Home Heating Systems.

arbilab · Dec 14, 2011

don't even mind getting out of a hot shower into 50 degree air
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You're much stouter than I am. About 30F stouter.

dj-gabriele · Dec 14, 2011

@hydraulique

I don't know neither the American nor the Canadian installation codes but if I were to compare those installations to the nowadays Italian standard, those would be considered installations "simply thrown there" without any care, if you consider that "neat and professional work" I'll keep my mouth shout and never say anything!
Asking never made any dead so far

iheartmaytag · Dec 14, 2011

In it's 80 year life my house appears to have had three heating conversions.

It began life with a coal fired gravity fed whole house furnace. We still have the coal door at the side of the house, but it is sealed now.

Long about the 50's or 60's a gas fired floor furnace was the modern update. Still using a coal Parlor heater for the living room.

In the 80's the floor furnace was gone, floor patched, carpeted over and forced heating and air installed using the vents from the original coal furnace with modern ducting behind the cover plates.

When we bought the house in 2007 it had just had a new Coleman high efficiency furnace and Air-Conditioning unit installed. It doesn't do too bad. The second story is still a little toasty in the summer, and cool in the winter as we have the ducts shut off. But since it's a part of the house we rarely use, we don't notice it. If we have company there is a small window unit that keeps the upstairs livable while they are there, otherwise that part of the house is shut off most of the time.

countryguy · Dec 14, 2011

dj-gabriele,

My heating installation was indeed done by a professional contractor, inspected and approved. It is becoming more the norm for hot water heating systems to use 'pex' tubing because it is easier to install being more flexible than copper and thus also less expensive especially in retro-fit installations such as in my case. For homes that are heated by radiant in-floor heating, it is pex tubing that is used. The installation was not 'simply thrown there without any care'. I consider the end result to be 'neat and professional'. I have had other contractors (electricians and plumbers) in my house to do other work and all commented that they were very impressed with the heating installation. The room where the boiler is installed is my unfinished utility room. None of the tubing can be seen in the rest of the house.

jerrod6,

Yes it is hot water heating delivered by radiant baseboard heaters which replaced the electric baseboard heaters in each room. Looking at the end result you cannot tell that the system was not original to the house. I have 5 zones for this system - master bedroom, main bathroom, guest bedroom, living/dining areas on the main floor and the 5th zone is the basement.

Gary

turquoisedude · Dec 14, 2011

Better living electrically?

Because it is still relatively inexpensive in La Belle Province, electricity is the primary heat source in both the condo in town and the house in Ogden. In both residences, we have baseboard-style heaters for the most part. I have a couple of fan-forced heaters in Ogden (one in the main entry hall and one in the laundry room).

We also have a gravity-fed oil-burning stove in Ogden, which we fire up in the coldest winter months as a 'just in case the power goes out' source of heat.

If I had my druthers, I think it would grand to have some kind of a forced-air system in Ogden with a heat pump or something similar that would heat and cool (and help control the humidity extremes we experience there!).

wireman · Dec 14, 2011

Currently we heat with a 15-20 year old gas furnace. Keeps the place pretty comfy.

For 3 yrs. on Beaver Island, MI, I heated with a combo of electric baseboard and wood fireplace. The fireplace just had the bi-fold glass doors, NOT a woodstove insert. The damper could be controlled with the doors shut via a lever. It was built with 2 intakes at the floor on either side of the firebox and a outlet over the doors to increase the convection air flowing around the firebox. NO built-in fans unlike some units.

Having heated with woodstoves in the past; I saw the potential of decreasing my electric bills by partly closing the damper, jury-rigging small fans from Grainger to the intakes, and sort of using it like a wood stove. Additionally, I had installed a simple programmable thermostat to control the electric heat in the great room. It was set to go down to 55 at night once I was under the down comforter. It would raise the temp to 64 before I rose in the morn. It would go down again to the 50's while I was away at work and start rising before I returned.

Anytime I was home, I'd put in a good fire to supplement the electric baseboards. I'd closed the doors on the 2 upstairs bedrooms and slept in the loft which had a few openings overlooking the great room where the fireplace was; so the heat rose there anyway. I never put in a fire when away from the house. There was no baseboard in the kitchen so it was always a bit chilly.

This all worked reasonably well until I discovered the weak spot in my grand heating scheme on a cold night. The tempered glass in the bi-fold fireplace doors apparently were NOT made to withstand really high temps! One cracked into hundreds of pieces! Luckily, I was able to replace the glass TWICE in the time I lived the there. There was no way I could've afforded to heat strictly with electric. Anything else was not feasible as it was a rental that was to be sold "as is" so the owner's estate did not want to put any money into it.

Ahhh... The naive optimism of youth, eh? I replaced my smoke detector batteries regularly and prayed for the best. My bed was placed near one of the openings into the great room, so when I woke during the night I could look down and see how the fire was doing.

Somehow, I got through those 3 winters; I was lucky! Looking back, had I known I'd live there that long, I would've scraped together the money for a fireplace insert. My next dwelling with a central oil furnace seemed luxurious!

