central heating / insulation

[Gumby]

Originally posted by zathras
Yup ceiling fan's are good.

The return air for our ceiling ducted heating is also in the ceiling. That room never got warm as the warm air was sucked out as soon as it was put in. :mad:

A ceiling fan fixed the problem and now that room is the warmest room!

That's ridiculous ! The air return in the ceiling ! Where'd they put the thermostat ? Next to a duct ???

[texas]

I had a house where the central heating unit was located under the floor, space was limited in the yard and I think not many 'external' models were available when it was installed (circa 1992). It wasn't noisy, just awkward to access when getting it serviced. You also have to think about the flu, got to get that out from under the house. Better to put the unit outside if you can.

[jane99]

We put heating in the ceiling 'cause didn't have any room underneath. Chose a Brivis (from memory) mid efficiency unit. It's excellent, don't have ceiling fans and have 3.25m ceilings but the air gets pushed down beautifully. The return is in the hallway down low. Didn't have insulation 'til recently but it certainly makes a difference, both to keeping the heat in, but also on days like today (30C in Melbourne) keeps the house nice and cool.

[seriph1]

sounds like an early calif. bungalow or Edwardian



I WISH we had the American underfloor ducted specifically designed for period homes

multitude of quiet 50-70mm outlets with 150mm feeders

ah well - our in-ceiling stuff keeps us warm...and by the time I get through making the deep threshold between the maiin house and the extension, the return air nightmare will be invisible.

[bob w]

Gas ducted heating is certainly a very efficient form of heating, however the entire system is dependant upon the design of the ductwork and placement of the downjets and return air vent.
As stated in this thread hot air does rise and for that reason the return air vent MUST be located as close to floor level as possible so as to draw the hot air away from the ceiling, also the downjets should be placed so as to ensure complete coverage of the room.This together with accurate sizing of the unit required proper location of the thermostat and the calculation of heat loss factors is vital in the installation of an efficient system.
How do I know this? I was trained in this area by AGL and the major manufacturers of gas central heating units whilst managing an AGL agency in cold climate NSW.
Regards and stay warm,
Bob W

[jackiew]

I'm now convinced about putting the unit outside for ducted heating. Both the quotes I've had so far the guys sort of wandered round the house had a quick look under and then specified the system they would use. Neither of them were interested in the level of insulation of the house.

I've had two hydronic systems installed in the uk and also got a couple of quotes here and the approach is different. Actually measure up the rooms, ask questions about the insulation, go off and do heat calculations ( or go home and watch TV and specify the system during the ads perhaps ... )

Are the ducted heating guys just "experienced" at (gu)estimating or do they just go for the one size fits all.

The ducted heating in the rented homes I've lived in here has been uniformly abysmal. One house had floor ducts into enormous Cathedral ceilinged rooms ( no insulation anywhere ). Not worth turning it on. One newer home with vents in the ceiling ... would have been great if I'd wanted to sit on top of a ladder all evening, reduced to sat wrapped in a blanket in the lounge. One home where the gas unit was installed in the coat cupboard in the hallway and sounded like a falcon with a holed exhaust and only the closest room to it was reliably heated.

If only hydronic wasn't so expensive to install (

[dale]

We went for underhouse heating. Previously it was outside, but a small (fill it the eaves) extension meant there wouldn't have been room for the heater and a parked car.

The high efficiency brivis heater has a plastic gas exhaust (they waste virtually no heat at all) goes out through the brick wall.

You can just sort of hear it at night time, and it's under my son's bedroom (with thick carpet on it).

There is an access door right next to it so maitenance is not a problem.

[seriph1]

SIGH!!!!

As mentioned in a previous post, we paid $7000 for our in-roof heating system - last week we had a cold snap and turned in on to discover it wasnt heating properly....... so I got up in the roof for the first time since its installation only to find that the blue "tapes" they had used to keep all the ducting level and off the deck had come undone, the ducts were on the ceiling in a few places and the main "Y" junction had come adrift, requiring duct tape immediately..... fixed the problem but you just wonder what we are bloody-well paying for at thos rates!!!!!

There will be some added warmth in the suppliers offices this week when I get down there to have words with them.

there's my monday morning bitch-session out of the way

Sorry folks

[Rocker]

One of the pleasures of living in Queensland is the schadenfreude that you get to enjoy from listening to Melburnians whingeing about the cold in winter. Nevertheless, it can get a bit nippy even here for a couple of months of the year. We find that the reverse-cycle air-conditioners we have installed work brilliantly at heating, despite the fact that we have cathedral ceilings. They have powerful fans which blow the warm air downwards, and only take a few minutes to warm up the open-plan main living area of the house which is 6.5 X 16 metres.

Rocker

[Barry_White]

As they say there is tradesmen and there is tradesmen. When I was doing airconditioning we hung all our duct with perforated steel strapping and we didn't rely on the duct tape to hold the duct onto the fittings.

We first put four tek screws in through the duct and into the fitting before we fitted the duct tape. The duct tape was only used to seal it not to mechanically hold it together.

[dale]

One of the pleasures of living in Melbourne is the schadenfreude that you get to enjoy from listening to Queenslanders whingeing about the UV & high rate of skin cancer (highest in the world?) all year 'round.

As well as tropical mosquito born diseases, & jellyfish )

[Bob Willson]

Are you having a go at biting midge here Dale, cos if so then I resent it on his behalf.

ps I have never heard any Queenslander whinging about the best rate of cancer in the world.On the other hand, I have heard lots of us thanking our lucky whatsits that we don't have to put up with suffering the whole four seasons in the one day as do some people who live to the South of us.

[bitingmidge]

schadenfreude

Is that some brand of wooly underwear, for use when the heating goes on the blink?



P

[dale]

No, schadenfreude is for when you pull the shades down so that the neighbours don't see you doing something that would make even Freud blush!

[seriph1]

I can almost guarantee ab-users of "that" German word were watching The Einstein Factor last night