Heating vacation home in tidewater VA

Steamhead

Don't base this on the system in your store in its current state. When it is straightened out it will use much less. A properly sized and installed steam system approaches the efficiency of hot-water, without the freezing possibility.

thfurnitureguy_4

What type of heat?

Getting closer to hiring a contractor for a vacation home in VA. My concerns with a hydronic system is having water in an unatended building and the cost of the radiation. There have been periods of a week or more with out electricity during ice storms. The cost of oil is steering me away from steam, and propane is the only gas available, also not an ideal choice for an unattended structure with a basement. So my thinking is for a heatpump or a forced air oil unit with a seporate AC. The property has plenty of land for geothermal. Are these systems any good in a forced air configuration? I remember the complaints with the early systems (blowing cold air etc.) It would be nice to use wood as part of the system (I have a forced air wood furnace that was used only one season in another house) The question is all about comfort. Have these systems improved to a good level now? My mother who is elderly is used to forced air gas heat. I would not want to rely on wood to make the place comfortable. The questions are: 1 do you get gas like performance(comfort) out of these new heat pumps? (2)What kind of cost comparison is there between heat pumps (Geothermal loop) and an oil forced air system with a seporate AC? I should say that the house has been well insulated and the only existing system is the duct work in the celing. the rest needs to be replaced. What would you guys do ?

Guy_6

water

Keep in mind that you are going to have water in the home no matter what(I HOPE). The outhouse is a long way away in an ice storm.
Forced hot water heat of some type is the most efficient and comfortable way to go IMHO. There are plenty of options available to protect yourself with in regard to freezing pipes. A good contractor will factor them in at your request.

don_156

The

last time I could recall a freeze in the tidewater area was about 12 years ago.And yes with being without power we
lost lots of geo.
In fact the boiler were ok because most people had a generator that supply power to 120 volt low wattage boilers.

On the other hand the geo were the ones to cost the most damage because, once the power came back on all those sumersible pump flooded the place.

Go with the hydronic boiler,and just add a low water cut off on the boiler and, closed the water feeder.
So that way if it happen to freeze and crack a rad or boiler,you will not see to much damage.

thfurnitureguy_4

I am a believer in the steam project here at the store in the north. My concern is that electricity should be a very easy and sustainable source for energy. with the rise in oil and gas prices the electric company could become even more competive. How would the price of a steam system compair to that of a forced air heat pump? assuming a total start over for both systems?

Bill Nye_2

hot water

Hot water and anti-freeze. Geo-thermal? You said you go a week at a time w/no electricity = no heat. You could run a hot water boiler with a very small generator.

The initial cost of a steam system would be greater than the cost of warm air. I don't know if you can still buy one, but there are millivolt gas burners that require no electricity to operate. You could do steam or gravity hot water.

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billygoat22

If you're looking besides hydronics, heat pumps predominate in Va, even split between heating and cooling just about.
There is the "hot heat pump" from York, "Even heat" from lennox that always supplies a set temp from unit.

You might want to consider a hybrid setup- heat pump condenser coupled with a coil on a gas or oil furnace. You can get the low operating cost of a heat pump and "hot" heat below a preset temperature, or set the tstat to emergency heat and run the furnace off a generator.

With the house being empty, you could have a system that calls you if a problem arises, or one of those remote tstat computer controls on the market.

Steamhead

Don't forget

most electricity in this country is generated by using fossil fuels- coal, gas or oil. So as costs for these fuels go up, so will electric rates. Nuclear-generated electricity has its own associated costs so there's really no saving there.

The exception is in areas where there's a lot of hydro-electric generation. But I doubt if there's a lot of that in the Tidewater area.

I really don't like heat pumps- not only are they short on comfort, but if the compressor fails you're in for a very expensive repair. Meanwhile you're burning up electricity in the backup unit until the compressor is replaced. With a traditional hot-water or steam system, if it quits it's pretty easy to fix.

And don't forget all the space that the ductwork would take up. A piped system would not waste space this way.