Mcluhan said:
well, any systems I have installed have always been a gas fired boiler source, but i think a good one is an airtight wood burner with a water rad reservoir behind it. The water movement btw is via convection, so I'm not sure i get the point on energy loss there.
also, on the joists heating up, yes ok, but wood is an insulator and a poor conductor of heat i think, correct? plus the heat is not really lost is it? I mean it dissipates and affects the ambient room temp in the basement, and then eventually rises...
What I'm trying to say here is that while this system may be a good supplementary system I don't want anyone to get the idea that it is the cat's ass and heating costs will come down 400% or anything. Just remember that electricity (especially in Quebec) is a renewable energy source where gas isn't.
Every heating and cooling system has it's inefficiencies and these systems are no different. I'd say if I was going to spend x amount of dollars on a reno project I'd put money into making the house more weathertight and insulated than spending it on adding another heat source.
The system that is linked above uses a pump to circulate the heated water, so that is wasted energy IMHO. Just like the fan used to circulate heated air in a forced air system uses energy that isn't directly related to heating. For eg: I'd like to see a link to a system that uses convection to circulate water at 110 gpm or even 5 gpm through 5/8" tubing. That's hard to believe.
If you want an efficient cost effective system I'd say install a ground source system where the ONLY energy spent is getting the heated water from the ground to the rooms. There is no cost associated with getting that water to 68 deg.
As for saying it is efficient because a gas company is promoting it is silly. The weather network promotes systems like this because they are paid to. The gas company promotes it because they sell the gas that runs it. Do you think for a minute enbridge wants to sell you LESS gas? LOL not.....
