To fully duct or not !!??

[Fi-Q]

Hi,

I am about to get some time off, so I will try to get as many thing finished in my ''never ending'' building my house project.

I am going with hydronic radiant, in the basement slab (Already poured) , I will go with a suspended slab on main floor (Not poured yet) and stapple under for the 2nd floor. But all the questions relatd to the radiant will be later in some other threads....

I will sure put some duct work for a Air Exchanger (With heat recovery), but it's going t have it's own independant small ducting system.

My first boiler will be electric, untill I can afford, and time to build my detached shop/garage and I can put a wood boiler in it..... Is this going to in 2, 5 or 20 years ?? Who knows...... I've been heating the house with a EPA wood stove for 5 years, it's doing a great job, I've finished an apartement in the basement, and we're living it it since and the wood stove in centrally located in the basement. But we've changed the staircase direction and it's going to be far from the stove, so I am affraid that I won't be able to decently heat the entire house with the wood stove (Or at least decently supplement the ''electrically heated'' radiant hydronic floor.) So I was thinking, should I duct the whole house for a eventuall fulll HVAC system, Geo-thermal, or centrail AC, wood furnace ???

I know that these days, as far as AC goes, looks like mini-split is the way to go.....

But I could use the ducting to circulate the warm basement air from the basement to the 2 other floor, at a much higer CFM that what a air exchanger is doing. And who know, in 35 years, maybe my radiant floor will be past is service life, so I can always use the dusting with the eventuall wood boiler or put in a wood furnace , I m only 33, so hopefully a lot of time still to enjoy this house...

All the wall are still open, same as my first to 2nd ceilling, and avery easy access to the basement to 1st ceilling.

What would you guys do ? What do you have to recommend, is the extra cost (Wich I have no clue of the cost yet)of putting ducting for an eventuall full HVAC system worth it while evrything is still accessible ?

Any ideas, comments, suggestion are welcome.

Thanks

 

[arbutus]

I would not spend money on both forced air and radiant. Pick one, based on overall feel and cost. Pick your heat source based on cost. Most heat sources and systems will last a long time. Pick one, set it up right, and move on to the next thing. If you go without ducts, AC (do you even need that in Quebec?) can be window rattlers (new ones don't rattle much) or minisplits.

I've been in your shoes in a never ending house remodel, without much money to spend, always feeling like I had to do something temporary, until I could do it right later. I do not operate that way now even though I bought a foreclosure last year - a project gets done the way I want it, finished out, and move on. If it requres waiting to do right so money is available, I'll wait.

 

[Fi-Q]

I am sure set on radiant, and eventually a wood boiler, in a shop, that is something I know I want that for sure, the ducting would be a ''add-on'' or ''if needed'' things....

As far as AC goes, the summer are getting hotter and hotter, I do have a portable one for my basement apartment, as the basement is super insulated, I get no cooling at all from the basement in the summer time, I probablly run the AC for approx 30 days last year. (I don't sleep good when it's over 25 C)

 

[Boil&Toil]

If you are looking at electric heat anyway, look very, very hard at electric heat pumps, in particular the "to water" variants to heat your radiant with. However, if small capital expense is the main driver, look at the "cold-climate heating" variants of Mini-Splits - 2-3.5 times better than electric resistance heat, if that's what you are contemplating, and not much capital expense, with air conditioning thrown in (nearly - still have to pay to run it) for free.

 

[Willman]

There are radiant hydronic cooling systems out there. Heat and cool with the same tubing. Check out this month plumbing and mechanical.

 

[Fi-Q]

I don't think I'll go for a heat pump soon. The AC demand is not high enough (I think, haven'T done the math) for a central air to water heat pump, wich I think can be very costly. I am still planning to get a wood boiler down the road, So I can heat my hopefully 32x50 shop with it as well. I have an almost unlimited supply of free wood I just need to CSS. As of noe electric rate is somewhat pretty cheap here, but it's going up 4.5% again this year, for like the 5th year in a row, at that rate it won't be consider cheap sooner that later. And my electric boiler will be my back-up once I get the wood boiler in.

 

[maple1]

I would not do the ductwork, especially if there is not much AC need.

When I did my heating unit over again a couple years ago, I did consider Geothermal. I was looking at around $20k - and that was without doing any duct work, which I would have had to retrofit. I decided that even if I did already have ductwork in place, the Geo was still out due to high capital cost, and increased operating costs for the life of the system.

If you find the need to move air around, you could set up a couple of fans. But with radiant on all levels eventually, you should be good for heat (can't get much better than that), and if you do decide on some cooling, a couple of mini-splits will do that and some shoulder heating. And a heat pump water heater would help with that too.

From the short time I spent living in a ducted apartment - I'm not a fan of ducts blowing air.

 

[Fi-Q]

I have not quote yet, neither on my qood boiler installed or on any geo thermal. Geo thermal, once installed still need a decent amount of KWH to run, the boiler will need very little power and wood, just good old plain dry and split free wood. I know a boiler install cost can be close to geo thermal . But I can service a boiler myself, not so sure on the geothermal.

And I will heat my shop as well, but I would not pay more bills, even withgeotermal, to heat a detached hoby / storage shop! And as of now, even if I feel like my life is goin at 200 Km/h, it is still an awesome relaxing feeling to be outtere, on my land, cutting trees. I would be better coat wise to work over time and pay the utilities bill, but I see wood burning more like a life style, a step closer to self reliance