Ideas for heating new home

[bhd21478]

My wife and I are considering building a new house. Im thinking the square footage will be around 2500. I want a full basement two floor home. IM a wood burner so I would like a freestanding stove in the basement. We currently have an outdoor boiler setup that heats our hot water and provides heat through our hvac units. I do like the current setup but we have added this after buying the current house. My question is starting from scratch with a gassification boiler and storage setup what would one reccomend for the new setup. IM open to radiant flooring, or possible radiator wall mount setups. Im also thinking of potential power out scenarios. This would be why I would want the free standing stove in the basement. Could a radiant flooring setup be made so that it works during power outage. I mean running a small pump to circulate the hot water could be nice. I would also consider the generac backup generator as an option. Im afraid that will be tough to work in the budget if we get a nice free standing stove and gassification boiler setup. I will be building a nice size shed close to the house so I could house the boiler there. Im boucing my ideas around and would love some feedback. thanks

 

[peakbagger]

Its hard to beat a radiant type heating system designed for low temperature water, linked with storage. and an outdoor reset controller. By going the low temp route, you maximize your storage capacity because the amount of hat you can store is related to the difference in the minimum temperature you can use and the maximum temp that your heat source can heat the water to. This allows you to go with a smaller gasification boiler. Note that radiant doesn't have to be tubing in a slab it can be radiant emitters on the walls or tubing in the ceilings. You do need power to run the circ pumps but if the system is designed right the actual power draw is minimal that can be fed from a small generator or and a UPS. The best thing to do is minimize you heating load by designing a Pretty Good House (broken link removed to http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-blog/pretty-good-house-better-building-standardy) or a Passiv house. The money you spend up front on energy efficient design pays back for the life of the house making the heating (and cooling system) less expensive and requiring less wood.

 

[jebatty]

Peatbagger's advice is good. Before adding a bit to that: 1) site for excellent drainage and pay attention to anything on your lot or area that could result in water seeping into the basement or flooding; 2) build with simple roof lines; lots of peaks and valleys, common in my area, are expensive, generally add no real function to the house, and cause many problems down the road; 3) site for passive solar with winter heating and summer cooling; every day saves you money without doing anything but taking advantage of what Nature already generously provides; 4) site (or have a nearby area) for solar PV with good/excellent sun exposure for the PV; I like ground mount even though it usually is more expensive that roof mount; 5) plan for a livable house when aging takes its toll; 3' doors, wide hallways, bathroom/shower/tub to accommodate a wheelchair, open concept interior design; all essential services on one floor, few steps to get anywhere that's needed to live in and enjoy the house.

And add to this, all of which I would do if I built new: 1) a separate boiler building to house my new wood gasification boiler; big enough for the added storage if I could not put that in the house for some reason (house is the best location); and with an integral wood shed (need not be interior but with easy access from the boiler building); 2) depending on your electric power reliability, a fairly small, millivolt thermostat, not electricity dependent, propane (possibly NG) fired cabinet or wall heater to provide emergency heat during a power outage when you might be away for an extended period (we added this to our house); 3) generator with transfer switch to cover emergency circuits (boiler, pumps, some lights, other critical circuits); this need not be a large or expensive unit; ideally pure sine wave electricity; we have one or two relatively brief (less than 12 hours) outages per year, and a 4000 watt continuous, 240V generator on a transfer switch does just fine (key lighting, refrigeration/freezer, well pump, sump pump, microwave, and the entertainment/computer center); 3) most/all LED lighting with fixtures that take standard base LED bulbs; these are going to be around for a long time, specialty/custom bulbs can be difficult on replacement.

Think energy efficiency on every building and design aspect. The dividends over the years will be huge. Good luck and enjoy your project and future new home.

 

[tom in maine]

I would suggest considering radiant panels in places where radiant concrete or gypsum slabs are not possible.
When planning the heating system, it is worth some time to look at the heat load of the rooms and over-sizing panels.
I prefer to oversize panels somewhat to allow for lower temperature water for space heating. This buys you more heat capacity for a
given size storage tank.

 

[maple1]

All very good advice above - especially on the house siting/orientation. Passive solar gain can be big - the heat from sun shining through a big window on a cold winter day feels pretty good.

Infloor heat doesn't circulate without some pumping. But if you design a couple of upstairs zones with baseboards, those can. I can heat our house in a power outage because of that - although having said that, would really like some low temp emitters or in-floor heating in a couple of places. My boiler is natural draft so don't need electricity for a draft fan. But I have a 2200va UPS that I plug my boiler pump/loading unit into when burning in a possible power out situation or when nobody will be home while there is a fire burning, for some redundancy/comfort factor. If you orient your storage & boiler optimally, even that would not likely be necessary. If you use an ECM variable speed pump for your zones, like a Grundfos Alpha (truly the greatest thing since sliced bread & the mouse trap, IMO), you can circulate while using very little electricity. I also have a generator, a 3kw class inverter, but I don't drag it out & hook it up until a few hours into an outage & usually not until after I know it's going to be a long one.

I really like my heating system - but even so, if building new from scratch, I think I would be looking seriously into a system made up of mini-split heat pumps & a wood stove, especially if I had any use or need for air conditioning also. And the last thing I would consider is an OWB.

 

[BadgerBoilerMN]

Radiant floors, walls and ceiling can radiate with limited output if located above the heat source but DC solar/battery pumps are the answer and often used in our South West designs.

Low temperature emitters are the answer but indoor stoves require outdoor combustion air. Net Zero homes control all air movement with an ERV or HRV, which should not be used for combustion air.

Your outdoor boiler with indoor storage and DC (back up) pumps would be the thing.

 

[Quad4012]

We installed a Generac system in our home. I installed a 7k system which cost 1800 at the time and did it myself. If you have all off the parts it was a one day install if you are handy. It is the smallest system they have and it still handles a good chunk of the house. Big item for us was the well and the propane radiant heat if we were out of town when it went.

 

[EeDmund]

A generator will help to keep your power on during outages. Yes, you can surely consider on buying a Generac standby generator.

 

[RaceFanF1]

A generator will help to keep your power on during outages. Yes, you can surely consider on buying a Generac standby generator.

I have two LPG fired RHEEM/RUUD instantaneous hot water heaters. Had them for 9 years. One used for DHW works perfect and one used for circulated baseboard hot water heat. During our frequent power outages I use a 5500 Watt 110/220 volt portable generator and just plug the heaters into the generators 110 volt outlet and hook up our well pump to the 220 volt outlet. BTW we have satellite TV and I plug that in, some lights and refrigerator as required. We’re the only house in the neighborhood with heat, hot water & TV during an outage. Still gets old doing all this as I get up in age. Maybe a true “stand by” generator next time I get $5000.00.