taking heat energy from your body to accomplish it. So what do you do to stay comfortable ? You go and raise the thermostat and burn more fuel.
Suppose you have a high ceiling. What do you think the temperature is up there if you had a forced air system? 90F, 100F. With a radiant system, that temperature is likely to be around 66 -68 degrees. Since heat energy flows from hot to cold, more energy would be lost from the 90F ceiling to the outdoors than the 68F ceiling. There is typically lower heat loss numbers for the same structure with radiant heat.
Another advantage of radiant is it's typically very easy to zone off rooms. Why heat a bedroom during the day if your not in it? Why heat the dining at night when your sleeping.
These ideas might give you an insight as to why radiant heat would most likely be your best choice. My house is 100% radiant, approx 3000 sqft -on LI. Nothing like sitting at the dinnette table, looking outside at the snow covered bushes and trees, and having my feet planted on a warm floor.0 -
there is no reason why radiant should cost any more to operate than any other method you are paying for, if it's properly designed and installed. In fact, it *should* be more efficient and cost less to operate.
If people are saying it's expensive to operate, they are either used to not paying for heat, or they have poor radiant systems.0
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