Heating Design Choice

S Ebels

More flexibilty in integrating what we will be using in the future (maybe not to distant)to heat our homes with. Try to design your house with natural ventilation/cooling in mind also. I don't know where you are in the "North country" but a properly designed house that can take advantage of night time cooling all but eliminates the need for A/C.

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North Country

Heating Design Choices

Looking for the expert opinions on this great board!

New construction in the North Country. Two options I am thinking about and would like opinions.

Option #1 - 92% Eff 2-stage forced air with zone heating main and upper with manual zone to bonus room. Wirsbo heating in basement and garage slabs with Buderus wall boiler and finally A/C.

Option #2 - Buderus wall boiler with variable air handler, hot water coil, hot water tank, same zone set-up as above and finally A/C.

What would you do if you had the choice and why? Thanks

Craig Bergman

Option #3

Geothermal!! Up front costs are on the high end but it has
a short payback time. You can do it several ways...

1) Water to Air. Just like a furnace with zoned duct work.

2) Water to Water. Use with an air handler, zoned duct
work and a buffer tank to run the radiant. The tubing must
be on TOP of the sub-floor because we can only get about 120 Deg. water from the geo unit.

3) Synergy. It can do hot and cold air plus hot water for radiant. (with a buffer tank.)

The least of my favorites is option #3. It will work well
running radiant in the basement while providing heating and cooling on the main. You must zone the basement or you
will try to heat it with air. There is no domestic hot water production with this unit.

Option #1 will give you the best rebates because it is an all-in-one package that can be tested for energy usage.
Plus domestic hot water production.

Option #2 is what we do the most of... One or two water to water units running through a buffer tank running in floor heat, forced air heat in the spring and fall(When you don't want to bring the thermal mass up to temp just for a cool night.)and Air conditioning in the summer with free
domestic hot water during the cooling cycle.

Craig

hr

I like

option 1 as it give you some backup should, I mean when, the boiler goes down.

It would probably be a tad more efficient than running through and additional HX that the hydro air would require. It would possibly allow the boiler to run much lower and efficient temperatures that a hybrid air coil and basement slab combined.

Add some floor radiant to bath floors and shower walls, maybe kitchen floors, and you are good to go.

hot rod

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