Radiant heat to new construction

Steve Bergstrom

I have been a lurker on this Wall for a couple years now and I just noticed you mention this type of cooling or AC.I don't recall hearing of it before. What is it,how does it work and what type of material does it use to put it in.
My wife and I are building a 3000sf house our selves ( ground floor,1st floor,2nd floor)and we plan on all radient heat.
It's been a little chilly here in SE N.H. for the past 3 weeks but I don't have much trouble dealing with the low temps.The high heat and high humidity of the past 2 summers really slow me down now adays.
Could some of you Wallies fill me in on this new type of AC please.
Thanks for your time Steve

john_10

Radiant heat to new construction

I would like advise to heating my new construction home.

the first floor will be stadler viega radiant climate panels under all hardwood.

the second floor to have rugs. therefore I'm going with forced hot air system.

what's the best system to co-ordinate first floor radiant heating coinciding with air heating

John Felciano

Control

Split systems like yours are fairly common.The second floor can run on a simple thermostat.For the most comfort and control I would do the radiant with a outdoor reset control.

What will the boiler be?

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ta finnegan

Alternatives

How about radiant in the ceiling for the second floor? How about a geo-thermal closed loop and heat exchanger for the hot water to heat it?

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Jamie_6

Why not radiant heat on the first floor and baseboard on the second floor? Then you would only need to install one ducted system for the A/C.

hot_rod

Do you need central air?

If so ceiling registers work best for cooling, in my opinion. Hydronic baseboard or panel radiators on the upper level would be another nice choice. It allows easy zoning and rapid response for night setback.

Use the HVAC, maybe hi velocity in the ceiling, for cooling only.

hot rod

Frank_3

Rugs are ok with radiant panels.

You can still use rugs over the Stadler-Viega panels, you just have to pay closer attention to the R-value of the rug and pad. I came across a 1/4" pad that had an R-value of only .33, but I don't remember where that was right now. There's a 1/8" pad with an R-value of .5 available as well.

Depending on what type of carpeting you were planning on using you can still get the total R-value around or under 2.0, which will be fine for the climate panels.

Having lived in a house with forced hot air heating, I'd have to agree with most of the people here who advise against it. I didn't find it comfortable at all.

If you're concerned about baseboards or radiators using up wall space then consider some of the newer products from Tyson or Runtal. They're very flat and thin, and look very sharp.

Jackchips

Hi Steve,

you may get some response from this post but you may get better results if you hit "New Thread" at the top of the "Wall" and start this over.