Your personal heating system?

Dave Mayer -3 Sons Heating

Unfortunately scorched air. Hallmark HBD 85 (second heat exchanger) with a F3 Riello, Bock 32E with a Carlin EZHP-anodes changes bi-annually, 2-275 Granby Tanks-seperate fill and vent for each, T'd together on the bottom with 1/2" black iron.

Eventually I want an MPO, Vaughn Top Performer, Outdoor reset.

Dave

SpeyFitter

What heating system do you have in your house?

I work for a plumbing/heating contractor. I guess it's funny when you talk to guys who install these systems about what they have in their house. They may install, service, and sell super high efficiency heating systems, yet when you talk to them about what they have in their house, it's either an old clunker Furnace, or something similar to what they sell/service/install.

So I'm curious about what you, many of you are heating contractors or installers, have in your house and how it compares to what you install/service/sell? OR what do you plan on installing when the $$$ shows up?

Right now I have aspirations to buy my mom's house (an 1100 sq. foot rancher) in the next few monthes, and it's got a mid efficiency 4-5 year old Lennox Furnace and a Valour Gas fireplace and my plan is to install an Eneready 1000 HRV, and a Viessmann Vitodens 100 29-80 and a 40 Gal S/S Indirect Tank with staple up radiant floors with Wirsbo He-Pex and the Wirsbo Manifolds, Rehau heat transfer plates, and Fusiotherm/Aquatherm German made Polypropolene for the hydronic piping/mains near the boiler, with Versatronik controls. At least that's how it stands right now unless I change my mind.

Wayco Wayne_2

Wow!

Nice system. You will be well served by that set up fur sure. My house is where I experiment on systems I want to try and if they work out sell to my customers. The heart of my heating system is the radiant floor. I have joist trak plates and tubing on the first floor. Hydro air for the second floor. The hot water goes through a 120 gallon storage tank that is fed by 90 evacuated solar thermal tubes and backed up by a Munchkin mod con boiler. The domestic is backed up by the Smart 30 indirect tank fed by the Munchkin. I also have a sidewalk snow melt for when we get the periodic ice storms. The A/C is a variable speed Trane AH with a 14 SEER Heat pump that I switch on and off according to which Utility rates are better for my system at the time. It's fun to watch it work. I got a lawn chair I sit in when the mood strikes me. WW

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Steamhead (in transit)

My system is a test-bed at the moment

which is made possible partly because of The Lovely Naoko's patience. It's a gravity hot-water system converted to forced circulation, Burnham V-14 from 1983. This past season it has had a Beckett NX burner on it. No indirect or reset, yet. BIG cast-iron radiators.

I'll probably add reset and try a couple more burners on this boiler before replacing it.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

bill nye_3

Only because

Only because I got a "deal" on every thing is the only reason I could afford it.

I had forced warm air with an ancient Hallmark with a 1725 burner. I swithced to hydro-air and a free W/M boiler.

Currently I have a Viessman BEA-29 Vitola with a Riello burner. I have the Viessmann indirect DHWH. I kept the hydro only because of the A/C but now have hot water baseboard. It is radiant panel aluminum. I also have radiant floor with Heatway entran tubing. I got a deal and it works.

I also have the Tri-matic control on the Viessmann, outdoor reset. No thermostat indoor yet, maybe next year. It has been nine years and the indoor sensor has been installed for five years maybe I'll hook it up this fall.

Mark Custis

^^ pulls his chair next to Wayne

I-90 Bryant 90% afue with an ECM drive. Air by Mark. We give care to my Mom and I shoved all this in after Dad passed. Dad never thought I knew much. I did the metal work when they redid the house.

Our house when we sold it had, Hy-bred heat by mark and trane, like Wayne armchair fuel choice. We had a mono-flow T boiler when we moved in, but Steph did not like the baseboards and cut them out with a sawzall. I hung the duct work that week.

So now I had a boiler without water. It was flued and had a pump. Dan H had sold me about four books , so while I was not sitting next to Wayne, and copper was cheap, and discarded pumps were free. I learned transferring BTUH with water.

All you alls, helped.

I just can not get dry now that I know what wet can do.

Mark Custis

Thanks Scott

I can not see the monitor for tears in my ears.

^^rocks his chair and puts up a collection of red and grey wrenches on e-bay.

tim smith

Had a Trane 90+ furnace and DV 75 gals gas water heater. Tore it

all out last fall after 20+ yrs of scorched air and all ducts gone. Installed radiant tube in all of main floor, TT prestige 110 boiler and superstore 45 tank. Installed radiators on 2nd floor bedroom floor, old ornate radiators and still working on polishing my copper towel bar heater for Master bath.

