Building a house

We will probably get a stove sized for the whole house, with fan and are planning a fairly open floor plan. We like our main room warm and the bedrooms cool. We both grew up with this type of configuration and our parents would use the central HVAC to move the air, if needed, but most of the time they were satisfied with the stove's heating without any further circulation.

Okie Boarder wrote: I can see the maintenance side of the gutters. I like the idea of collecting the water and directing it, especially to a rain water collection tank. The maintenance versus the benefit is definitely something to consider.

Some states it's illegal to collect rain water. I know Colorado is one of them.

Yes Pete, I know which state he's in, I saw the OK under his name. I just remember reading about the drought situation in the west and some of the strict rules. I didn't try to remember all of them, but the Colorado rain collecting stuck. The state thinks they own the rain.

I'm wondering if radiant heat flooring here is overkill. We don't get get that cold, nor do we typically remain real cold for extended periods of time...this is what our average temperatures are like:


    January
    Average High: 46.7
    Average Low: 25.2
    Average Precipitation: 1.1

    February
    Average High: 52.1
    Average Low: 29.6
    Average Precipitation: 1.6

    March
    Average High: 62
    Average Low: 38.5
    Average Precipitation: 2.7

    April
    Average High: 71.9
    Average Low: 48.8
    Average Precipitation: 2.8

    May
    Average High: 79.1
    Average Low: 57.7
    Average Precipitation: 5.2

    June
    Average High: 87.3
    Average Low: 66.1
    Average Precipitation: 4.3

    July
    Average High: 93.4
    Average Low: 70.6
    Average Precipitation: 2.6

    August
    Average High: 92.5
    Average Low: 69.6
    Average Precipitation: 2.6

    September
    Average High: 83.8
    Average Low: 62.2
    Average Precipitation: 3.8

    October
    Average High: 73.6
    Average Low: 50.4
    Average Precipitation: 3.2

    November
    Average High: 60.4
    Average Low: 38.6
    Average Precipitation: 2.0

    December
    Average High: 49.9
    Average Low: 28.6
    Average Precipitation: 1.4

My feet are sore just thinking of standing on hard concrete while making dinner of entertaining in the kitchen. Why not vinyl plank or something to soften up things? Also if you do a tile or natural stone floor you can use the electric floor heating system which is way cheaper that a hot water system. Save you from having to do a boiler for the whole house and use forced air heat with cooling for the summer instead.

My feet are sore just thinking of standing on hard concrete while making dinner of entertaining in the kitchen. Why not vinyl plank or something to soften up things? Also if you do a tile or natural stone floor you can use the electric floor heating system which is way cheaper that a hot water system. Save you from having to do a boiler for the whole house and use forced air heat with cooling for the summer instead.

My in-laws have concrete and I've never noticed a difference in flooring. We've almost always had tile and never had issues...seems like concrete isn't much different. Any experience that has shown it is distinctly different? The point you're making is something I've read when researching, but wonder how that plays out.

I've always had tile in every room and don't think anything of it. Throw rug at the sink, throw rug at stove, couple washes then toss and another $20 were back in business. But I'm still almost young and am on hard concrete all day long. I like polished concrete a lot, or even a nice acid finish. I thought about it in the house but never had opportunity to start with pretty, fresh, virgin concrete. If I could ever warrant the cost I'd do it in my garage.

CrazyCanuck wrote:    They only cost a couple light bulbs worth of power to run, and you only use them half the year or so. They are not intended for whole house heat.

You have better add up the needed BTU's and convert to watts.

Dreaming wrote: I spent a good chucnk on a 96% furnace with oversized ducts and good insulation at our last house, and my bill was cut by more than 50% over our old worn out 80% furnace and nasty flex duct.   On the radiant heat, one big benefit that I can see is you don't have furnace fan noise and filters to change.

My experience was the same, huge difference in efficiency, worth the extra bucks!

Okie, ignore if already discussed, did not read entire thread:
garage doors, consider using 8' high door(s) especially if garage level framing is greater then 9'.
low maintenance exterior finishes, cedar and other wood or painted/stained finishes look great but can be a PITA and Wallet, lot's of great options that look good and require little or no maintenance.
metal roof will be quite a bit more money, consider a nice architectural asphalt shingle, particularly if your long term plan is less then 20yrs.

