Need advice

thfurnitureguy_2

What I have: Ranch home with full basement. Would like to heat and air condition the full house with a zone for the basement heat. So the load would cut about 50% when the basement is not in use. House has 40 year old copper fin baseboard (which I hate), Same age oil fired boiler, and the AC is a celing mounted unit that has not worked in years, but the metal ducts are in excellent shape. The property sits idle for all but a week per month. The property is in a area of high humidity so it needs AC for moisture control during the summer. I hope to retire down there in about 10 years or so, and the use would become full time at that point. I would love to rip out the copper fin and replace with a pex al pex in the joist bays. replace the AC and add the ducts to the additions and be done with it. I am torn with the idea of using wood heat for the basement. I have a forced air wood furnace that was used for one year in another house. So given all of this I can see a 30K HVAC system in the making. Needless to say that there are more things needed to do rather than the heat and there is a limited budget for repairs.

How stupid would it be to invest in a heat pump that would give good AC and suplemental heat for the 10 year ocasional use? Use the add-on wood unit for comfort, and add the fancy hydronic system at the 10 year point. Can a heat pump be used with both a basement air handler for heat, and a celing unit for AC? As it sits now we keep the house at 40F (winter) while we aren't there. I am going to have contractors in to discuss options next month and would appriciate any ideas. The house curently has only celing ducts and the celing mounted air handler. The basement would have to be ducted. The house is about 3100 sq feet including the basement and is in Southern VA. Thanks

Joe Brix

For 10 years of limited use

You might be better off with a HP for now as long as electric rates down there are low. The HP should keep things from freezing and you can throw on the wood furnace for extra heat when you're there.

Make sure those ducts are well insulated to supply heat from a HP. A HP cannot generate big temp rises so you don't want to loose the heat to the attic duct work.

I would see if the air handler could be kept in the basement and ducted up to the attic. In case you get tired of hauling wood, you could put a hot water coil in the AH for hydro-air heat off your boiler. Add radiant flooring/panel rads/ cast iron baseboard down the road.

Radiant is not great for a vacation home that you want to set back. It could take a few days to bring the house up from 40° back to 65° when you use it. The hydro-coil could be used for heat-ups since the HP would also have a problem bringing the house back up to temp quickly from a deep set back.