What's the best home HVAC setup for heating?

[SickGTR]

Originally Posted by Chihuahua

Hydronic radiant floor heating if you can do it. Family condo in CO uses it, it's awesome.

This is the best!!!!!!!

[Murf993]

Might be a bit off the thread but we live in a 25 year old log home, 3000 sq ft on 3 floors, surprisingly easy to heat even in the -35C weather were having. Propane forced air furnace that is 12 years old so maybe 3-5 years life expectancy left. We are thinking about going to Geothermal. One of our neighbours has it, does heat and AC monthly hydro bill all in is about $150, which is about $50 more than I'm paying now. The upfront cost is a bite but hoping for government rebates so we are waiting for that before we pull the trigger. The thing will also make hot water so very cool.

[Chick Webb]

Originally Posted by tranquility

I notice many luxury units use forced air for heating but I really don't like it for several reasons: the ducts are high, so it's inefficient as the air has to force its way down and it's noisy and causes dust to fly around.

Gas forced air furnaces have come quite a long way and you can now get units that have both variable fans and burners. Combined with a proper thermostat (and additional remote temperature sensors if needed), they operate much differently than the on/off single speed units you're probably familiar with. We put one of these in this year and it's been transformational.

First, because it starts up at a very low (20%) setting, it's virtually silent. You can't barely hear the burner and induced draft blower, and the circulation fan at the setting produces just a whisper of air coming out of the registers. It'll ramp up if needed, but since it is most efficient at very low settings, the thermostat is set to keep the temp within a degree (F) of the set-point, and so it runs often, but almost always at the low settings.

Second, since we have a pretty big ranch house we have a couple of remote temperature sensors that are tied to the thermostat, and it averages all the temps to decide when to start up. That makes it run even more often, which has virtually eliminated hot/cold spots in the house, and that's without any zoning. The entire house is +/- 1 degree of the set point all the time.

Frankly, it's remarkable. We rarely hear it and the house is so much more comfortable than it was. And the new furnace is 97% efficient, so we're using less gas than before, as well. The unit is a Goodman (Amana) GCVM97971005CN

[zx10guy]

I just had my whole HVAC system replaced due to impending failure and age. The units were the standard builder grade crap that were 20 years old. The evap coil was rusting and is probably the source of the refrigerant leak. The inducer motor in the furnace was making a loud whining noise that was causing the furnace an elongated light off time to get the burners going.

What I ended up doing was get a larger furnace that would work with my current ductwork/space in the mechanical room. I went from a 75,000BTU furnace to a 130,000BTU furnace. The new furnace is larger with 6 burners/heat exchangers versus the 3 with the old unit and a larger blower. I needed larger blower as my house originally from the builder was marginal for a 2 zone system. The builder opted to stick with the single zone. Since then, I had my basement finished and had an addition put in. This made the existing furnace system inadequate to condition all the living space.

I also opted to increase the size of the A/C system from a 4 ton unit to a 5 ton unit. We'll see how it works when summer gets here.

So far it's been great. I did think about going with a high energy efficient system. My friend who helped me acquire and install the system is an HVAC person by trade. He said the wait for any of the high energy efficient systems is months. In fact, my system which is a Bryant was almost not available. He said his supplier only showed 9 available in the Mid Atlantic and if those are gone he doesn't know when any new stock will arrive. The joys of the supply chain issues we're dealing with.

[Chick Webb]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

I did think about going with a high energy efficient system. My friend who helped me acquire and install the system is an HVAC person by trade. He said the wait for any of the high energy efficient systems is months. In fact, my system which is a Bryant was almost not available. He said his supplier only showed 9 available in the Mid Atlantic and if those are gone he doesn't know when any new stock will arrive. The joys of the supply chain issues we're dealing with.

We upsized as well, all new duct work included. Getting that furnace from Goodman was not easy, since the high-end units are much lower volume products for them and they have been prioritizing lower-end, higher-volume production.

We ordered ours in March. By the beginning of October I was starting to get a little worried, since our old furnace was on its last legs and not functioning correctly (short cycling). It took an email to the Goodman factory rep literally begging for one, and when we got it in November I noticed the build date was in 2019 and the box was very dusty. It must've been sitting in a corner of the warehouse someplace.

[tranquility]

Tx all for your various inputs. According to the majority, it seems that the best is some sort of radiant in-floor heating, some ppl prefer baseboards and a few say new furnace types are great.

How about maintenance issues, after decades of use? I would think baseboards would be the easiest to repair, so if one has to take into account the 2 major factors of heating efficiency and reliability, would it still be in-floor heating?

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Chick Webb

We upsized as well, all new duct work included. Getting that furnace from Goodman was not easy, since the high-end units are much lower volume products for them and they have been prioritizing lower-end, higher-volume production.

