Trends in heating systems in custom homes 2013

Heating system trends 2013

The trends in homes and renovations coming in to 2013, a lot of the things that we did in the 2012 construction year were the same as in previous years. But there were things that became trends in 2012 with more and more home owners opting for them leading into 2013 creating trends. I am focusing on the heating systems that are being installed in new homes and renovations and where they are trending.

Heating Systems

Here is a list of things that have stayed the same over the last couple of years;

• In town natural gas high efficiency furnaces are still the most commonly installed heating system.

• New custom homes that do not have access to natural gas are all by a rule installing geothermal heating.

• Conventional hot water tanks are still the most popular way to heat hot water in town and in the country.

• HRV’s are standard in all new homes that are now built.

• Heating of bathroom tiled floors is done with electric mats that are controlled per room, making for a more enjoyable experience when stepping out of the shower on to warm tiles.

Here is a list of the trends that are gaining momentum this year;

• Ductless heat pumps are becoming by far the most popular way to heat or cool area’s of a home that have been renovated or added too.

• Air-to-Air heat pumps are one the most popular choices lately to make your heating system more energy efficient whether you live in town or in the country. This system is becoming so popular because it is basically an add on to your existing furnace without too much interior renovations required.

• Flash boilers that run on natural gas are growing in popularity for new homes. There is a rise in people wanting in-floor heat; with in-floor heat you require a flash boiler which also gives you on-demand hot water.

• A disturbing trend in new homes is people opting out of installing air conditioners. Whether it is the extra cost of installing it or the fact that they believe they do not require it a lot more people are opting out. New homes must be climate controlled and without air conditioning that can’t be achieved.

• Multiple thermostats are a rapidly growing trend; this allows the home to be better regulated with heating and cooling. You can set the temperature of the different zones of the home to whatever you require, different levels of the home can have different temperature settings.

• Smart thermostats are being more popular; with the growing smart phone market people want to be able to control the climate in their home from anywhere in the world, smart thermostats do that with a phone or internet connection.

• Fume hoods in kitchens are getting larger and with that growth mechanical contractors are being forced to install “make up air” systems in the furnace. This system helps stop the depressurization of the home when all the air is being sucked out by the fume hood by adding more air then normal into the duct system to make up for it.

• Steam humidifiers are becoming more popular; people are trying to avoid the overly dry air they end with through the heating season.

• Multi stage furnaces are more readily available and the bigger the home the more it’s being demanded. The multi-stage allows for better energy efficiency and that is one of the biggest trends in today’s homeowners.

These are the main trends in the Heating systems of new and renovated custom homes for 2013.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

How deep are the pipes of a ground-source heat pump?

Q:
How deep are the pipes of a ground-source heat pump?

A:

When geothermal lines are installed in the ground they are usually placed at a depth of about 8 feet. At 8 feet the temperature of the ground stays fairly consistent all year around. The frost in the ground usually doesn’t penetrate more than 4 feet into the ground, at a depth of 8 feet you do not have to worry about the lines ever freezing. Also when you are using the geothermal lines in the summer for air conditioning the ground at the 8 foot depth stays cool no matter how hot it gets at the surface.

There is also drilled well geothermal installations. This is where several vertical wells are drilled into the ground; the depth of the wells depends on the size of the system that you are installing. Installing a vertical system allows you to have geothermal heating on a smaller foot print and access to a larger source of cool or warm earth. This is ideal for in-town use or small country lots.

The third way to install geothermal lines is to install them into an existing pond or large body of water like a lake or a large river. These lines are weighted down so that they sit at the bottom where the temperature of the water never changes from summer to winter. Being at or near the bottom allows for boat traffic to drive over the area without effecting them.

More important than the depth of the geothermal piping is the amount of water that is in the ground at that level. The more water you have where the lines are buried the more heat exchange you can have. The lines absorb the temperature from the soil surrounding the pipes; water replaces that warm or cold when it is absorbed by the piping. The more water the more constant the temperature is around the buried geothermal lines.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Home Heating systems in the modern home

Modern Day Construction for custom homes Part 18

In today’s modern world of construction things are changing year to year faster than they did decade to decade in any other previous time period. In this multi part series I will traverse through an entire house starting with the foundation and working my way up to the roof and then to the finishing’s. I will explain what has changed in the last twenty years in custom home building.

One thing that you should be able to take away from this is how important it is to not just hire the right general contractor to build your custom home but how important it is to hire one that is up on today’s building methods.

Home Heating Systems 

Twenty years ago you had limited options for heating, depending on where you lived. Electric baseboard and electric forced air furnaces were the norm. Also a lot rural houses had oil furnaces. Low to medium natural gas furnaces where starting to become more common in the larger cities.