Duane

toploader55 · Dec 14, 2011

Dual Fuel

I had posted this a while back.

Where I live, there is a option. When I'm home I use the Wood Furnace to conserve on oil. The System is Forced Hot Water. Once the fire is going good, adjust the flu and the Wood Furnace will go for about 4-5 hours without having to add more wood. I just load it up before bed and it will pretty much burn through the night. If the water in the system gets too hot, there is a Aquastat that will open and the excess heat will go into the Laundry and the Lower Garage. (Love that heated Garage when it's Real Cold Out and the Truck is warm before starting it)
If the power goes out, all I have to do is manually open the Zone Valves and the water will circulate through convection. It won't be toasty warm but will maintain about 55 degrees to keep the pipes from freezing if the power is out for a long duration.

volsboy1 · Dec 14, 2011

American standard 4 ton Dual Stage Heritage heat pump and a Mitsubishi opti cycle 2 ton Heat pump.. Love the Mitsubishi it can heat even if its zero out side.

polkanut · Dec 14, 2011

Harley,

My parents as well our heating systems both use the original ductwork from when our homes had coal gravity furnaces. My parents house was built in 1922, just 3 years before ours. The new Bryant is doing an excellent job so far.

akronman · Dec 16, 2011

Gas Forced Air

I have a 1916 Foursquare in Ohio, basement, 2 living floors, seldom used attic, 1800 sq ft total on 2 main floors. The house was built with a coal gravity air furnace, when I bought in 97 it had a 1982 LuxAire gas forced furnace, all on the original ductwork. I froze for 2 years until I replaced about 1/2 of the wooden windows with routine vinyl replacement windows and replaced the 60's exterior wood doors with pre-hung steel doors and new storm doors. Now, the same 29 year old furnace keeps me warm and happy. I could easily install a modern 95% efficient furnace myself, around $1100, but the current wasteful one runs well, I check it annually and do routine maintenance, and it's long ago paid for. My basement is sort of my playroom/hobby room, and the old ducts leak just about right to keep it usable.

norgeway · Dec 16, 2011

Heat Pump..

Here, but with a heat pump, you leave the thermostat on one setting, if you turn it up more than two degrees, the electric booster heaters come on and your meter spins so fast it needs grease fittings,...No one in the south uses hot water or steam anymore, but I still think it is the best.

ctyankee · Dec 18, 2011

I heat my New England cape with a Leisure Line coal stove installed in the basement with a single duct blowing warm air upstairs.

Next year I plan on installing a coal warm-air furnace which would heat the house even more efficiently and evenly.

lordkenmore · Dec 18, 2011

"Here, but with a heat pump, you leave the thermostat on one setting, if you turn it up more than two degrees, the electric booster heaters come on and your meter spins so fast it needs grease fittings"

A few years ago, I lived in a place that had a heat pump, and that system had the exact same setup, and it drove me crazy. At least, I figured out quickly what was going on, when I turned the thermostat too high, and saw some LED light up saying "AUX HEAT"or something like that. With that heat pump, I did only minor setbacks--a few degrees at most. I'd slowly increase the thermostat. When coming home, I'd raise the temperature a bit to start the process, and then a while later move the lever a bit again, and so on. From what I've read, some systems won't automatically turn the resistance heating on when trying to raise the temperature more than two degrees. I'd vastly prefer this to save power.

The other thing I don't like about heat pumps is how they shift to resistance heating when it gets really cold outside--the time when, of course, heating is the most necessary. Apparently there are systems that integrate both a gas furnace and heat pump, which might be an ideal solution in many places.

Another joy of the resistance heating was discovered by someone I know. Somehow a switch got flipped on her system forcing the resistance heating to run instead of the heat pump. She had a very nasty surprise when the next power bill came!

More annoying, perhaps, than the shift to resistance heating is when the system doesn't shift. That heat pump I mentioned earlier never shifted to resistance heating one single time the winter I lived with it. At least that I know of. (It was pretty clear when the heat pump was running--the outdoor half was right outside the living room, and it was quite noticeable when running.) We had a spell of very cold weather, and the heat pump struggled to keep up. Or did it until I shifted to Plan B: a big fire in the wood stove each night.

polkanut · Dec 19, 2011

Mark,

How do you manage to get a supply of coal/coke for home heating purposes? Here, it is next to impossible.

toggleswitch · Dec 19, 2011

Quotes: "Here, but with a heat pump, you leave the thermostat on one setting, if you turn it up more than two degrees, the electric booster heaters come on and your meter spins so fast it needs grease fittings"

A few years ago, I lived in a place that had a heat pump, and that system had the exact same setup, and it drove me crazy. At least, I figured out quickly what was going on, when I turned the thermostat too high, and saw some LED light up saying "AUX HEAT"or something like that. With that heat pump, I did only minor setbacks--a few degrees at most. I'd slowly increase the thermostat. When coming home, I'd raise the temperature a bit to start the process, and then a while later move the lever a bit again, and so on. From what I've read, some systems won't automatically turn the resistance heating on when trying to raise the temperature more than two degrees. I'd vastly prefer this to save power.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I added a switch to a friend's heat-pump controls (i.e. next to the thermostat) such that the thermostat may NOT engage the electric reisitance coils.

