Jeff and Diana Holmes, and family, have lived quite comfortably in a hydronic heated home of their own design since 1992, complete with biomass boiler. Jeff is a retired engineer from the hydrocarbon industry where he specialized in fluid flow and heat transfer. With added family, Diana instigated the 1992 home remodel, even to the point of drawing floor plans.
At that time, the house, built in 1979, had an electric forced air heating system and a wood stove/fireplace in the living room. Even then, the wood stove did most of the heating, at some mess of course, but that's the way of wood heat. In considering the remodel, electric heat was costly, and forced air was difficult to route to the two-story addition.
At that time, the house, built in 1979, had an electric forced air heating system and a wood stove/fireplace in the living room. Even then, the wood stove did most of the heating, at some mess of course, but that's the way of wood heat. In considering the remodel, electric heat was costly, and forced air was difficult to route to the two-story addition.
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It is the heating system of choice throughout Europe where energy has been historically more expensive. Beyond efficiency, an added benefit is the comfort of a radiant heating system vs. conventional forced air. Heat is delivered where it is needed and without ducting, it is quiet. When considering Life-Cycle cost a hydronic system can be the less expensive system.
We do not sell or represent a particular manufacturer. We work with a range of wholesalers. The benefit for you, the client, means the best design, which incorporates the strengths and economies of many manufacturers. Our design philosophy is one of simplicity, which will minimize the equipment installed, saving upfront costs, and more importantly - the costs over time to maintain.
The In-Floor Tubing Plan details all of the PEX circuits and manifolds. This detailed installation, locates the area manifolds and the home-run lines back to the mechanical room. Line sizing and line spacing is based on thermal requirements and system hydraulics - where system loss is calculated with respect to the circulator pump head (Delta P).
Energy Sources - Download our Excel spreadsheet, which will allow you to evaluate and compare heating energy sources from gas, oil, heat pumps (air source and ground source) even biomass in this case soft and hard woods and also wood pellets. An added plus is that wood is a renewable resource and is carbon neutral.
Hydronic heat is also compatible with Heat Pumps. The Coefficient of Performance or COP of a heat pump is based on input/output temperature and can be as high as 5 in a properly designed system. This means that every horsepower-hr (or BTU) shaft horsepower into the heat pump compressor, results in 5 BTU's of heat into the home.
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