Today there is a plethora of heating options, depending on where you build your house. Here are the most popular ones;

• Ground source heat or Geothermal heating. Geothermal heating is a newer idea in North America, it has been used in places like Iceland for decades. The basic principal of it is that pipes are installed 8 feet in the ground outside of your home, depending on the size of the home will determine the size and amount of loops of pipe you will require. The pipes travel from the outside through your basement wall into your furnace. The liquid inside of the pipes absorbs the heat out of the ground, it is then circulated back to the furnace where it is pressurized and then fed through the furnace. The furnace blows air across these lines using the heat from the lines to warm up the air that is passing through the furnace into your duct work, this warm air is what warms up your home. If the system is run in reverse you receive air conditioning in the summer from the lines absorbing the cold from the earth. This is the most efficient heating system known today. It runs on electricity but barely uses enough electricity for you to notice on your electrical bill. The pipes can also be run into your hot water tank giving you free hot water in the summer time. This system when installed in the country is installed 8 ft under the ground in a field or in a pond that is at least 8 ft deep or if you are on a large body of water like a lake or a large river. In town it can be used by drilling wells vertically into the ground. This system is the best system you can have for heating, but it is also costs the most to install as well.

• High efficiency natural gas furnace. This furnace is the best bang for your buck. Natural gas furnaces have come a long way in the past two decades, they use very little gas to make a lot of heat compared to they older models. The units are also significantly smaller than most other types of furnaces, they do not take up a lot of space in a mechanical room. The duct work is usually larger than the furnace. You can only get natural gas if you live in town or close enough to town that there is a natural gas line installed on your road. You also have to make sure that the furnace can be properly vented, you will have to clear the snow away from the intake and exhaust ports in the winter. Natural gas furnaces do not do air conditioning; you will require a separate electric air conditioner on the outside of your house.

• Propane furnace. Propane furnaces are a cheaper option for people that have no access to natural gas and cannot afford geothermal. Propane is about a quarter of the efficiency of natural gas and is on par with oil furnaces. You will have to have a large propane storage tank installed on your property and have it filled once or twice a year depending on your heating requirements. Propane furnaces just like natural gas furnaces do not do air conditioning. You will require a separate electric air conditioner on the outside of your house.

• Oil Furnaces. Oil furnaces are still used in rural areas. Oil furnaces have become more efficient in the last two decades. But they require you to have a holding tank installed in the basement of your house. Oil furnaces can be smelly and if they are not taken care of properly there can be oil leaks. Insurance companies have raised the premiums on them because of the potential liability of oil spill clean ups in and around your home. Oil furnaces do not do air conditioning, a separate electric air conditioner on the outside of your home will need to be installed.

• In-floor radiant heat. There are two types of in-floor radiant heat, natural gas and geothermal. In floor heat is basically pipes laid under your flooring that have water circulated through them at a certain temperature. This warms the floor up which in turn warms the air above it. This is a wonderful way to heat a home because you are heating the air at the floor and since warm air always rises you always have warm air rising past you. So with in-floor radiant heat you never have cold spots in the home, the heat is evenly distributed throughout the home.

• Air source heat pumps. This is a unit that runs on electricity that converts the air outside to heat or cooling in the same way the geothermal does. It is not as efficient as geothermal but can be cheaper to install, it is more efficient than just a propane, electric or oil furnace on its own, but it is also more expensive to purchase in the beginning. Heat pumps work best when paired with a furnace to help move air around the home. Heat pumps do air conditioning as well and usually do it extremely efficiently. Newer models of heat pumps coming on the market are extremely efficient and are able to make heat out of air as cold as -30 c.

Look for part 19 coming soon....

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

My air conditioner saves me money the more that I use it!

My air conditioner saves me money the more that I use it!

That is a statement that most people don’t think they will ever here, especially when you have people on commercials telling you that if you want to save energy and save the planet you need to turn your air conditioning off. Well in my house that’s not the case.

In my house I tell my wife to keep the house nice and cool and make sure you use lots of air conditioning whenever you get the chance. Even in those days in the late spring and early fall you wonder if you should turn the system off and open the doors and windows, I don’t let that happen, I keep the air conditioning on.

The reason I do this is because my house has a geothermal heating system in it. This system heats my house in the winter and in the summer it cools it. This all happens just by pushing a button on the digital thermostat. One of the lesser known benefits of geothermal heating systems is that when you use them in the summer for cooling the system supplies you with free hot water. That’s right I said free hot water.

The way it works is that a geothermal system has pipes that run under the ground, in the winter they absorb the heat from the ground and transfer it back into the house to be used to heat your home against the winter’s cold. In the summer the pipes are used to transfer the cold in the ground to your house to be used as cooling.

A by-product of using the cooling is that the lines are left with only heat in them. The lines (that are now super heated) run from the furnace into a hot water tank. These lines heat your water to over 100 degrees giving you free hot water.

Most people don’t know that one of their biggest energy consumptions in a house is hot water and most hot water tanks are electric not natural gas. Since water that comes in from a well or city water lines comes in at a fairly cold temperature, having the ability to raise the temperature to 100 degrees for free helps your electricity bill because your hot water tank doesn’t have to work very hard. A hot water tank is used far less than most people think and if the water being supplied to it is preheated then maintaining that high temperature becomes a lot easier and cost effective.
If you don’t have access to natural gas then you should be looking into a geothermal heating system. Geothermal heating is actually more economical to run then natural gas furnaces. The only down side with geothermal heating is that it is more expensive to install then installing a high efficient natural gas heating system.
So in the summer when everyone is paying higher and higher hydro bills to keep their homes cool, I will be smiling all the way to the bank as I turn the air conditioner to cooler so that I can save more money.
Writing this from inside my house where I have no idea what the temperature is outside,
Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.