You cannot go by square footage alone. Rules of thumb are a shot in the dark. You must have a heat loss calculation done. It's worth the money and you won't regret it.
I am building a house in northern Oregon that is about 4,000 sq. ft, on an exposed hill and it has lots of windows. While we get snow, the average temps during the winter rarely go below 20 F.
The house will have concrete floors with radiant heating. it will have five zones.
My installer tells me to figure that I need a boiler that will have a capacity of 25 btu's per sq. ft. of house or approximately an output of 105,000 btus.
I've heard from other sources that I should expect to have a capacity of less than half that .
Which is correct?
You cannot go by square footage alone. Rules of thumb are a shot in the dark. You must have a heat loss calculation done. It's worth the money and you won't regret it.
This is something that is being done, it's just not finished at this point. The original system that was floated by me by the installer was for a boiler with a capacity of 150,000 btu's.
I have the choice of going either electric or propane. Electricity costs are .045 cents per KW, versus $2.25 per gallon of propane, so I'm going electric.
Having contacted Electro - they said that I should be figuring about 10 btu's per foot.
Let me add that from what I've learned - 150,000 btu capacity puts me in the commercial range of needs. I would like to think that a 4,000 sq ft. house isn't close to needing commercial capacity.
With your low electric rates have you looked into a high efficiency heat pump? They produce more than what they consume. In other words, depending on the outside temperature it may produce 2 - 3 times as much as it consumes in energy. No other system will even produce 100% of what it consumes, much less multiples above what it consumes.
HVAC Calc
Don't guess what you need.....know...could be 10,000 btu's could be 150,000 btu's so many factors that need to be known to even remotely make a educated guess......and all of them have to do with being at your home and seeing what your specific needs are.
I honestly hadn't thought of a heat pump for the radiant system...
Please tell me more - models etc...
I am doing one for the AC unit which will be able to be used as backup heating or to heat the house quickly after traveling and having the radiant hybernate.
BigJon - many thanks for the link. This looks very helpful.
your thread title reminds me that I need help deciding how much horsepower I need for a newer car --
should I use
# of passengers?
sq ft of 'foot-print'?
cu ft of interior?
cu ft of engine & trunk & interior?
the sedans I am considering would have but slightly more glass than my '91 Camry -- which gets great mileage.
ie: your question is kindred to my dilemma.
harvest rainwater,make SHADE,R75/50/30= roof/wall/floor, use HVAC mastic,caulk all wall seams!
The heat pump would not be for the radiant, but rather, instead of. Sounds like you may already be going in that direction.
I would try to find a way to have the heat pump provide most if not all of your required heat as it will be the cheapest way to heat the home and you will not have the cost of a secondary system. If 20* is your winter design temp, there are heat pumps that should provide sufficient heat at that temp that nominal if any supplemental would be required.
Since the home is currently being built I would be looking to see what could be done to improve on the envelope of the building that will give you pay back everyday.
have someone who knows what they are doing do a energy audit on your house, get it properly sized. Lots of things will determine that:
how big, how many rooms, ceiling heigth, where you live, windows, doors, type of insoluation in your house, basement, crawlspace <-- is it conditioned or unconditioned, how many people live in the house, appliances, etc. Probably a few more factors in there but too lazy too look. If you want it done proberbly and want to know close to the actual amnt of btus you will need have someone do a heat calcution on your house
youd be surprised on what you will need, a new home vs an old home that is the exact same size could have quite a bit in difference in btus. Guessing is not a big one in my book and the rule of thumb doesnt work well for me either, almost like 400sq ft is 12,000 btus (rule of thumb). Hope that helps
In order to know how much pex to install, the installers need to know how much heat loss the house has.
How can they know how much pex, but not how many BTU's the house needs.
Even if your house only needs 10BTU's per sq ft for heating, you still have additional load from the ground.
While the heat pump may give me less expensive heating, it's not the kind of heat I want. I have minimum 10' high ceilings in all the rooms, so the idea of heating the lower half of the room is appealing.
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"Not the kind of heat"?? Do you mean amount of heat? As for the high ceilings, heat rises, so you will want floor registers in the lower part of house. You might consider having 2 systems put in. One for lower, one for upper. The HVAC contractor will need to see the blueprints for your house, and then should be able to determine what is right for your particular needs.
Myself....HUGE radiant fan. I love it, consider it the best. Almost every home I did for my last company was radiant heat throughout. And for that reason, I gained a great respect for someone who can install it perfectly. But a havn't met many who can. And like others said before me....how can they be installing it now...when there is no Manual J in their possesion ? No design for the radiant can be had if there isn't a detailed load calc to go from. The layout design for each room can be different, the spacing, the btu's and temp....everything needs to come from the load calc. and blueprints. You might want to jump into the middle of your project and find out what's going on.
I take it the heat pump going with your a/c is your second stage back-up......but where did the a/c size and design come from ? Where are people getting all this info from ?....someone has to have a load calc on your home !
All I can add is I hope there's insulation planned between the radiant loop and the ground for the slab located loops. Would kinda suck to be putting heat into the ground vs. the house.
Electric boiler? If your out in the boonies and your only other option is propane, I'd consider geo-thermal HP for my heating plant. The major benefit of a HP system is the efficiency you achieve over risistance electric.
Just my $0.02
Radiant is a nice secondary heat, dont forget you have to leave it on for it to work correctly, the shoulder months with cool mornings and 65 to 70 by 11:00 , counter productive, go with the heat pump put radiant on second stage.
Do a accurate heat load or go to a supplier that sells radiant wirsbo viega zurn alot of them will do the load for you and give you a material list as for concrete floors are they slab on grade are they gyp crete radiant is more efficient and a nicer heat use a condensing gas boiler that modulates run it off out door reset with individual room sensor if you have alot of glass you have to be careful run constant circulation and replace the heat as it is lost don't try to play catchup on and off because if the slab cools down during the day due to the sun when the sun sets it will take a while to heat the slab back up if you do it constant circ with a room sensor and either a mixing valve or injection pump it will change water temp depending on the load and will keep slab warm but wont over heat the space also you can add a indirect water heater to the boiler as well if its a slab on grade the slab will give of heat for a long time if it was me i wouldn't be turning it on and off if its a weekend home set back the room sensor and program it to go back to optimum temp on Thursday night.I would set it and forget like ronco[