Al Letellier_21

my system

Weil McLain (what else?)WGO-3, Plus 40 with Tekmar 260. Heats my 1600 sq ft 1932 bungalow with 450 gallons a year.

Unknown

Ongoing project

1st floor radiant slab, 2nd floor radiant track underfloor. Water to water Climate Master geothermal pump and dump. Domestic, 40 vac tube( soon to be 60)solar into 80 gallon storage as a prefeed to a Navien tankless water heater. This Fall a wood gasification burner tied to geo buffer tank. Had 30 trees removed by logger for more sun to panels and now I have so much wood on the ground it would be foolish not to burn it. Central A/C removed this year, will replace with mini splits. Detached shop is radiant slab with TT Prestige with small tank/coil indirect(coil soon to be replaced with Navien). A/C in shop is Robur LP Fired absorbtion unit.

Ross_7

Home heating

I installed a TT Prestige 110 about 2 years ago. Three zone system with DBP Valve. One Zone serves the upstairs Mono-flo with cast iron baseboard. Downstairs zone is a homerun system with free-standing radiators. Third zone is a TT Smart 40. Works very well, and added some staple up for the kitchen. Will also be adding some for the dining room. No complaints.

Unknown

Mine...

is some nondescript old piece o' crap boiler that kettles a bit. ;-)

It's on the list but with things like spending $25K on a friggin septic system just a couple years ago and resurfacing the driveway this year it remains on the back burner. My master plan is to replace it with a Robur GAHP so I can add central A/C to this house too. But then, we keep talking about selling and moving down to the shore so...

Paul Fredricks_9

Shoemakers kid's got no shoes. That's my system.

V-74, not leaking, that is way over sized for our 2100 sq ft bungalow, but we only use about 600 gals per year. A hodge-podge of a header with 3 zones supported by a 2 X 10 standing on the floor. The 6 year old "temp" oil line runs across the semi-finished basement (more semi than finished) snaking under an old chunk of carpeting. A radiant zone in the garage and 2 air handlers, one for the master bedroom addition and one for the rest of the house. 6 years later I still haven't finished the main one, zone dampers not wired, only one register on the first floor. Somehow it works. One of these days.....

Unknown

Music to my ears...

I'm not alone! lol

M grallert

Cobblers kids: Buderus 115/28. 11 year old logomatic just replaced with a new one I got in trade. LT tank fed with 80 gal ssu heated with 50 evac tubes. A nice mix of collected cast iron radiators and panels. Kitchen has staple up and cast iron. Nothing on the second floor I keep promising my wife but well you know. The house was built in 1824 so there seems to always be something else needed. The shop is heated with an old NewYorker wood boiler(smoker) preheated with a pile of collected solar all into another collection of really cool old cast iron.

GMcD

Heating System

East and west double glazed windows, insulated shell, manual window shade control, and a 15,000 btuh Valor gas fireplace in the living room that occasionally gets fired up on cold days. We have a mid-efficiency scorched air furnace that only comes on a couple days during the winter.

Low Tech, reliable and low life cycle cost. Easy to control and works the same year after year.

Jamie Hall

Weil-McClain

6 section 80, Beckett oil burner, feeding a lovely lovely intact original Hoffmann Vapour system -- all original traps, differential loop (but nice new Gorton vents!!!)(and a new section of wet return).

Mars_3

Lennox 2 stage

My central heating plant is a lennox 2 stage gas forced air furnace. Its funny I have been putting in radiant heating systems for 15 years and have not lived in one until this point. I replaced the furnace 3 years ago as I could not pony up the price point for a full house radiant system. The house is a 2,200 square foot ranch with a 3/4 finished basement. I remodeled my Master Bath less than two month ago and was able to get 9 square feet of infloor in the walk in shower, I have radiant heat in the shower bench, a radiant wall behind the bench approx 8 square feet and have one of marks radiant windows that is heated on both sides in the partition wall for the shower. The window is 2' x 2'. I figure that I have in the master bath about 1,800 btuh of heating for a space of 40 square feet. I can tell you that this is the most comfortable bathroom I have ever had the pleasure of showering in. After 15 years I finaly get mine.

joel_19

heaten

Viessmann Vitola with comforttroll ala vitodens on it. 3 way valve Viessmann motor. Also have a Tekmar 363 running injection. Got 50 Vac tubes set steep into an 80 SS that doesn't overheat this time of year due to steep angle for winter. Staple up radiant floor with Aluminum panel baseboard as well in most rooms.

