Furnace in crawl space

[cwlo]

I have a 10 unit apartment building with hydro coil/air handlers in the crawl space. Crawl space has a height of about 4'. Is it possible to install hi efficiency furnaces down there? Any issues to be concerned with?

Thanks,

Chris

[karsthuntr]

You can install a gas furnace in a crawl very easily, but why would you want to.


The set-up you have now is a very good system, low maintence and good eff.

What problems are you having?

[cwlo]

While I agree the hydro air is a better set-up, my main goal is to move from one boiler to separate units for each apartment. Using furnaces instead of boilers would be much cheaper. Piping, and venting would also be less, and the existing air handlers are old and need to be replaced as well.....getting tired of the upkeep of the belt driven blowers, and hammock filters.

Chris

[hvac-tech-lane]

Do they have their own hot water heaters or a common system. Venting 90+ should be easy and many can be mounted horizontal

[cwlo]

There is only one water heater, and common piping for the apartments.

Chris

[gasman]

is the awh big enough to supply all units? how old is the awh? yes, 90+ furnace would be ideal.

[cwlo]

The central water heater is plenty big (199k 100 gallon), and fairly recent. More to the point, why are you asking about the hot water? Seperate indirects would be too expensive by my estimation....tankless coil too troublesome?

Thanks,

Chris

[geoexchangeman]

Chris, You need to install heatpumps and use the hydro as backup. They use less energy and better on enviroment.

[gasman]

I don't know what part of the U.S. you live in. if you have cold weather, your best bet is to install 90+. most brand are multi-positions. if your climate is not severe cold than you can go with heatpump.

[lonnirat]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by geoexchangeman
Chris, You need to install heatpumps and use the hydro as backup. They use less energy and better on enviroment. [

This depends on what part of the country you are in and what your electric rates are. It sure wouldn't be a good choice for my part of the northeast.

[hvac-tech-lane]

Originally posted by cwlo
The central water heater is plenty big (199k 100 gallon), and fairly recent. More to the point, why are you asking about the hot water? Seperate indirects would be too expensive by my estimation....tankless coil too troublesome?

Thanks,

Chris

If they had teir own AWH I would have sugested new hydro heat units from their own water heaters. Maybe it would make sense to make that conversion as part of a mechanical system upgrade. You stated: "air handlers are old and need to be replaced as well.....getting tired of the upkeep of the belt driven blowers, and hammock filters." While hammock filters are a pain and belts do require some maintenance new 90+ or even 80+ units are much more complex and will require maintenance and parts are rather pricy when needed compared to what you are used to .

[cwlo]

Thanks everyone. The idea of water heaters for heat sounds interesting, and simple...might be a good option. I'm in the midwest, so heatpumps are not a good option. The furnace approach has a benefit, in that it would allow upgrading to seperate ac units more easily, than just putting a coil in the existing ductwork/air handler. (current a/c is central chiller)

Thanks,

Chris

[hvac-tech-lane]

Chris are you the service tech for the owner, or the owner of the building?

[hvac-tech-lane]

Chris are you the service tech for the owner, or the owner of the building?

[cwlo]

In this case, I am both. I do most of the installs, maintenance, and upgrades myself.

Chris

[geoexchangeman]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lonnirat

Originally posted by geoexchangeman
Chris, You need to install heatpumps and use the hydro as backup. They use less energy and better on enviroment. [

This depends on what part of the country you are in and what your electric rates are. It sure wouldn't be a good choice for my part of the northeast.

Chris it makes no differance what part of the country you are from and what the cost of electricity. Heatpumps are still the best choice because they more efficent if you have any temps above 30 for ASHPs. They operate with a COP of 3 to 1 at 30 degrees and if the electrity is higher you just save more. Gas and oil will be higher than electricity at 1 to 1 in a few years.

[hvac-tech-lane]

Chris , in your case I think it would be benificial to get your units off of a centralized system to their own individual systems, this would give you a way to elimiate the risk of high utility bills as I've seen enough of theese buildings where tennants like fresh air in the winter so they will leave the window open and crank the heat up. Normaly a decrease in rent acompanys this type of upgrade but the net benefit to the building owner is to the positive.
Personally as these are rental units (I assume) I would prefer the simplest and most abuse tollerant system that would consist of gas water heaters for each unit sized to run new hydro-heat air handlers with straight air conditioners while I might agree that a heat pump would save some money I doubt that any tennants would understand that, and the pumps would cost more upfront, add more components to need service, need a higher level of maintenance, and user attention. Hope this helps.

[hvac-tech-lane]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by geoexchangeman

Originally posted by lonnirat

Originally posted by geoexchangeman
Chris, You need to install heatpumps and use the hydro as backup. They use less energy and better on enviroment. [

This depends on what part of the country you are in and what your electric rates are. It sure wouldn't be a good choice for my part of the northeast.

Chris it makes no differance what part of the country you are from and what the cost of electricity. Heatpumps are still the best choice because they more efficent if you have any temps above 30 for ASHPs. They operate with a COP of 3 to 1 at 30 degrees and if the electrity is higher you just save more. Gas and oil will be higher than electricity at 1 to 1 in a few years.

Unless there's some new technology coming on line, I don't see how electricity will be close to gas as virtually all new power is generated from gas

[cwlo]

Thanks hvac-tech. I agree totally on going with simpler equipment on rentals. Every maintenance call is $$, and tenants get upset with anything beyond one problem.


Thanks,

Chris

[jacob perkins]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by hvac-tech-lane

[i]as virtually all new power is generated from gas

Unless it is hydro or nuclear...