ASSURING A SUCCESSFUL HYDRONIC HEATING INSTALLATION
As with any type of heating system, it makes sense to approach the use of Hydronic Heating with your eyes wide open. Educate yourself about the best ways to solve potential problems before they occur. A good place to start is with the members of the Hydronic Industry Alliance; click here for links to HIA members’ websites.
Talk with the representatives of equipment manufacturers. Pick the brains of heating contractors who are familiar with Hydronic installations. An excellent reference source is Hydronic equipment wholesale distributors. Find out about Hydronics “dos and don’ts” before you design your next Hydronically Heated home. Following are some key points to consider when designing Hydronic Heating into a home.
Heat Loss and System Design
The emphasis here is to consider the heating system right from the beginning of the design process. Plan your heating system in the drafting stage, not the building stage. Once the foundation is laid and the walls are up, your heating system options become much more limited than if you had incorporated the heating system into your design from the beginning.
An important part of this advance heating planning is obtaining a heat loss estimate based on your floor plan. Send the floor plan to a heating professional for a heat loss estimate. Specifying engineers and heating installers experienced with Hydronic Heating can be reliable sources for a heat loss estimate. Also, Hydronic Heating wholesale distributors are often heat loss experts, some of whom perform many heat loss estimates daily. Your heat loss figures can then form the basis for subsequent heating system decisions and for selecting a system that does the job dependably, efficiently, and correctly from the start.
Heat loss estimates are usually performed by software, but this table depicts some of the calculations that are involved.
Reprinted with permission from Modern Hydronic Heating for Residential and Light Commercial Buildings, 2E, Copyright Delmar Publishers.
Insufficient Heat
This is one of the problems that a heat loss estimate can help you avoid. Insufficient heat can be the result of specifying a boiler or other heating equipment that is undersized for the job. It can also result from constructing too little wall space on which to mount baseboard, wall panel heating, or other heating equipment. The answer is to get a heat loss estimate in the drafting stage. Then design your floor and wall space to accommodate the properly-sized Hydronic Heating equipment.
Code Issues
Your heating installer is your best consultant for local code requirements. This professional adheres to the local building codes daily and needs to be thoroughly knowledgeable about them. Early planning and close communication with your heating installer should resolve any possible coding problems before they occur.
Oversized Equipment
Having heating equipment that is too large for the job is like driving with your foot all the way to the floor. The homeowner pays the price in terms of unnecessarily high energy bills and reduced heating comfort. An oversized boiler is constantly cycling on and off, producing either too much heat or no heat at all. Again, a heat loss estimate and matching equipment specs during your drafting stage should help you to avoid this possible pitfall.
Equipment Limitations
It is vitally important to know what your Hydronic Heating equipment can and cannot do. You want to avoid situations like having only four feet of baseboard for heating when the room needs eight feet for proper comfort, or needing to add on the capability of outside snow melting using a boiler that was not sized for this possibility.
Practical answers for this will come from Hydronic Heating equipment manufacturers, specifying engineers, Hydronic equipment wholesale distributors, and your heating installer. Sometimes the installer can find the extra four feet of wall space you need. But your best bet is to tap your Hydronic “brain trust” – professionals who regularly work with Hydronic systems – in the early stages of your design.