Baseboard OR Forced Air Heating

RoosterBoy

what will use the least amount of oil forced air heat or baseboard. I am having a buderus installed and I have duct work now so im having a air handler installed but
on my new end of the house I decided to go baseboard but if it will save me on oil next year I will have the rest of the house done with baseboard.

is this a good idea
thanks

kevin coppinger_4

not sure on energy....

saving but the comfort level should be better. slower heat up and less dust blowing around the air...kpc

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Alan_6

lower set points

Lower temp settings with baseboards. 68 degrees, feels like 72 degrees. Lower set points, will save energy.

S Ebels

A few points.....

Burner efficiency will be very close with either a boiler or a good F/A furnace. The boiler will have a slight edge, usually 2-3%. The best furnaces will run 83%-85% and the best boilers will be 85%-87%.

A boiler system holds a big advantage in electrical costs. With a F/A system you're typically using a 1/2 to 3/4HP motor drawing 6-8 amps of current. The same amount of heat can be moved with less than 1 amp in a typical size home using a hot water system.

The boiler system holds another ace by being able to vary its BTU output and match the heating load of your house across the whole outdoor temperature range. This is done with outdoor reset. The burner fires at a constant rate but due to the modulating water temp in your system, you can change the rate at which BTU's are transfered to your house. Say COMFORT, real loud!

Being able to zone your home and have different temps in different rooms is much easier with hot water than with a duct system.

I could go on but I'm sure others will add to this short list also. There are a lot of reasons to go with hot water heat as opposed to forced air.

Brad White_2

With forced hot air

the biggest complaint (whether expressed or not) is the cold feeling one gets when the blower cycles off. Oil fired furaces do not lend themselves to constant circulation. The silence begets a cold feeling that is as physiological as psychological.

Add to this the cost of the blower motor just to deliver the heat. A 1/3 to 1/2 HP motor versus 55 Watts for a circulator in a hot water system.

No contest in my mind. The other postings all have excellent points too, comfort being the goal. If not the best comfort for so little extra money in the scheme of things, why would you bother? (He asks rhetorically...)

RoosterBoy

so you all would say baseboard heating will save me on oil over forced air system?

thanks

larry

What about hydro-air as an option given that duct work is in place? Recently saw a website from a Canadian company called Ecologix (www.ecologix.ca) that seems to have an interesting hydro-air AH that modulates both the pump to optimize temperature drop across the heating coil and also modulates the blower speed to increase comfort by giving longer runtimes. Anyone have experience with these folks? You can also humidify and filter the air in your house if you have some component of hydro-air in your heating mix.