The best way to heat an addition

Russty

I have finally settled on what I hope is the "best" way to heat my 44' x 30' two-story addition to my colonial in New Hampshire. This is new construction of a garage and workshop on a slab beneath a master suite and family room. We have natural gas via a 1.25" pipe and 2x6 walls.

My choices were

1. Use staple-up radient-floor heating for the second floor via a boiler that would also provide domestic hot water and a Modine HotDawg for the shop.

2. Use a furnace in the garage and duct-work to provide forced hot air, and a 50-gal water heater.

3. Use an on-demand heater for the radient and domestic.

4. Solar was too expensive from the git-go and I never considered geothermal.

 I decided to go with forced air via a 94%-efficient furnace hung from the rafters within an insulated room in the attic. I'm also going to go with an on-demand water heater mounted on the outside wall in the vicinity of the bathroom. It took a long time to arrive at this decision. The main reason to opt out of using radient was the cost: $15,000 vs. $5,400. A secondary reason was the disruption to the construction sequence: the staple-up had to be done <span style="text-decoration:underline;">after</span> the hardwood was installed but before plumbing inspection and sheetrock.

If I were to do this project over again, I would look at putting radient in the slab, but I would still need to supplement the heat upstairs. The nice thing about the rafter-mounted furnace is that it frees up a lot of garage space (no utility room necessary).

I really appreciate the availability of HeatingHelp.com. Mark Eatherton was nice enough to offer some off-line help, which was very useful!

The system is not up yet, so I can't comment on how good or bad a decision it was.

Best regards,

Russ

Chris S

staple up

We install staple up in new construction with hardwood on a regular basis.  We use 3/4 ply sub flooring, and the flooring contractor uses staples that do not penetrate the plywood.  We've installed approx 15,000 s.f. in this manner without incident.

The garage ceiling under the kitchen, where the vinyl installer put down 1/4" underlayment with 1 1/2" staples, now that's a different story.

Best of luck with your system