Home Heating Systems.

[polkanut]

I believe that I'm the origin behind this thread.  Last week I spoke with Steve "Toggleswitch" and asked his opinion about the new Bryant gas forced-air furnace we had installed yesterday.  It is model 355BAV, with a 2 stage DC blower which sounds very similar to Neil's.  The new furnace replaces a 17 y/o Lennox Pulse.  We kept our round gold Honeywell t-stat because if it ain't broke, why fix it.  As far as I can determine, this is the 4th furnace in our 86 y/o home.  The first was a coal gravity unit, then an oil furnace, the Lennox, and now the Bryant.  

 

So, I'm guilty as charged. lol

 

P.S. The installers were here at 7:55am, and done by approx 3:15pm. 

[this post was last edited: 12/10/2011-12:30]

 

[jamiel]

1924 colonial 2 story here. about a 7 year old Lennox or Bryant (can't recall which) fag furnace and c-a-c. We could use some balancing--cold upstairs during winter/warm during summer. Probably built with gravity gas-fired. Several houses in the neighborhood still have their boilers...some use window units, other mini-splits.

 

[henry200]

Programmable thermostat

Programming my thermostat is a simple, intuitive process.  Each day of the week can have up to 4 different temperature settings, and the exact start/change times can be set as well.  It took me all of about 3 or 4 minutes to set up the whole thing for both heating and AC when I installed it.  Overriding the system couldn't be simpler.  The temperature can be moved up or down at any time and it will hold at that level for the remainder of that part of the program day or, I can press "hold" and it will stay that way until I choose to go back to the programmed settings.   Checking the battery is done at the same time I check the smoke detectors.  When I changed to a programmable thermostat in my last house I saw an 8-12% reduction in my gas consumption, with no loss of comfort. 

 

[jerrod6]

My programmable thermostat sounds a lot like Henrys.  You get a 7 day schedule with four periods:  Wake, Leave, Return,Sleep.  You set a temperature and start time  for each period.  Saturdays and Sundays can have their own schedules.

 

After a few days running the thermostat learns how long it is taking to get to the temperature set in the period and it will turn the system on before the program time so that the house is at that temperture by the set time.  For example:

 

My wake period time is 6am so the system depending on the weather will normally start coming on between 5:15 and 5:30am  and start heating the house.  It may use 2nd stage(higher heat faster blower) for the first run cycle if needed. Cooling works the same way the system will come on in advance of the period start time.

 

There is a service menu which lets you configure further options, most folks probably won't bother with it but I used it to customize cycles per hour to my taste.

 

Not always perfect but no complaints with it.

 

My stat is connected to the electric so it screen is lighted 24/7 but it has batteries for backup 

 

I think they are trying to make these things easier and easier but as with anything the more options you have the more "stuff" you have to look at.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Sounds like our new thermostats are the same as Henry's and Jerrods, just left in 'hold' mode all the time and adjusted as necessary.

Oil-fired FHW through radiators- baseboard for the main floor and upstairs and upright for the downstairs where we do most of our living.

Chuck

 

[historyman]

No central heating here...

I'm living in a rental that is my landlord's family's homestead over a hundred years ago. Due to its age, it does not have central heating or cooling at all. Instead in the living room, which is more or less central to the house, there are two LP stoves: one a larger version reminiscent of a wood burning stove and probably 50 years old with a fan for assistance, and the other a smaller wall mounted version. The house is one level so as long as doors remain open, this suffices. On very cold nights (which is South Carolina only really happen in Jan-Feb) I have a small oil filled radiator and an electric blanket on my bed. Cooling is provided by a through the wall larger AC unit in the same room. I use a window mounted AC unit in my bedroom to save on electricity as the living room one is old and probably inefficient, but does crank out the cold air.

 

[wackywasher]

Hello everyone - I have electric hot water baseboard - would prefer gas, however it is 100% efficient

 

[cornutt]

"I'm personally not wild about any sort of setback thermostat. They all--to some degree--assume a fixed, never changing schedule."

