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Fan-coil (water to air heat exchanger with blower)

29 (36.3%)

Baseboard/Staple up/Heat emission plates

11 (13.8%)

In-slab/light weight overpour

10 (12.5%)

DHW

29 (36.3%)

Other (PLEASE EXPLAIN!!!)

1 (1.3%)

Total Members Voted: 40

Voting closed: February 08, 2014, 11:04:10 AM

[LittleJohn]

I see lots of posts about different application/heating systems and understand that people choose all different system for different reasons ($$$, time, experience, familiarity, location) and was justing interested to see what the mix was.

PLEASE PLEASE if you select "Other" include pictures

[shorman]

    Answer to Poll:---------My situation does not fit the format of the Poll so I'll try to make it understandable this way.

      1.The house we live in has water pumped from the WBF to it into a water to water heat exchanger in the basement.The house piping picks up hot water from the exchanger and sends it to a side arm HWH and then on to 10 cast iron radiators that heat the house.
       2.What used to be the garage is now a 2 br.house with a 60kBTU.water to air fan heat exchanger.
        3.My shop is heated with a 60K BTU water to air fan and heat exchanger similar to the one in #2 above. All heated with an Empyre Pro-200.
                             Hope that explanation passes muster.------------shorman

[juddspaintballs]

Water/air exchanger in the ductwork, DHW on a sidearm with a circulating pump on the DHW side, and an old cast iron radiator in the basement for the dogs.

[baldwin racing]

I see lots of posts about different application/heating systems and understand that people choose all different system for different reasons ($$$, time, experience, familiarity, location) and was justing interested to see what the mix was.

PLEASE PLEASE if you select "Other" include pictures

I went with water to air exchanger....I had forced hot air oil furnace and had all the duct work already....it was cheeper to just install the exchanger and use what I already had in the house......my shop I did the same thing just used a modine heater.....I also went with a indoor wood boiler, it is a pressurized unit. that way it is a closed system to help keep the elements out of the system. they are priced reasonable than most of the out door boiler as well because you do not need the extra tin for roof and so on to protect it from the weather(nothing against owb I had one before this unit)..... I will also get the conventional heat off boiler as well as the hot water heat that why I went this route...
Kelly
I hope I did this correctly I did vote as well?

[LittleJohn]

Hey comments are always welcome, I just set up this poll to see what everyone was running; cause I noticed some people mentioning that they couldnt get enough heat out of OWB.  Since I have a large in-slab application and my boiler can keep up I was just wondering where the possible differences were.

[Marktk]

Im running heatmaster5000.  First year.   Infloor radiant floor joist heating. No prob keeping up st -20 .im at about2800 sq ft including basement wich heats with the same tubring (no ceiling) garage and shop not done yet.   But wow ehat a difference 50 degrees makes on wood burn -20 one day 35to the next. Love the system

[andyjs]

Mark do you have a two story house? Just wandering because I wanted to do the radiant heat in floor joists but not sure how to do second floor ? Already heating with hx in forced air

[Marktk]

Single story. Im getting ready for old age and bones. No steps to main house too only to go to basement.     Doing a second floor is tough unless you want to do furing strips and a new sub on top. If you have enough head room you would lose about 2inchesyou're depending on finished floor material.  Or open 1st  floor ceiiling

[Sprinter]

 

[slimjim]

Beautiful, etched cast iron rads, it's like backing your azz up to an indoor wood stove on a cold night and not setting your PJ's on fire.

[hoardac]

Beautiful, etched cast iron rads, it's like backing your azz up to an indoor wood stove on a cold night and not setting your PJ's on fire.

Yes you only need to catch yourself on fire once a winter.

[LittleJohn]

I am glad to see that I am not the only one running an In-slab system on this forum; was concerned there for a while I would be the only one. 

[lasasj]

I've got an old house with big cast iron radiators.  Currently retrofitting some side rooms that don't have heat with radiant tubing.  My system is powered through a 70-plate heat exchanger (overkill) and runs through my existing oil boiler in case I decide to switch back to oil temporarily (has not happened yet).  The radiators take up a lot of usable floor space, but they are awesome to heat with.  Nothing better than hanging my jacket over them, putting my gloves and hat on them and letting them get toasty warm for my next visit outside.  They are a double edged sword, however, when it comes to the amount of water they hold...  If my boiler ever goes out, the radiators hold a few hundred gallons so they will keep the house warm for an additional day or more  .  They also take about 1/2 day to heat back up to temp though.  This becomes a pain and requires its own sequence of of startup steps.    My family loves sitting on the radiators when they visit and our two dogs curl up next to them in the evening.  We keep the temp at 70-72 but it is very drafty.  I'm convinced that although big and bulky... radiators provide the most comfortable heat.  They're not dry like forced air and not subject to convection drafts like baseboard... just my opinion of course.

all-in-all.. very pleased with my setup.  Just need to insulate my house!!!  The horse-hair has settled in the cavities of the walls and my insulation value is nonexistent.  Single-pane windows and unsealed doors don't help either.  Work in progress.  I'll get there...

Oh and I'm also hooking up a smaller heat exchanger for my dhw before it enters the electric coil.  I don't plan on running my boiler during the summer.

[LittleJohn]

How about this one, the detached garage/workshop is 4000sf (rough math - 100 tons of concrete), all with PEX tubing in the slab.  In the fall when I first fire up, it can take up to 2 days to get slab up to temperature.  Nice thing though is in the winter, open doors drive tracter in close doors and its like the door was never even open, so warm.