We ordered ours in March. By the beginning of October I was starting to get a little worried, since our old furnace was on its last legs and not functioning correctly (short cycling). It took an email to the Goodman factory rep literally begging for one, and when we got it in November I noticed the build date was in 2019 and the box was very dusty. It must've been sitting in a corner of the warehouse someplace.

I didn't get the duct work replaced as that would have been a major under taking and it isn't really warranted. But my friend warned me that I could get some popping and loud whistling noises with the blower set to run a full blast. Fortunately, none of that has happened. But if it did, I could set the blower to run at a slower speed. What I did have to do was go through each room and adjust the registers to balance out the air flow throughout the house. Felt weird to close/decrease the opening of the registers due to the new higher air flow.

That's nuts you had to wait that long and confirms what my friend was telling me about the supply issues with the higher end units. I wasn't willing to roll the dice as my furnace was giving me signs that it might break down soon.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by tranquility

Tx all for your various inputs. According to the majority, it seems that the best is some sort of radiant in-floor heating, some ppl prefer baseboards and a few say new furnace types are great.

How about maintenance issues, after decades of use? I would think baseboards would be the easiest to repair, so if one has to take into account the 2 major factors of heating efficiency and reliability, would it still be in-floor heating?

Don't know much about mini splits, but I hear they're pretty good in conditioning a room and heard they're the preferred HVAC system overseas.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by tranquility

How about maintenance issues, after decades of use? I would think baseboards would be the easiest to repair, so if one has to take into account the 2 major factors of heating efficiency and reliability, would it still be in-floor heating?

My grandmother's post-war concrete slab house had radiant floor hydronic heating, using whatever piping was common in 1950. The piping broke somewhere under the concrete slab after 10-15 years, and they had to convert to baseboard radiators.

PEX tubing these days is probably much more flexible/durable than whatever they used back in the day. Still, I would engineer my own new-install with multiple PEX loops in the slab if I was going to use it, so that individual sections could be isolated if they develop leaks.....

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

My grandmother's post-war concrete slab house had radiant floor hydronic heating, using whatever piping was common in 1950. The piping broke somewhere under the concrete slab after 10-15 years, and they had to convert to baseboard radiators.

PEX tubing these days is probably much more flexible/durable than whatever they used back in the day. Still, I would engineer my own new-install with multiple PEX loops in the slab if I was going to use it, so that individual sections could be isolated if they develop leaks.....

Supposedly the new systems are guaranteed for 30 years and more, but the thought of ripping up one's floors to access and repair is kinda scary vs just replacing whatever baseboard is fried.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

In fact, my system which is a Bryant was almost not available. He said his supplier only showed 9 available in the Mid Atlantic and if those are gone he doesn't know when any new stock will arrive. The joys of the supply chain issues we're dealing with.

Originally Posted by Chick Webb

We ordered ours in March. By the beginning of October I was starting to get a little worried, since our old furnace was on its last legs and not functioning correctly (short cycling). It took an email to the Goodman factory rep literally begging for one, and when we got it in November I noticed the build date was in 2019 and the box was very dusty. It must've been sitting in a corner of the warehouse someplace.

Our oil boiler was short-cycling when I fired it up to test before Thanksgiving. The boiler's core rusted through over the summer, and the hot water spray rusted a hole through the fire box case. My reliable boiler maintenance company for 15+ years could not get a replacement from any manufacturer before the end of January, and many of the other contractors that I called had even longer wait times or just plain out didn't return my call. Long story short, I found a local contractor with a fancy stainless boiler in their warehouse, and they did the install the day before Christmas Eve. Paid a fair premium over a normal boiler, but couldn't hold out another 1-2 months with the thermometer tumbling and heat pump running full throttle as our only source of heat.

On the bright side, I feel better that our pipe-eating well water will not destroy the stainless boiler in what's left of my lifetime.....

[Chick Webb]

Originally Posted by tranquility

How about maintenance issues, after decades of use? I would think baseboards would be the easiest to repair, so if one has to take into account the 2 major factors of heating efficiency and reliability, would it still be in-floor heating?

If money were no object I think that in-floor water is the best solution for a home. Something like this - Warmboard. Check out their videos. Stupid expensive, but my experience with heated floors is that they are just amazing from a comfort perspective.

[2000cs]

The first place to spend your money is insulation and caulking of walls, windows and ceilings/subfloors. A well sealed and insulated home is easier and much cheaper to condition.

Then system design actually gets easier. If I was starting with a clean sheet, I’d go with floor heating (preferably liquid) and zoned AC (maybe using mini splits in some areas depending on floor plan). For a house I really like geothermal, but it is so expensive (and repairs on my last one were pretty expensive). Might not pencil. That’s what I’d be looking at if I still lived in KY or MI. Here in FL the floor heating won’t pencil so a heat pump system would be most economical.

[ZL9M2]

I've had my in-floor for 22 years with no issues, just basic boiler maintenance. Separate zones throughout the house with the garage and shop as a separate zone as well.