(The fan-coil unit engages the electric resistance-coil heaters does this during "defrost" phase, so no problem there.

The new seitch has the positions (effectively) of "OFF" or "AUTO" . It must be left in "auto" position at 10*F or below (in his particualr house) or when leaving for vacations. This is just to ensure enoug heat is generated to prevent damage to pipes etc.

DADoES · Dec 19, 2011

Many heat pump systems/thermostats have a provision to add an outdoor temp sensor which supports an adjustable lock-out setting ... the auxiliary won't run unless the outdoor temp is at (or below) the lock-out temp (although it will still run for make-up heat during defrost). Smart thermostats also minimize or eliminate use of auxiliary during setback recovery by learning over the course of days how fast the temp increases vs. how fast it dropped vs. the outdoor temp, and ramping the temp up slowly over a couple hrs leading to the target recovery time.

passatdoc · Dec 19, 2011

1550 sq ft single story 1988 home on slab. No a/c (don't need it here). Lennox forced air natural gas is original---and virtually all of the neighbors in my tract still have their original furnace, going on 24 years old next spring. Fan is a little rattle-y, but the system really only fires up between 6-7 am. I am comfortable at 60 F, and allow the temp to go into the mid 50s overnight, and 58 F in the evening. I don't mind wearing a sweater or vest in the evening, in fact I enjoy putting on a layer or two and I don't need to lounge in t shirt and shorts in December.

Gas bill goes as high as $40/month in mid-winter, with the electric bill climbing about $10 above non-heating months (e.g $42 instead of $32), most likely reflecting the energy use of the fan.

House was built about a year before local building codes began to require double pane windows in new residential construction. I've replaced windows as they failed with double panes, and have a bizarre mix of the original single pane windows and new double panes. I need to get my ass in gear and just replace the remaining single panes in one project. It won't cost as much as changing out all of the windows since some of them are already double pane.

ctyankee · Dec 19, 2011

To: polkanut.

Well, remember I live very close to anthracite coal country which is in northeast pennsylvania. I can heat my house comfortably for about 600 dollars a year.

If you need advice on where to purchase coal in Wisconsin you can click the link below to a great coal discussion forum where you can post questions and read great information posted by experts.

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revvinkevin · Dec 19, 2011

Central, forced air, natural gas, plus A/C

 

 

The original house, built in 1957 was completely remodeled in 1985-6 and is now 2170 sq ft., with 3 bedrooms on one level. I’ve been in the house now about 12 years and when we first moved in there was a recirculating hot water system, added during the remodel. 

 

I’d imagine the system would have been pretty efficient, but it was inop upon our arrival and I didn’t try very hard to get it working again. The radiators, while modern for the mid 80’s, were still radiators and made furniture placement difficult at best. Plus, each radiator had its OWN thermostat, or maybe it was an on/off valve, who knows. But talk about inconvenient. I ended up draining the system, cutting the pipes where they came through the floor and removing all the radiators.

 

So except for 2 glass enclosed, wood burning fireplaces (on opposite ends of the house) and an occasional small electric space heater, he went pretty much without heat for about 8 years. Personally I prefer cooler vs. warmer, so we’d just bundle up when it was cold. Also I would build fires in the fireplaces in attempts to warm the house, but this was a VERY inefficient way to do it. Eventually it would raise the temp in the room about 10 degrees after a couple hours of keeping the fire really ROARING. Plus I’d have to tend to and re-stoke the fires often to keep them going enough to put any heat out.

 

We finally decided to have a central HVAC system installed

 

Normally I’d have the heat off while I at work, but as my father is with me now, I keep the temp at 69-70 during the day and turned way down at night. I have a very difficult time sleeping if it’s at or above 75 degrees. I’m sure dad would like it warmer, but I have to try to keep the bill down (after all I have 3 gas dryers I use, at the same time, every week).

 

I have a weekday / Sat / Sun programmable thermostat which has 4 daily step up/back options. Not sure of the brand at this moment, but this one is easy to program and use.

 

Kevin

passatdoc · Dec 19, 2011

I use a Lux 500 thermostat. In the late 1990s, my Honeywell programmable thermostat died, it was 30 F outside, and no heat no Sunday morning. I drove to the nearest Home Depot and was waiting when they opened the doors at like 6 am. I bought a Lux because it was small, easy to use, and met my needs (with four cycles for each category of day: weekday/Sat/Sun). The contacts on the original Lux went out after about seven years, now I'm on Lux #2 (same model) and it works great. Easy to program. There is a 1500 model with a backlit display panel to which I'll probably upgrade if/when the existing Lux ever breaks.

I don't have A/C but the Lux can handle A/C as well as heating.

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