To recap, the house was built in 1967 with Electric Celing Cable (ECC) heat and, from educated guess, central air. There are four vents run to the first floor, which made the guy suspect the system had to have been installed at time of construction. The vents throughout the house (a total of 9 for 12 rooms and 2250 sq. ft.) are located on inside walls at ceiling level.
The previous owners never turned the ECC on in their seven years in residence. Last fall, I tried to get someone to come and inspect the system, as it seemed like it could be a good back-up system for two people in a huge house. Upon inspection the other day, the electrician seemed to feel that most if not all of the ECC had long since been disconnected.
At some point along the way, the owners were persuaded to simply install a gas furnace in the attic, and heat and cool with forced air. Even with only a rudimentary understanding of thermodynamics, the notion of creating hot air in the attic and blowing said air down two stories to the ceiling of the inside wall might strike one as ineffective. To be sure, it was. No matter how high we ran the furnace last year, we remained darned cold, especially on the first floor sandwiched between the chilly, uninsulated crawl space and the toasty-warm floor of the second story (though you can bet the a/c was very effective!). The new furnace people basically laughed in disbelief. They almost seem excited to be working on a project that will have such dramatic results.
The house also has a fireplace, retrofitted over the years for a gas-burning unit. We blew out the pilot light last summer, thus dooming the unit. Repair not being an option, we decided to install a flue damper to eliminate the nasty, nasty draft, and purchased two fabulous space heaters instead of replacing the unit whose meager warmth would have been like a match in the tundra.
With baby on the way, we felt it was our responsibility to provide the little tyke a nice warm environment in which to sleep and sit and play on the floor.
Beginning Monday, for roughly two weeks, the DialOne crew will be here completely overhauling the way we heat the house. I understand the new system basically at the level that it will create two independent temperature zones in the house, the upstairs and downstairs; be energy-efficient; will heat the as-now unheated rooms; and will -- most importantly -- keep us toasty warm all winter long. For those who might appreciate the system on a more technical level, we're installing a 92% efficient two-stage gas furnace with add-on heat pump in the garage, with all necessary duct work for the first floor run through the crawl space. We're replacing the 15-yr-old gas furnace in the attic with a full-fledged heat pump. They're going to run new duct work out to the exterior walls. A/C units will be connected to both systems. Essentially, in the winter we should hardly need the attic to heat and in the summer we should hardly need the garage to cool.
Turns out we called at a good time -- the guy gave us a great deal, throwing in free labor and Trane's super-effective air filtration system, and not charging sales tax. Apparently, it's transition time between cooling and heating and they're in desperate need of work.
We're super-excited that this is the sort of system the house needs -- we only wish we weren't the first owners to figure it out! We hope Paul gets tenure and we'll be able to enjoy our home improvements for many years to come. On the other hand, perhaps Becca had the right idea in buying a brand-new house right off the bat!
The previous owners never turned the ECC on in their seven years in residence. Last fall, I tried to get someone to come and inspect the system, as it seemed like it could be a good back-up system for two people in a huge house. Upon inspection the other day, the electrician seemed to feel that most if not all of the ECC had long since been disconnected.
At some point along the way, the owners were persuaded to simply install a gas furnace in the attic, and heat and cool with forced air. Even with only a rudimentary understanding of thermodynamics, the notion of creating hot air in the attic and blowing said air down two stories to the ceiling of the inside wall might strike one as ineffective. To be sure, it was. No matter how high we ran the furnace last year, we remained darned cold, especially on the first floor sandwiched between the chilly, uninsulated crawl space and the toasty-warm floor of the second story (though you can bet the a/c was very effective!). The new furnace people basically laughed in disbelief. They almost seem excited to be working on a project that will have such dramatic results.
The house also has a fireplace, retrofitted over the years for a gas-burning unit. We blew out the pilot light last summer, thus dooming the unit. Repair not being an option, we decided to install a flue damper to eliminate the nasty, nasty draft, and purchased two fabulous space heaters instead of replacing the unit whose meager warmth would have been like a match in the tundra.
With baby on the way, we felt it was our responsibility to provide the little tyke a nice warm environment in which to sleep and sit and play on the floor.
Beginning Monday, for roughly two weeks, the DialOne crew will be here completely overhauling the way we heat the house. I understand the new system basically at the level that it will create two independent temperature zones in the house, the upstairs and downstairs; be energy-efficient; will heat the as-now unheated rooms; and will -- most importantly -- keep us toasty warm all winter long. For those who might appreciate the system on a more technical level, we're installing a 92% efficient two-stage gas furnace with add-on heat pump in the garage, with all necessary duct work for the first floor run through the crawl space. We're replacing the 15-yr-old gas furnace in the attic with a full-fledged heat pump. They're going to run new duct work out to the exterior walls. A/C units will be connected to both systems. Essentially, in the winter we should hardly need the attic to heat and in the summer we should hardly need the garage to cool.
Turns out we called at a good time -- the guy gave us a great deal, throwing in free labor and Trane's super-effective air filtration system, and not charging sales tax. Apparently, it's transition time between cooling and heating and they're in desperate need of work.
We're super-excited that this is the sort of system the house needs -- we only wish we weren't the first owners to figure it out! We hope Paul gets tenure and we'll be able to enjoy our home improvements for many years to come. On the other hand, perhaps Becca had the right idea in buying a brand-new house right off the bat!
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