Hydronic Heating

[Julie-Ann]

We have chatted about this fabulous way to heat your house before. But today I wanted to provide you with some more information.

Hydronic heating is simply the use of water, as opposed to forced warm air, to heat your home. An efficient central boiler heats the water that is then circulated throughout the building using a network of pipes to an outlet; an outlet can be a radiator panel, in floor trench convector, in slab floor coil or a combination of the available
outlet options.
Some of the benefits of Hydronic Heating are:
Hydronic Heating is considered to be a very healthy and gentle way of heating your home.
A new hydronic heating system costs significantly less to run than a ducted gas system, around 20% for homes with 2.7m ceilings; for homes with higher ceilings this saving can be increased to around 40 - 50%.
It is ideal for 2 storey homes, especially where space could prove problematic for ducted systems, as hydronic heating uses a pipe work system that is considerably smaller than duct work.
There is a range of outlet options available from period cast iron panels reminiscent of a bye gone era to innovative cutting edge designer panels more like a work of art than a heating appliance. Alternatively you can choose to have no visual panels at all with in floor trench convectors or an in slab floor coil system.

So before you rush out to use the reverse cycle heating unit maybe it is worth looking into this option.

[rosierose]

We are having Hydronic heating in "Rome"....... You do have radiator/panels on the wall but they do tend to blend in after a while...
Very excited to not blow dust all over my house. ATM we have ducted heating in the ceiling and it blows hot air and dust on top of all the furniture..

[Di]

Very excited to not blow dust all over my house. ATM we have ducted heating in the ceiling and it blows hot air and dust on top of all the furniture

This is something I detest about air conditioning, I think we need a better filter.

Hydronic heating sounds wonderful. Is is electric or gas, though?

[Clare1]

The use of the hydronic heating system sounds great but what does everyone have for cooling ?

[Mrs B]

Originally Posted by Clare1

The use of the hydronic heating system sounds great but what does everyone have for cooling ?

I have hydronic heating and many times I have said it is the best product we put in our home.

For cooling, just 2 split systems, 1 upstairs another downstairs...does the whole home. If we open a certain door, the cool breeze rushes through the entire home. Last summer, I reckon we only had the air con on just a handfull of times.

Mrs B xx

[rosierose]

It is Gas heated boiler that runs the hydronic.....

[clp]

I know a guy who built this amazing rural home (near the snow) with all sorts of great "green" ideas - ie utilising thermal mass etc - he has all this black piping in his roof which heats up the water and an enormous tank underneath the house - he can turn taps on and off which variously heat and cool his house - its amazing and no energy costs.

[judydg]

Hydronic heating sounds just like central heating that they have in all UK homes, and have had for years.

[Julie-Ann]

Exactly Judydg but instead of oil it uses water. Water would be a lot less drying than the oil heat too.

[judydg]

Ours did use water and had a gas boiler. I think most systems used water. The oil fired ones were expensive to run. But I don't think I'd like to go back to having radiators on walls, they took up space as you couldn't have furniture etc too close to them.