Topic: New house heating - comfort & water

New house heating - comfort & water 

I am in a quandary over heating for our new house.
Ribraft floor, 300m2, 1 level, plaster brick, asphalt shingle roof.
Design has 1 wood fire and 1 gas fire. In leiu of hydronic underfloor heating have decided to go double glazing and perhaps ducted heating. And as for water which way, gas, electric, heat pump, solar?????
This is in the Rodney area just Nth of Auckland so we are not talking Otago although the windchill is 2.9deg at present!!!

Re: New house heating - comfort & water 

By far the most efficient (ie lowest cost) house heating is hydronic underfloor powered with a hot water heat pump - unless you have free wood.
As for water heating, depending on circumstances the lowest running cost is either solar or a hot water heat pump. Straight electric and gas cost about the same (taking into account standing losses).....despite what Rinnai might say!

Why the gas fire? They might look nice but are very expensive to run.

climatezone.co.nz

Re: New house heating - comfort & water 

Hello Ari
Have you completed your design?
It really depends on how much heat you actually require, Great you have an insulated floor! Make sure that the edge of the floor and foundation are also insulated with 50mm polystyrene so that you don't experience air leakage here.
I see you have double glazing great and this is usually 30% of the wall area. The code has bought in regulations limiting the % of glazed areas so obviously there is recognition that the walls play a significant part in the area of heat loss. What system are you using for your walls and what r value is achieved?
Ceiling insulation is also significant for heat loss, so should be looking at an insulation Rvalue of around 2.4-3.0.
It would be useful to do an energy audit on the design whi9ch will tell you how much energy is required for your design. Maybe take a look at the testimonials on http://www.4-cornerstone.com as clients with this wall system have found that the log fire was more than enough in Cust. They could only run their fir for half an hour in the middle of winter, and they did not have double glazing or insulated floor.
There are many stories like this where people have used the Cornerstone Building system which is an Structural Insulated Panel system.

Hopefully that helps...:-)