moisheh
Member
We just purchased a new to us post and beam house. The heating systems leave a lot ot be desired, The house has a 21 ft. cathedral ceiling, one 32 ft. wall that is almost 70% windows (triple pane). The house is fairly well insulated with 2 by6 walls. 1250 SF main floor, 700SF loft and 1250 SF basement ( insulated with 2 by 4 walls). There is also an attached 26 by 30 ft. garage. Part of the loft is cabover (over garage). The furnace is a 10 year old XL80 Trane mid efficiency. Presently the basement, garage and main floor also have in floor heat via a 40 gallon gas HW tank. One HVAC guy recommended that I do away with the HW tanks and install a 60 gallon electric for domestic HW and an electric boiler for the Hydronics. He also recommended a High efficiency furnace. This way there would be no chimney. We are located in the Canadian prairies and it does get very cold. According to the power company ( also the gas utility) there is not much cost difference in our area between gas and electric Hot Water. The duct work in th house is horrible. By the time the heat gets to the loft there is almost no force. I have not opened up the basement ceiling but I suspect too many bends. The previous owners had very high energy costs but they were very sloppy in their energy usage( 2 teens!)
Questions:
Are there tradesmen who or designers who can properly design a duct system?
Is 80,000 BTU enough furnace?
Can one use duct boosting fans?
What about a small furnace in the garage area with direct ducts to above?
Presently there is no central air and I doubt a system would cool the loft in it's present form.
With all the cu. ft. of air space and the high ceiling I dont think the floor heat will service the house without forced air assist.
Moisheh
Questions:
Are there tradesmen who or designers who can properly design a duct system?
Is 80,000 BTU enough furnace?
Can one use duct boosting fans?
What about a small furnace in the garage area with direct ducts to above?
Presently there is no central air and I doubt a system would cool the loft in it's present form.
With all the cu. ft. of air space and the high ceiling I dont think the floor heat will service the house without forced air assist.
Moisheh