House is conventional frame r-19 wall r-50 roof use about 500 gallons but that was pre solar. gotta fill the tanks they are dry and price is headed up!!!

steve_29

System 2000 Frontier

Steve Ebels_3

A mish mash with a heart of gold

My cobbled up system includes Radson panel radiators scattered through the bathroom, bedroom, office, entry and laundry, some Argo high output baseboard on the second floor, Viega Climate Panel under the hardwood plus a fancy Vasco vertical radiator in the living room and plans for 3 big old iron rads in the basement. All of this runs with TRV's and no "thermostat" in the house. Driving the whole works is a natural gas fired Viessmann Vitola with the 200 series control adjusting main water temp via outdoor reset while a Viessmann motorized mix valve with integral circ adjusts water temp for the Climate Panel zone under the wood floor. I have a beat up little 30 gallon Superstore hooked to the Vitola for DHW supply and would like to go bigger for the sake of only running the Vitola once a day in the summer for DHW. A high mass boiler should be matched with an appropriate load for DHW service. The Viessmann hasn't been cleaned, adjusted or fiddled with in any way since installed 5 years ago. I open it up every year just to check things out, look in the combustion chamber, shake my head in disbelief and bolt the door back shut. You could literally polish it up inside and sell it for new. Raw combustion efficiency runs from 84 to 88% depending on water temp. At design conditions it will hit about 160-165*. Adding a little more radiation would allow lower water temps for a couple more points of efficiency.

When we moved into the house it had an old dinosaur forced air furnace that began life as a wood coal fired unit, was converted to oil in the sometime in the 50's and then to natural gas in 1967. It took a cutting torch and a few packs of sawzall blades to dismember it enough to get it outside. Let's just say it didn't come willingly. I would never go back to F/A.

Bob Bona_4

I've

told this story before here, so apologies to those who have heard it

1952 ranch. Started off as one pipe steam, in the 80's somebody added a bedroom wing and blew out the kitchen. The BR's got hydroair and the kitchen addition got hwbb.

Two boilers- a WM steamer and a Trianco HW boiler.

I took over this mess in 2003. I gutted the original house to the studs, excavated 1800 sq ft of dirt crawl by buckets and shovels to a manageable depth (about 30"), then had it Neutocrete'd. New windows, doors, kitchen, roof, insulation, drywall, structural corrections.. Cut out and junked the steam and the WM boiler. Kept the Trianco (w/ coil) and put in QuickTrac radiant under new hardwood and tile in the steam and former hwbb area. Threw out the hydro air (kept the ductwork) and put in hwbb in the BR wing.

Installed ductwork for the former steam and hwbb area, installed American Standard variable speed air handler/Aprilaire 5000 EAC and 15 SEER condenser for cooling only.

Installed same equipment in former hydroair BR wing for cooling only.

Plans are for Buderus G125 Blue Flame w/ the ST300 solar ready indirect, possibly Joist Trac plates in lieu of the BR hwbb zone, or a combination.

I gotta keep working!

klaus

Biasi B10/3 Riello, SuperStor SS 40 gallon indirect, Honeywell AQ2000 Control, Wilo ECM Circs. 2100 Sqft uses about 500 gallons a year.

This fall I'm adding a Mix panel for low temp radiant in the upstairs baths.

Baltimore/Maine Doug_8

My \"personal\" heating system

lies next to me in bed as she has done for 41 years. Best system still.

However, my building in Maine is radiant floor and panel rads, Biasi/Reillo. House in Baltimore is gas/roasted air.
Now in son's gas/steam house.

Charlie from wmass

7 section 1971 weil mclain with an afg burner. tankless with a storage tank and hot water cast iron baseboard on the first floor and basement, slantfin base board on the second floor, a kick space with its own zone on in my bathroom. The boiler is slated to be up graded and the slant fin needs attention as it is noisy do to a few over looked things when Da's help installed it when he was at the hospital checking on my mum and I. He had to check on his heir to make sure I would be ready to get to work soon. So when the new unit goes in I will tweak the second floor. But since the Weil is not leaking and is burning around 650 to 700 gallons for both heat and hot water a year for 2800 ft or so of house it is not a priority.

Tim_41

Vitodens 6-24 with panel rads on second floor
Reconditioned cast rads 1st floor with a wet radiant system also.
120 gal dual coil tank and 30 tube solar for DHW only.

PatsFan78

I have two Pensotti DK2-3 oil fired boilers on a lead/lag setup (outdoor reset, variable speed circulators) with a 40 gallon indirect. My house is a 3 story, 3 unit apartment building with a total of 5 zones. Works great, i would like to put in a larger indirect though. Saved me about 30% in oil consumption over the old poorly maintained boiler.

