Heat is something homeowners sometimes tend to take for granted. Turn the thermostat and the home heats up, presto! What makes us sit up and take notice is when the monthly fuel bill is delivered. Energy costs are taking a bigger bite out of our household budgets and the experience can be shocking.

Photo courtesy of Wirsbo

There are significant ways of minimizing this shock and there is help from the Energy Trust of Oregon. The bottom line, of course, is a warm home that requires less energy. Sometimes a little knowledge can go along way. As a Trade Ally of the Energy Trust of Oregon, we can help you with cash incentives and Oregon energy tax credits for energy-efficient heating and cooling systems including boilers, energy-efficient furnaces, tankless water heaters, and air conditioners.

All too often homeowners anticipate that any heating system provides adequate heat during the coldest part of the year. For a variety of reasons adequate is no longer good enough. Homeowners today want a mechanical system that offers extraordinary comfort with low operating costs.

Good
However, the majority of homes in the Northwest are heated and cooled by more traditional and conventional systems. Furnaces, air conditioners, and heat pumps. They are not created equal and there are a wide variety of quality issues. Forced air systems send heated air into a room and heat the room from the top down. This means that the air near the ceiling may be 81 degrees while the air near the floor might be only 68 degrees. The higher the ceiling is, the greater this effect becomes. Vaulted ceilings present enormous comfort and efficiency challenges for forced air systems; they fall short.

Better
The Unico System should be considered for heating and cooling your house. Conventional systems often leave houses with hot and cold spots as well as drafts. The Unico System uses aspiration, and if installed correctly, eliminates drafts and keeps temperatures even and comfortable from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, and room to room. Like radiant floor heating, the Unico System is quiet, draft free, and is friendly to design. The Energy Trust of Oregon might be helpful as well with tax credits and cash incentives.

Best
Radiant heat increases comfort, economy, and flexibility. Radiant heat systems use warm water circulated through tubing in floors or baseboard radiators to heat the home. This provides a more constant heat than forced-air options, which unfortunately suffer from hot and cold spells.

Although it’s been around since Roman times, radiant heat flooring didn’t find its way into U.S. homes until after World War II when American soldiers saw the technology in Europe and brought it back home. The soldiers recognized that it provided comfortable, clean, quiet warmth and today the energy savings benefit puts radiant floor heating in a class by itself. If the decision is comfort, it’s an easy one. There is simply nothing in its class.

Radiant floor heating is the best of the best. Walking on a warm kitchen floor on a chilly day can make all the differance. Also
the radiant floor heating system leaves the natural humidity in the air and eliminate the need to add humidifiers found in forced
air systems.

Radiant heating systems, while having higher initial costs, actually use less energy than comparable forced air systems. Radiant heating systems can use 20% to 40% less energy to heat the same space, while maintaining a much more comfortable heat level.

Part of the energy savings comes from dividing the house into different heating zones. These zones are controlled with individual thermostats and can eliminate rooms that are too hot or too cold. For example, the bedrooms can be set at 67, the living room set at 70, and a bathroom set at 72, while an unfinished basement can be set at 55. This control of heating zones increases the comfort and usability of the home. Radiant systems operate most efficiently when left at one thermostat setting. This means that you can set the thermostat at 70 and not have to worry about turning the heat down during the day or late at night.

Since radiant technolology doesn’t heat the air, the warmest temperatures are not up high in a room (as is the case with conventional forced-air systems), but at the first 5’ or 6’ above the floor. After all, that’s where the people are!

Radiant systems also offer greater flexibility in decorating. With the elimination of bulky ducts that cut into ceiling and floor space, homeowners can arrange furniture without the worry of covering a heating duct. Cleaning is easier because dust is no longer being circulated throughout the house.

Cold basements seem to be a universal problem. Radiant tubing makes all basements warm and comfortable, even if the rest of the house has forced air. In some cases, the basement can be heated with a water heater instead of a boiler.

The heart of a radiant heating system is the boiler. The boiler heats the water that circulates through the baseboard radiators or the tubing in the floor. Baseboard radiation and tubing allow the heat to radiate into the area that is being heated. Choosing the right boiler can make or break a system.

The cost of heating water for domestic uses can also be lowered with radiant heating systems. An individual water heater connected to the boiler will heat a greater volume of water more efficiently than conventional water heater.

Conventional water heaters heat 40 to 50 gallons of water in an hour at 55% efficiency, while an indirect water heater will heat 200 gallons or more in an hour at 87% or more efficiency. If you need large volumes of hot water for whirlpool tubs, teenagers, or a large family, indirect water heaters are the logical choice.