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Unregistered
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| 03/14/2006 10:07 PM |
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I am buying a 1400 sq ft vacation home in upstate NY. The forced air heat and hot water tank are both 25+ years old. Most of the square footage is a downstairs great room & 2 very small bedrooms & bath. Upstairs loft is very "open", consisting of a master bedroom & bath. The plank floor upstairs is in good shape. The particle board downstairs floor is disgusting. Is this house a good candidate for radiant heat? If we put radiant heat in downstairs, will the heat rise and make the upstairs reasonably warm? How do I start my research? Thanks for your help.
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NRT.Rob
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| 03/14/2006 11:18 PM |
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roughly 30% of the output of a radiant floor is convective (hot air moving). so for the area of the great room, you can assume that about a third of it's load will rise upstairs. roughly, of course. If you have closed rooms up there, even with a door open, it's hard to think that all that output is going to get in there though.. generally speaking I would not rely on a 1st floor radiant to do both floors.
However your additional load requirements upstairs may be easily met with simple electric baseboard to "boost" it a little. With a little prewiring you can even take a "wait and see" approach if you like. Or if you have access through other rehabs, you could put radiant up there as well if desired.
Great rooms are a conundrum for me. Radiant is without a doubt the most efficient way to heat cathedral spaces due to it's lesser stratification (that is, the reduced convection so the heat doesn't pool at the ceiling.. same thing that makes it less likely to heat your loft though). that's great! However those great rooms usually have huge window walls, and radiant can only do so much.. there are limits to the amount of heat you can push through a floor. So you often need supplemental heat.
I think a good place to start is to go to www.radiantpanelassociation.org and browse their store section. Lots of good downloads there from seigenthaler who is pretty much the hydronic heating guru extraordinaire these days, for pretty reasonable prices. That's a good start at least. Forums are good too of course ΖD]
-=Northeast Radiant Technology, LLC=-
www.NRTradiant.com |
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-=Northeast Radiant Technology=-
NRTradiant.com |
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Unregistered
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| 03/15/2006 2:32 PM |
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Expecting to heat the upper area from natural thermalcycling from a lower radiant heat sourse is iffy in any climate. What you might consider is using your old forced-air ductwork to gently and constantly move air throughout the house (assuming there are upstairs ducts), thereby evening out any heat differentials. For instance, pulling cold air from the upper room floors might cause warm air from below to enter the rooms. Then the cold air from the loft would mingle with the warm air below and the thermostat would compensate by providing more overall heat.
Whether this will work depends on the R value of the upper room(s) and how much and how effectively you move the air. Time for you to locate some heat calc. software and crunch some numbers. A cubic foot of air at X degrees contains X BTUs and you need will X BTUs upstairs on a X degree night with X amount of air leakage. Your question is mainly just a matter numbers. Keep in mind that the numbers may be easy but, especially in an older house, the implementation might be a nightmare.
My guess is that the heat below would have to be uncomfortably warm for enough heat to circulate to the upper floor even with mechanical assistance, but maybe not. Instead of upstairs boost from an electric baseboard as suggested by NRT, you might also consider hydronic baseboard upstairs if you're looking at hydronic. As with electricity, you can run the tubing now ($) and decide later if you need the heater ($$$).
Mark Fleming
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NRT.Rob
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Posts:386
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| 03/15/2006 3:51 PM |
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good point mark, I realize I was assuming his radiant would be low temp (making baseboard less attractive). easy to box yourself into a mode of thinking sometimes!
-=Northeast Radiant Technology, LLC=-
www.NRTradiant.com |
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-=Northeast Radiant Technology=-
NRTradiant.com |
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