Renewable energy...........

[mvpel]

I'm starting to incline towards the air handler approach...  Just seems more straightforward.  Perhaps radiant under the family room floor, though.  Which reminds me, I need to get under there and clear all the mouse nests out of the insulation.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Kind of rotten to evict the mice with the cold weather coming

[MaineShark]

I'm starting to incline towards the air handler approach...  Just seems more straightforward.  Perhaps radiant under the family room floor, though.  Which reminds me, I need to get under there and clear all the mouse nests out of the insulation.

It generally is.

Once you have the hot-water system in (assuming it was designed correctly), you can add zones of radiant as you see fit, and eventually eliminate the air handlers, over time.

Joe

[mvpel]

Kind of rotten to evict the mice with the cold weather coming

I guess it'll be TS for them...



That's the main thing I'm concerned about - getting it designed correctly.  It's more and more evident to me as I improve the insulation and airtightness of our house that the existing system was massively NOT designed correctly.  It was incredibly undersized for the state the house was in when we bought it.  Just by adding attic insulation and a radiant barrier, adjusting the thermostat setpoints, and installing insulated replacement windows, we've cut both our summer and winter energy consumption nearly in half.  We used almost as much propane in the last three months of the heating season our first months here than we did the entire next winter.  Last winter was 818 gallons out of the 900-gallon pre-buy.

I would like to think the homeowners talked the contractor into sizing the system for what they intended to do to improve the house's heat loss characteristics - otherwise the contractor really screwed up.  Of course, given that they took a Sawz-All to a number of the electric heating system's radiant panels while installing the vents, hiding the pieces under the insulation, maybe the latter is true.  The previous owners had installed an inch of foam insulation under the new vinyl siding, but with wind whistling through the 30-year-old windows and only R-19 in the attic, there's only so much you can expect from a furnace.

I know enough to know that heating system design is calculation-intensive, and when looking at the amazing contraption that is my in-laws' hydro-air boiler system, I know it's something I'd likely need professional help on.  But finding a trustworthy professional who won't try to buffalo me into hundreds of hours of labor for union steamfitters and 100% markups on two dozen 45-degree bend fittings as the plumber signs his name in copper piping in my basement, is something I'm concerned about.

[MaineShark]

But finding a trustworthy professional who won't try to buffalo me into hundreds of hours of labor for union steamfitters and 100% markups on two dozen 45-degree bend fittings as the plumber signs his name in copper piping in my basement, is something I'm concerned about.

Don't worry, I'm non-union, and I prefer to staple pex tubing to plywood when I sign my name in your basement... copper is so 20th century...

Joe

[mvpel]

I'll be sure to call you first when we get closer to paying off the adoption.

However, come to think of it, the new next-door neighbors here may be quite interested in speaking with you.  They're moving in late November, and the house is all electric heat - the current owners pay $350 per month on the BUDGET plan to PSNH. 

I would be willing to bet they'd be quite interested in switching to gas heat, and given the design of the house, hydro or hydro-air would probably be their choice.  And if they perhaps can be persuaded to help pay for the natural gas line extension, that would benefit our house as well.