Geothermal heating and cooling in home

[Junior00]

We’re doing electric radiant heat grids in the main touch point areas in the bathroom. I had wanted through the whole house since it’ll all be that engineered flooring but it could add up quick. Didn’t price up what a radiant system vs traditional hvac would run though so it is something to look at.

I’d also love to have radiant heat in the garage floor slab but pending on what we do with central hvac in the home we may plumb that into the garage as well so I can have heat and ac if desired. Just want to have it set to run off a thermostat independently if possible. All this snow balls real quickly on the price point so we’ll see. I’m completely fine with just hanging a gas heater in the ceiling for the garage as well and just using one of those big ass fans or something similar for air flow in the summer.

Just remember the air doesn’t retain the heat for shit lol. Not to mention when you’re rolling around on that garage floor, wouldn’t it be nice to have it warm. Bet doing radiant would save 75% of the fuel wasted with a furnace vs a boiler that only kicks on every few hours.

 

[wizbangdoodle]

When we started planning our build, I asked around a LOT about radiant. I have not ever heard anyone have anything but good to say about it and now I know why. Just heat everywhere, no filters to deal with, no air blowing.

I don't know much about geothermal, so I can't comment on it. My radiant was diy and I'm about $11k all in. That's covering about 3200 sq ft. The rest of my shop is unheated. I'll add a wood stove later maybe.

Move on, nothing to see here.

 

[My94GT]

Just remember the air doesn’t retain the heat for shit lol. Not to mention when you’re rolling around on that garage floor, wouldn’t it be nice to have it warm. Bet doing radiant would save 75% of the fuel wasted with a furnace vs a boiler that only kicks on every few hours.

I agree I’d definitely prefer slab heat there. It depends on price point though as I don’t work in the garage regularly so I’d only want heat for those occasional times. That’s just an item on my want list but I have some other preferable want items like a sauna and walk in freezer that I’d rather shell out cash for first pending on where we fall in the budget.

 

[My94GT]

When we started planning our build, I asked around a LOT about radiant. I have not ever heard anyone have anything but good to say about it and now I know why. Just heat everywhere, no filters to deal with, no air blowing.

I don't know much about geothermal, so I can't comment on it. My radiant was diy and I'm about $11k all in. That's covering about 3200 sq ft. The rest of my shop is unheated. I'll add a wood stove later maybe.

Move on, nothing to see here.

move been in some large shops that had radiant heat and it definitely it leaps and bounds better than forced air. Plus you don’t loose all your heat when you open a bay door for a few min.

 

[Junior00]

I agree I’d definitely prefer slab heat there. It depends on price point though as I don’t work in the garage regularly so I’d only want heat for those occasional times. That’s just an item on my want list but I have some other preferable want items like a sauna and walk in freezer that I’d rather shell out cash for first pending on where we fall in the budget.

Just put in the loop for future use when you pour, cost should be negligible in the grand scheme. Add solenoids and then you just turn the thermostat on the night before you’ll be working. Now if you’re not putting in radiant anywhere else then yeah I get it, but it’s not hard to redirect water with the rest of the system in place.

 

[rotor_powerd]

We had an open loop system at our old house. The well was obviously very strong and it dumped into the pond on the property. It was ~25 years old but still worked great, never had an issue except once when the drain line got clogged with iron. Hot heat in the middle of winter, ice cold air in the middle of summer, and a consistent electric bill. I just inherited it so I can't speak to installation cost, etc.

 

[IronSnake]

Radiant systems can be very simple or very complex. I have 3 zones and kept it relatively simple. You can put thermostats on every single loop and use powered valves at the manifold to control flow to every single square foot of your house. I didn't see the need for that, but my plumber did his system that way. I think he has 10 or 12 thermostats.

Move on, nothing to see here.

My eye balls about popped out of my head

 

[Stanley]

Radiant systems can be very simple or very complex. I have 3 zones and kept it relatively simple. You can put thermostats on every single loop and use powered valves at the manifold to control flow to every single square foot of your house. I didn't see the need for that, but my plumber did his system that way. I think he has 10 or 12 thermostats.

Move on, nothing to see here.

That's a lot of thermostats to make sure nobody touches.

 

[Recon]

Had to replace our entire unit in 2019, wasn’t cheap and from what I’ve heard it was at the end of the average life span for the units.


Pick your poison.

 

[wizbangdoodle]

That's a lot of thermostats to make sure nobody touches.

I agree, but he's a plumber and gets stuff at cost. I think his reasoning was, he wanted control in every single room in the house. And it's a big house. He's got like 10 kids, mostly grown now, but still several at home. Probably has the thermostats password protected.

Move on, nothing to see here.

 

[Stanley]

I agree, but he's a plumber and gets stuff at cost. I think his reasoning was, he wanted control in every single room in the house. And it's a big house. He's got like 10 kids, mostly grown now, but still several at home. Probably has the thermostats password protected.

Move on, nothing to see here.

I know a guy who has a zoned ac and it's just one big unit running his entire house. I need to find out how many he has. He said it made his bill lower and he was overall pretty happy with it. We zoned our downstairs into two zones which were our bedroom and then the rest of the level. We are going to have the upstairs unit looked at this week and if needs replaced I will asking about that at my house. See if he thinks there is any benefit to it. Any way to save money on cooling a big house in Texas summers would be a win.
Everyone in my house is scared to touch the thermostats or I would try to password mine, that's genius. My wife will text me to change it with the app if I'm not home.

 

[My94GT]

It would be handy to be able to control the rooms individually as currently during the winter I run oil based space heaters in my kids rooms to keep them warmer as I personally like it on the cooler side in our room.

 

[wizbangdoodle]

The company I purchased from specializes in diy "kits". I have 3 sets of supply and return lines from my boiler that go to 3 different manifolds. Thermostat control happens at valves at the boiler. My plumbers system has individual valves on each loop at the manifold that are controlled by a thermostat. Pretty tight system if that's what you're looking for. My floor plan is pretty open, so it would not benefit me to have more thermostats.

Move on, nothing to see here.