Mike
www.hitechheat.com

Jim_139

System 2000

We bought a foreclosure that had been vacant for several years. The existing boiler was a fairly new Burnham but the last resident had not cared for it very well. Most of the baseboard had frozen, all fuel chimney was shot - all 5' of it. Replaced it w/EK-1 with power venter. Split the zones better. It's in a room off the office so quiet counts.

The living room was a recent addition and the brain surgeon who did the additional heat zone just teed into the existing loop. The t'stat opened the zone valve but never went any further so the only time that zone heated was when the main zone was active.

Unknown

I have

Twin oil fired Buderus boilers with Riello burners. Controlled by Tekmar ODR. Have a mix of Hydro Air and radiant. Have Buderus IDWH in main house and Ergomax IDWH in the in law suite that acts as a buffer tank supplied from the boilers. Next project will be adding solar and varible speed circulators!

Royboy

my heat ...

radiant slab - installed in 1985 using polybutylene tubing - in the pre-pex era. charged by either a Buderus wood boiler or a 5500W water heater element run on off-peak electric.

wood stove in the living room and lots of south glass.

2nd & 3rd floor addition with staple-up pex in joist cavity, fired by off-peak electric (which is cheaper here than LP)

9000DD. wish I had movable insulation on windows.

Roy

clammy

munhkin/buderus ihwh&panel rads

My system has been ungraded from baseboard to buderus panel rads with trv and some watts staple up controlled by a taco i series outdoor reset 3 way valve ,the panel rads are piped homerun style and are tied into a wisbro tru classic manifold via wisbro pex al pex 'my boiler is a munchkin wall hung 80 and a buderus st150 indiret tank with a taco 5000 mixing valve ,i'm pretty muh running low temp with a max temp on the outdoor reset of the munchkin at about 130 on design day 5 degrees ,the radiant runs off the taco i series reset curve with a max temp of 130 but most of the time she's running about 110 or so ,my gas comsumpition is definetly lower durning the heating season running under about 175 bucks a month but durning the summer for just hot water about 40 bucks,i also used a califee hydro seperator instead of the normal p/s piping .She has been up and running now for 4 years no codes or promblems and she running at about 89 to about 95 % eff according to my combustion anyliser depending on supply water temp .peace and good luck clammy

Ben J

Biasi B-10/5

I have a Biasi B-10/5, a 70 gallon Vaughn Top Performer indirect, a Wilo ECO ecm pump, and a Tekmar outdoor reset, also feeding 2 hydro-air coils to assist 2 Trane heat pumps, and have about 30 feet of baseboard on 3rd floor. My Biasi has the Beckett NX with the smaller nozzle to meet the 4 section boiler specs (just the way it was shipped, never installed the larger nozzle). I use about 300 gallons of oil per year with 8 people in my 4400 square foot home, and my electric usage has never been more than $180 per month with the heat pumps in the dead of winter, in northeast PA.

Alan(OnVacationInOregon)Forbes

Pretty simple

I bought a house two years ago; looked forever to find one with an open, undeveloped basement so I could "staple up" the floor.

Munchkin 50M with a Viessmann 50 gal. indirect.

Live simply, be happy.

Mitch S._2

Endless Remodel

I built my house on the cheap 25 years ago. Polybeauty pipe in the basement slab, original boiler was a Heatmaker, now it's a Weil McLain GV-6 with an 80 gallon sidearm. I'm in the middle of another remodel, adding 60 evacuated tubes on the roof and a 120 gallon solar tank with two heat exchangers. I live in a valley with minimal winter sun. Next remodel will include a condensing boiler. Not living very simply, but still happy.

Bob R

The original house has a Trane XV90% 2 stage variable speed furnace with a Trane XL19 2 stage A/C controlled by a Honeywell Prestiege HD thermostat.
The addition we built for my Mother-in-law has Kitec infloor tubing over Insultarp in the basement and one car garage and copper fin tube in the living area. BTU's are generated by a Triangle Tube Solo 110. Cheepie Honeywell stats on the infloor right now and a Danfoss RET-24 stat on the fin tube. Cooling for the in-law area is a Mitsubishi Mr. Slim.
DHW is provided to both areas by a Takagi TK-2D.

KevinCorr

my system

Only oil available here.
House: Energy Kinetics System 2000 is 25 years old!

Shop not attached to the house: Laars Max 75 is 10 yrs old. Radiant floor and unit heaters.
Both installed by me as new construction.

John Mills_4

hybrid heat

Tappan 95% 2 stage 95% with variable speed blower, Tappan 14 SEER R410a HP. Honeywell Popup media in the return, Vision Pro IAQ with sensor doing the dual fuel and dehumidify on demand.