That's why, when we designed the new house, I wanted mine tied in with the automation controller. The automation has a default schedule, but we have several ways to change it. For instance, we have it set to assume that we will be home at 5 PM normally on weekdays, but it switches to a default of 6 PM in the summer, when we tend to get home later. In the morning, before I leave, I can set a different hour on the touch screen. If, during the day, I find out that we're going to be home earlier or later, I can call the system and change it.

I have four occupancy modifier counters in the code, which modify the default schedule. Each one can be set to the number of days that it should be in effect. For example, last week my wife took two days off from work, and so was home during weekdays when the system would normally set back the thermostats. The night before her first day off, I set the "at home during day" counter to 2, and for the next two days, the system knew to skip the normal daytime setbacks. If I were also off, I would set the "sleeping in" counter, and then the system would know not to turn the heat up early in the morning, or turn on the bathroom heat. There's a "guests upstairs" counter that we set when we have a house guest staying in an upstairs bedroom; it skips nighttime setbacks on the upstairs system so the guest can set the temperature they want. And the "house unoccupied" counter can be set to keep the house at vacation-setback temperatures until the day we are due to return.

The thermostats are powered off of the 24V supply from the air handlers they are connected to. If they lose power, it's no big deal since there is no programming in the thermostat; they just do what the automation controller tells them to. If for some reason we need to override something, there is a "hold" button on the thermostat that tells it to ignore commands from the automation as long as hold is on.

If demand metering for electricity is ever put into effect here, I'm all set. The automation controller can receive a signal from the utility telling it what rate is in effect, and then I can write code that makes decisions based on that.

 

[foraloysius]

Central hot water heating with radiators in each room. The boiler is a compact one and has a water heater integrated.

I have a Chronoterm III too. I love it. Every morning a warm house when I get out of bed and when I get back from work the house is already warm again too. It's easy to reprogram when a schedule changes or if I have a day off.

Here's a picture of the compact boiler/water heater.

 

[jerrod6]

Foraloysius

 

Your heater/ hot water water looks like my domestic hot water heater hanging on my wall...only thing is that it only heats hot water for sink or showers and not the house.  Not sure It holds enough water to heat my house though but I like the design.

 

Cornutt - call me paranoid but I am not ready to have any device in my house receive any signal from my utility provider to to anything.  I don't trust them.  The next thing you know they will just turn the device off when they want to.....in fact they are all ready doing this with some devices for Central air conditioners if you sign up for it.  They do It when there is an "EVENT"  except they decide when there is an event...  from what I've  read an event is when it's hot outside...  Who needs this? I dont. which is why I want nothing to do with them communicating to my HVAC system for any reason.

 

[foraloysius]

Jerrod

Mine doesn't hold any water, the water heater part is a flow through one. Hot water always comes first, when the heating is on and a hot water tap is opened, a valve will shut off the boiler part and will activate the water heater part.

The brand name is Vaillant. I think it's 23 years old now.

 

[cornutt]

Jerrod, I hear you on not letting the utility control anything... the idea with my system is that I just want the utility to tell it what the current rate is. My controller then decides what actions to take in response to that, and I write that code.

 

[sudsmaster]

Forced air gas powered furnace for a single story modified 1600 sq ft bungalow here. Home built in '41, so the heating system probably has undergone at least two major upgrades. Current furnace is oversized now, since I insulated the attic, much of the flooring and fixed all the air leaks I could locate.

The furnace is, as I recall, 100,000 BTU, dating back to 1980, and is located in the crawl space. It's probably about 80% efficient. There are two return grates, both of which I had to modify to accept standard size Filtrete filters.

It all works well enough, except that the ductwork to the master bed/bath addition is a bit undersize (smaller diameter than the rest of the ductwork) so that area tends to stay a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house, even with extra insulation in the attic above it, and under the flooring. One of these days I'll tear out the ductwork and make it "right".

Hot water or steam heat would be lovely but not worth the expense. I like that the forced air, combined with high quality filters, helps to keep the indoor air cleaner. It's relatively quiet. You know when it kicks on but it's not excessive.

