Replies

1. 
   WayneL5 | Oct 07, 2003 04:34am | #1

   You have an unusual situation with a small house that's so very well insulated.  It may be one of the few times where electric heat is not a bad idea.  A typical new insulated home may have a heat loss of 70,000 BTU/hr.  You are way smaller.  You will have trouble finding a fuel burning appliance that small.

   Perhaps a specialty unit for mobile homes?  But I'd be suspect of the quality of a unit for that market.

   One advantage of electric heat is that each room is its own zone, so you can, say, heat the bedroom(s) to 65 at night while you let the living room and kitchen go to 60.  A guest room could be down all the time.  With timers in most rooms, you could save money by only heating rooms you expect to be in.  You could have the bathroom and kitchen warm up a half hour before you get up in the morning.  If you were going to use tile in the bathroom, you could have electric heat in the floor, supplemented if calculations show it's needed with a radiant unit.

2. 
   fortdh | Oct 07, 2003 06:42am | #2

   Press, If you have nat gas available, I would suggest installing a gas water heater and use it for both the domestic hot water and house heat.

   This gives you double duty from one appliance, and the heat is always available.

   You can have a water coil in a central air plenum and a circulating pump that is activated by a thermostat. Or, you can pipe the water to individual rooms with wall units or baseboard units.You put the water where you want the heat or hot air blower, and then return the water to the water heater.Water heaters with a high and low side tap are available for this system design.

   A gas water heater is much simpler than a gas furnace, and your low requirement of 20,000 Btu would nicely fit a 40,000 or 50,000 Btu 50 gal hot water heater and still leave adequate domestic capacity.

   I would isolate the water heater so that it uses outside air, and not house air for combustion, wrap the case with insulation blanket, and install foam pipe insulation on the water lines.

   We love our system as it produces 115 deg hot air in about one minute, and we can not feel the draw down in water temp. The water is leaving our water heater at 140 deg and returning to the heater at 110 deg.

   Hope this is helpful.

   Energy Consultant and author of

   Practical Energy Cost Reduction for the Home

3. 
   Bruce | Oct 07, 2003 02:57pm | #3

   With that much Icynene, you may have a situation that requires mechanical ventilation for air changes.  Take that into account whatever heating system you end up with.  Sickness or worse resulting from foul or toxic air can ruin your day.

   Formerly BEMW at The High Desert Group LLC

4. 
   rjw | Oct 07, 2003 09:14pm | #4

   I like Paul's suggestion in msg 35458.3

   I'm seeing more and more new small condos with that set up.

   _______________________

   Why Don't Blind People Like To Sky Dive?

   Because it scares the bejabbers out of the dog

   Your mileage may vary ....

5. 
   Lynsta | Oct 12, 2003 07:25pm | #5

   Have you checked the oil heaters? We have a Monotor brand. Toyo also makes one. The drawback is that the unit is stationed in one room. If you have poor roon to room air flow, it would not work so well. We have a long house with a hall that runs from the main section (where the heater is) down to the bedtooms. The bedrooms are cooler, but we like it that way. It does get rather cool in the bedrooms on cold nights if we close our doors. You probably won't have that much of a problem- we have poor insulation in windows and walls.  These heaters are quiet, cool to the touch, safe around children and pets, don't blow cold air like a furnace, and the yearly fuel cost is less than buying wood for a wood stove. they have a thermostat which can have different settings for different days and times. We use ours as a back-up to baseboards. Yhe baseboards only kick on if gets too cold in the bach of the house when we have to close someons bedroom door.