Heating ideas for fully insulated 3 season porch
Hi,
I am adding a 16′ x 13′ three season porch on the back of a ranch. The walls are 2×6, the ceiling is cathedral with 2×10 rafters. The house fhas a walk-out basement so porch is elevated. The three exterior walls have large windows. Not floor to ceiling, ther is a 20″ wall height below the windows and about 8″ above. The ceiling, walls and the underside of the porch will be fully insulated. This is in Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Since it is being fully insulated, in the future I may choose to heat it in the winter (it is a vacation home now but may turn into my permanent residence at some point). What types of heat would be a good option for heating this space? The electrical will be started soon and I am thinking of having the electrician stub out cable for the addition of some basaeboard heaters in case I did decide to heat but I don’t know
if that is the best option. The house has forced hot air fueled by gas but I do not want to extend ducts to the porch.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Replies
Well, your basic options are electric resistance, a heat pump, hot water, or hot air.
The heat pump would be ugly and noisy. For hot water you'd have to install a boiler somewhere (possibly in an enclosure under the deck). Hot air requires fairly large ducts (though there is a "high pressure" scheme that reduces their size significantly), though again you might be able to put a small furnace under the deck. Electric heat is expensive to operate.
If this is truely a 3-season porch, and you only want to "take the chill off" during the winter, then electric is probably the best choice. If you want it fully heated in the coldest weather you probably need something else (especially with those windows).
What about radiant floor heating? Seems it would work well in an installtion like this.
Radiant would be either electric resistance or hot water.
Heating a three season porch
I have a three season porch in New Jersey. I use a kerosene heater in the winter months. It does a good job. It’s been great to use the porch during a snow storm.