The current system is on a programmable Lux 1500 thermostat that works great.

Oh, and there are two fireplaces with inserts that I can use on rainy days when a fire is an extra comfort (although hardly as energy efficient as the gas central heating).

Have two CO detectors which add some peace of mind as well.

 

[xraytech]

We have a 1993 brick ranch of about 1400 sq ft on the main floor and a complete finished basement doubling the space. We have a 2009 Goodman forced air electric furnace, central ac and a Goodman heatpump. In the main living room we have a set of LP logs in the fireplace, and in the basement gameroom we have a slide in Brunco woodburner with electric blower that is used to supplement the furnace during extremely cold spells and during power outages. When we start a fire we keep it going 24 hrs a day by carefully loading it up and banking the embers when away from home for several hours. Personally I'd like to mix in some coal when burning wood since the coal is slower burning and is rather warm

 

[arbilab]

Not to denigrate anyone's appliances, but Goodman is the discount brand our apartment complex uses to replace failed AC compressors/condensers. IOW, the cheapest thing they could find.

On another board is a recent report of a Goodman furnace burning out its fan module every other season, and the replacement price escalating from $30 to as high as $200.

IMO it's a brand to avoid.

 

[tolivac]

Goodman-Builders brand.What builders put in homes before sale or renting them.See Goodmans all over here in new places.The question on Goodmans-is WHEN the unit will die.

 

[arbilab]

Goodman: "We have no reputation to tarnish".

 

[lokringbob]

Bryant GeoThermal

The partner and I more that doubled the size of our house, going from 1380sf to a little over 3100sf. Before, our combined utilities (gas/water and electric) averaged was about $160/mo. Now, after the remodel, everything (including a new electric heat pump, geothermal furnace, and electric water heater) is running about $125/mo. The geothermal system runs off 6 wells in the back yard, each going down into the earth 250ft.

There are 4 zones between the basement, kitchen and living room, great room area and master bedroom, and the 2nd floor bedrooms. Right now, it is very cold outside, about 22 degrees, but he system holds the 2 zones we spend most of our time in (great room and master bedroom areas, about 1100sqf) at a toasty 72 degrees.

We have no complaints! We installed this at the time of our renovation and it allowed us a substantial tax credit. They literally gave us 33.33% back on our entire electrical, plumbing, landscaping, unit and installation costs. We will be receiving the credit back in our tax refunds each year until its gone or 2016, whichever comes first. There is no way we'd have been able to do this without the government incentive.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

DaveAMKrayoGuy Dave's Home Heating (and Cooling):

Here is my AIR EASE, said to be "only 70% efficient"! That is, I turn up the heat, there's too much; I turn down the heat, it's COLD!

We had a major chimney problem--or problemS!--as water coming through the chimney ran through those two plenums in the furnace as well as through the heat stack in our water heater... So I had a drain pipe installed in the clean-out area of the chimney under where the furnace & water heater exhaust to...

Yes, the burner had to be replaced, too... Supposedly the water caused some sort of damage to it & some of the electrical components had to be replaced...

Hopefully someday, we'll get a new furnace... Though, I think it only needs a bit of "updating", such as it having a "standing pilot light", (I lit it when it went out, but it wouldn't stay lit, that cold, cold night!) but we'll see...

As for my thermostat, I stepped down from a White-Rogers wood grained programmable digital deal (which everybody seems to have, though ours was not in Mint Condition!) to a more practical one that lights up in blue LED, but just doesn't have the automatic operation, clock or other gadgetry that the old one had which I admittedly would not make good use of... The old one shorted out & interrupted our air conditioning (& the electrical box outside by the unit needed a new fuse, or two, as well) & just seemed to have been pressed & pounded on one-too-many-times...

"That's my story..."

-- Dave

 

[DADoES]

Builder Brands

 
An Arcoaire unit was in my first house which was built in 1982 (I bought it in Sept 1991). Replaced the unit in spring of 2000. It was still running but had developed a slow leak IIRC.