Comments on: Heating and Cooling Plans Take a U-Turn

By: Ashish Aleti

Ashish Aleti — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:08:49 +0000

Ah finally found the topic i was looking for. Thanks for the information Mike. we do have right number of vents to heat the area, so i would say bye bye fan.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:08:05 +0000

Ashish: Hmmm, I would say that unless you like the look of a “big ass fan”, you probably shouldn’t get one. We don’t have one and never really considered it. Nor did anyone tell us we should get one. We have plenty of vents in all three levels of the house so air is blown where it’s needed, when it’s needed. We have an damper system paired with the heat pump/furnace that can open or shut the flow of hot/cold air to each floor independently. That might be helping with the temperature evenness. If we couldn’t couldn’t each floor independently, I could see how that might waste a lot of energy and/or create hot/cold zones.

By: ashish aleti

ashish aleti — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:48:31 +0000

Hi Mike,

I wish i had stumbled across your blog/website before we started our house construction. We are building our home up in mukilteo facing the puget sound, and so is our home with a modern theme and lots of glass. I did notice that you have 20+ foot ceilings in your living room. When you decided to go with your HVAC system, did ever a conversation come up with your HVAC contractor to install a huge fan over the great room/living room, to push the warm air down? (e.g bigassfans.com) our contractor is suggesting to put a 8 foot wide fan up there, though its practical, wife doesnt like it. Do you find uneven temperatures at the lower level (being slightly cooler/comfortable temp) and the upper level/mezzanine being at a warmer temperature? or do you have a system which pushes the warm air down without using a fan?

please let me know?

Thanks
Ashish

By: Darin

Darin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:32:40 +0000

Mike,

Great Blog! I’ve been sifting through the information and you’ve been doing a great job documenting everything. As an architect, I’m always very curious what’s going on in my client’s head’s.

As a response to this post, we’ve been specifying radiant heat which seems to be the most comfortable heating system. In addition, we use an HRV or ERV to both supply constant fresh air, as well as temper the air from one area of the house to the other. This way, the temperature at the lower level of the house is very close to the upper level(s). In addition, we have been roughing in for a ductless mini split heat pump that can be fully installed at a later date. The heat pump is a very efficient way to both heat and cool a house. It’s ductless and is very efficient. Because we never really know exactly how much cooling we’ll need because comfort is alway relative to the specific occupant, this gives our client’s flexibility to tune their house to their own level of comfort. Another advantage of the heat pump is that you can quickly change the temperature in the air while the radiant system catches up. In addition to these measures, we do our best to design the house to not need any systems at all…ultimately, we hope our clients never need the heat pump.

Darin

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:53:45 +0000

Carl: There’s no need to rush through design and planning when you can’t even break ground until the spring anyway. Thanks for the heat pump info… that’s probably indeed what we’ll be using.

By: Carl Heldmann

Carl Heldmann — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:35:24 +0000

Hi Mike, I hadn’t been to your blog in awhile…thought you’d be further along.
If you haven’t decided on a HVAC system yet, you might want to consider an Air to Air heat ump with a gas furnace auxiliary back up (all one unit).
I looked up Seattle’s weather (http://www.beautifulseattle.com/clisumm.htm), and I think an air to air heat pump would work fine for your situation, seldom utilizing the auxiliary back-up.
I’ve used heat pumps in building for over 25 years. They are great once you get used to the cooler temperature air output during the heating phase.
The technology has improved to the point that they will operate to well down below freezing without calling for the auxiliary back up.
Check all this out with an HVAC supplier/installer…or have your builder do it.
Here’s a link to a blurb about the Bryant Hybrid: http://www.bryant.com/news/pr-20061025.shtml. (I’ve always used Trane)
Good luck, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
Carl Heldmann
http://www.byoh.com

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:07:16 +0000

Steve: Thanks… I just caught that on Contemporist today as well. Truly, truly spectacular. I love everything about it, and it’s a great example of what you can do if money is no object. Seriously, it seems perfect in every way.

Cost-wise, it’s probably at least $400 per square foot, and at about 7000 square feet, that’s $2.8m in construction costs plus maybe $1.4m in soft costs (using the 2/3rds 1/3rd rule), so that’s $4.2m. My math and estimates could obviously be off, but that’s many multiples beyond what I’m spending.

Still though… its a great, great example of the frontier of energy efficient luxury homes. If it costs that amount to build now, it will cost much less in 5-10 years.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:23:55 +0000

Hey Mike,

Have a look at this house, similar orientation to yours: on the water with west facing glazing. They are using geothermal/radiant heating & cooling plus solar.

http://www.contemporist.com/2008/12/18/the-truro-residence-by-zeroenergy-design/

By: Liam T.

Liam T. — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:30:05 +0000

Hi Mike,
I represent HVAC equipment for the commercial markets. I can help you out with design of equipment, as well as hook you up with some consulting engineer friends of mine, that would have great insight on the types of systems you are looking at.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:49:24 +0000

Rich: Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I’m *definitely* going to have a multi-zone thermostat system to help handle the different loads of each room, but the idea in that Norwegian house is nice — set things automatically based on known load variables.