Converting 3 season room

[jpullen]

I live in NH. I am converting a 3 season room off the back of my house to a dining room. Currently, the kitchen and proposed dining room are separated by a sliding glass door. The space is 244 square feet. The 3 season room is on cement footings, no foundation. 3 sides are exposed, crawl space is blocked off only by lattice. I am prepared to vapor barrier and insulate the floor. I am trying to determine the best heating option.

options are:
1. Tap into forced hot air system and use a 6" line to heat and cool the space.
2. Radiant heating.
3. I am looking at a Hydro-Sil heating system. A silicone liquid is heat by electricity and heat is discharged through a baseboard heating system. http://www.hydrosil.com

Is there an alternative that I am not thinking of that will provide comfort? Given the enviornment and cold climate, what is the best heating option?

[condenseddave]

Far and above, radiant will be the most comforatble system.

[Dof3]

By far the radiant is the best. But, with only 244' of space to do I would put in the baseboard[electric].It is very reasonable to install and it is quite eff.IMO

[beenthere]

What insulation do you have in the walls, the ceiling, and how much are you putting in the floor, how much glazing.

If you go hydronic, how are you going to cool it.

A 6" supply may not be enough, and now your kitchen may over heat, and cool.

You need to know how many btu's to heat and cool the room, not just guess at a 6" supply.

Your kitchen won't need as much to heat it, or cool it now either.

[jpullen]

Condenseddave, Dof3, & beenthere...thank you for your responses. I greatly appreciate your time and input.

Beenthere, to answer your questions...right now, no insulation in the ceiling, tearing out the walls to the studs, going to insulate ceiling with R-38, walls with R-15 and floor with a R-19, the glazing...good question. I was going to cross that bridge when I got there.

I can tap into the existing forced air system with a 6" duct for cooling. I am going to have exposed beams, open pitched ceiling, so I was hoping between the central air coming from the duct in the room, cool air from the kitchen(a 6' x 6' opening) , and a ceiling fan in the rafters of the addition, it would be plenty cool. The room is on the north side of the house, virtually no sun after 12:30.

As far as heat, again, a 6" tap in, hydronic or radiant, and then airflow from the rest of the house, I'm hoping that would cover it.

[sweet]

jpullen. I to agree rad. would be the most comfortable. Retro fit F.A./rad. systems can be hard to balance due to heat migration from F.A.system into rad. zone causing t-stat to satisfy before the high mass of rad becomes effective. If your going to invest in rad. heat youll definately want to feel the warm friendly floors, which will require a design that will keep the rad. zone active, not over run by the F.A.

[jpullen]

Sweet, are you suggesting then that I don't want to bring the 6" forced air system into the equation? And if not, then what about cooling. I have a 6' slider separating the house from the addition. That is coming out, and I prefer to not put in a french door to completely separate the 2 zones.

No F.A., no cooling. Would the cooled house provide enough cooling for this room? DO I want to consider bringing in F.A., adding a damper, closing during the winter and open for cooling during the summer. Good thing is, where I'd be tapping, it is 3 feet from the pump, should get a nice burst of cool.

Thanks for your input!

-Jim

[sweet]

I think that if you run a rad. zone with a F.A. system in direct contact with each other your not going to utilize the benifits of the rad. As long as the system wont suffer from blocking off vents during heating system that might work. Keep in mind your still going to have heat transfer from F.A. to rad. zone.even if you damp. off supply ducts to addition. Without seeing your layout its hard to tell how much it will effect rad. zone, may be as simple as t-stat placement on rad zone. Find a professional with some experience with hybrid retro systems to do some calcs.