Gary S wrote: As to the high efficiency furnaces they sure are high maintance too,just replaced the exhaust blower,my 3rd one in 11 years

I totally agree. If I wasn't able to do the repairs on my 2 - 93%'rs myself, and had to have a hvac serviceman in, I question the payback.

8122pbrainard wrote: ] I totally agree. If I wasn't able to do the repairs on my 2 - 93%'rs myself, and had to have a hvac serviceman in, I question the payback.

I have always been a big fan of Trane for this reason... slower on rolling out new products, but very reliable in the end.   I dislike some of the other brands because they are too quick to market the newest innovation and leave the end user to be a beta tester for them.   Yes, 95% furnaces do require more maintenance... For the purchase price, I saw the payback in just 2 years.   I did the install myself, so that part didn't factor in...   

sorry for the thread jack Okie :)

to bring it back on track.... if you do go radiant, another benefit is that your slab won't make your ductwork inaccessible. Under floor ductwork is more efficient for heating than overhead ductwork, so if you decide to use forced air, and put the ducts under the slab, be aware that they need to be insulated well (on the outside... duct liner sucks), or you can have mold issues.   They are not accessible if you want to change repair or move something. inaccessibility is also true of radiant, but you would tap new zones off of the header if you ever add on to the house.

No worries...the thread is going just as I'd hoped...lots of great information and things I hadn't really thought about.

8122pbrainard wrote: My two original 93's were ARCLA Tranes new about 29 years ago and one of the first ones on the market. After 5 years both needed $220.00 control conversions. About every 3 years both needed hot surface ignitors. Then 2 years ago the downstairs one developed a hole in the primary heat exchanger. It was replaced with a Lenox 93. All in all, they have been good to be but the repairs would have been triple the cost if done by a pro.

Ok Last of my thread jacks. Sorry but

Pete those are repairs not maintenance costs, that's what I was curious about since I've had neither. And 27 years on a heat exchanger is pretty darn good. I put a new $12,000 rooftop on my business 5 years ago and last year I had to replace the heat exchanger, just out of warranty of course.

81nautique wrote: Pete those are repairs not maintenance costs, that's what I was curious about since I've had neither.

At 7 years in you are about where you should be knocking on wood when you say that. $800 for a control board last Superbowl Saturday on my dads top o the line carrier (with me putting it in, tech wanted to replace the wiring harness as well quoted a week leadtime and another 6-7 hundo for the part and install, apparently he doesn't have the correct pin extractors for those plugs). He was at year 6. I have put in a few draft inducers for my siblings. If it has a ceramic igniter you should keep a spare, they are wear items. At this point it is more the extra features that drive the extra parts and the extra repairs, not necessarily the efficiency. I would never buy a unit without a ECM fan motor - but if one goes you are going to pay a lot of money for a replacement ($500) that likely wont have the same program and features as the original did.

It is what it is... nothing too terrible but they just don't give 30 years of trouble free service, they weren't designed to.   15 years is considered full service life, a major repair or two to get you that far is pretty common. Some units do better of course.

Keeping the unit clean, including vacuuming around the inside of the control box once a year goes a long way towards keeping the temp of the control boards down and increasing the life of the board mounted relays. Keeping filters serviced, proper thermostat replacement, proper duct sizing, and proper unit sizing all help reduce short cycling and increase life. The biggest mistake one can make is buying a unit that is too big, and in my experience 90% of units sold are too big by at least one size.

I wouldn't hesitate going with a high efficiency unit if you need to buy a new one, but I usually recommend not replacing a perfectly good unit that is working just to get in a high efficiency unit. In a reasonably well insulated house it is hard to make up the cost of the unit in its lifetime.

As for geothermal units someday when natural gas is kaput they will be all the rage, I designed the first fully variable speed geothermal heat pump back about a year before natural gas peaked. Too bad for them the marketing group dragged their feet on it an didn't get it released until last year, the 7 cop heating and 60 eer cooling can't compete with sub 50 dollar a barrel oil.

Joe is a flame sensor a good to have spare too or did I get one for nothing? Anything else other than an ignitor and exhaust blower for spares,I give up!