I have a 30 year old 2500 sqft colonial in Southeastern CT. The house is currently heated with a combination of electric baseboard (expensive!) and a wood stove, and is cooled with window units.
I am trying to figure out the best way to upgrade our heating and possibly cooling, since we believe we will be in this house long-term. We care much more about an efficient heating system than we do about cooling, since 1. We are definitely in a heating climate, 2. We have almost complete shade from trees that surround our house, 3. We are pretty tolerant of a warm house. So if we never upgrade our cooling system, that is ok with us.
We have a very efficient wood stove which is actually able to heat our entire house until it gets really cold. I would like to keep using the stove after we upgrade our heating system, since we enjoy it and it is cost effective (I source wood myself and split it myself). However, I’d like to reduce the amount of wood we’re burning, since it’s a lot of work!
Since we’d like to keep using the wood stove, I think it’s pretty important that we put in a zoned system. When the wood stove is pumping heat into our first floor, I don’t want the heating system to be doing the same thing.
I had been looking into putting in a 2 zone furnace, but it seems like a lot of people aren’t happy with them, and they also can require more maintenance. I recently found out about “hydro air”, which is a new concept for me. It seems like it allows for zoning to be done very well.
Here’s my question – is it possible to run a hydronic loop (not sure if that’s the right word) from the boiler?
I am thinking that I’d like to put in a ducted hydro air system for heating the first floor (would allow for eventually putting in cooling as well in the future), and then heat the second floor with baseboard radiant heaters. If/when we decided we wanted to do AC, I’d put in a separate ducted system upstairs.
When I first read about hydro air, I assumed that it can be used either in combination with a ducted system (a loop of hot water from the boiler runs to an air handler, where it heats up the air which is then pushed through ducts), or a radiant system. However, the more I have read about it, it seems like people primarily use it for a ducted system, and sometimes for radiant floor heating, but not for forced water radiators. I am wondering if this is because it seems like hydro air boilers seem to heat water to around 140 degrees, whereas forced water boilers seem to heat water to around 180 degrees?
If that is the primary reason people don’t use hydro air in combination with radiators, couldn’t I just run the boiler at 160 or something? Or maybe 140 would actually be fine, it’d just take longer to heat up? When it is really really cold out, I will definitely be running the wood stove anyways, so the system shouldn’t have to work too hard.
I don’t know if I am way way out in left field here, so I’d really appreciate help from the experts!
I am trying to figure out the best way to upgrade our heating and possibly cooling, since we believe we will be in this house long-term. We care much more about an efficient heating system than we do about cooling, since 1. We are definitely in a heating climate, 2. We have almost complete shade from trees that surround our house, 3. We are pretty tolerant of a warm house. So if we never upgrade our cooling system, that is ok with us.
We have a very efficient wood stove which is actually able to heat our entire house until it gets really cold. I would like to keep using the stove after we upgrade our heating system, since we enjoy it and it is cost effective (I source wood myself and split it myself). However, I’d like to reduce the amount of wood we’re burning, since it’s a lot of work!
Since we’d like to keep using the wood stove, I think it’s pretty important that we put in a zoned system. When the wood stove is pumping heat into our first floor, I don’t want the heating system to be doing the same thing.
I had been looking into putting in a 2 zone furnace, but it seems like a lot of people aren’t happy with them, and they also can require more maintenance. I recently found out about “hydro air”, which is a new concept for me. It seems like it allows for zoning to be done very well.
Here’s my question – is it possible to run a hydronic loop (not sure if that’s the right word) from the boiler?
I am thinking that I’d like to put in a ducted hydro air system for heating the first floor (would allow for eventually putting in cooling as well in the future), and then heat the second floor with baseboard radiant heaters. If/when we decided we wanted to do AC, I’d put in a separate ducted system upstairs.
When I first read about hydro air, I assumed that it can be used either in combination with a ducted system (a loop of hot water from the boiler runs to an air handler, where it heats up the air which is then pushed through ducts), or a radiant system. However, the more I have read about it, it seems like people primarily use it for a ducted system, and sometimes for radiant floor heating, but not for forced water radiators. I am wondering if this is because it seems like hydro air boilers seem to heat water to around 140 degrees, whereas forced water boilers seem to heat water to around 180 degrees?
If that is the primary reason people don’t use hydro air in combination with radiators, couldn’t I just run the boiler at 160 or something? Or maybe 140 would actually be fine, it’d just take longer to heat up? When it is really really cold out, I will definitely be running the wood stove anyways, so the system shouldn’t have to work too hard.
I don’t know if I am way way out in left field here, so I’d really appreciate help from the experts!