Heating?

snappy · 04-05-2009, 12:15 AM

Im in the process of building a new house . An in the area im in there is no natural gas at this time although it is supposed to be coming.
But im looking into central heating with lpg anyone one got or had this i imagine its really expensive to run.
Or any other suggestions are welcome .

Also currently have plans for evap cooling , Do you think i would be better of using say 3 splits systems for heating and cooling .

snappy · 04-05-2009, 12:50 AM

Basically i need to find a effient way a heating the house that dos not cost a fortune .
inslab was a idea but heard the take ages to heat up and then to cool down if needed also would imagine installsion cost a fair bit.

J_Tank · 04-05-2009, 06:32 PM

I guess the question is do you really need to heat/cool the whole house? While I'm in Sydney, and therefore don't experience the temperature extremes you do, I really only have heating and cooling In the living area and bedroom. Other rooms don't need it really. but then In Wagga I had ducted gas heating and ducted evap AC across most of the house. Ducted gas heating is great, and I would suggest if you can get a firm date, get something in the mean time. Otherwise look at the plans, work out how many rooms will need heating/cooling and to what extent.
If you are in the process of designing there are a lot of design ideas that can be built in to limit the need for heating cooling, take advantage of heat sinks, look at the aspect of the house, placement of windows/window size, solar pergolas etc.

FPVUTEXR8 · 04-05-2009, 06:41 PM

If you plan on insulation in the walls and the roof then you could look at a ducted Inverter a/c system , setup properly you could have the ability to split in into zones , bedrooms of a night time and living during the day , Being reverse cycle it will do both heating and cooling , Planned and installed propery they can be quite efficient . Not to mention they are neally silent in operation .

snappy · 04-05-2009, 07:27 PM

I was checking out reverse cycle today will probly head that way as for not heating the whole house it is not needed but the house is very open plan and the main room is half the house . But there is device called zone 10 that you select the rooms you wish to heat so it not just a matter of heating the whole home .
I will be well insulated so shoud save some there, wall,ceiling and 13mm plaster
I did get the answer to my question though today do not run central heating on lpg the fella i spoke to today told me one of his customers on a slightly older system was paying 3k a quarter thats right 3k .

I was told with the reverse cycle model i was looking at was around $2.20 for a 8 hour cycle witch is not to bad .

cycle myth · 05-05-2009, 09:56 PM

Not sure how the purchase cost compares but hydronic is fantastic!

Came with the house - old boiler is a bit dear to run but apparently you can get electric on solar versions - and these are supposed to be the most cost effective to run.

Easily, easily the best heating I have ever had - no sound - even heat through house, quickly warm, no hot air / dust blowing.

JG66ME · 05-05-2009, 11:18 PM

Ok Snappy, I am on 5 acres in Gisborne. Town now has Gas but we don't and never will.

I built this house 10 years ago and it came with Gas ducted heating. Its set up for LPG.

Now the gas warms the house up but the house is freezing again 10 mins after its turned off. It costs a fortune to run, could only have it on at night for a few hours. We use this in mid Autumn and late spring when you get a little cool snap and cannot be bothered lighting a fire.

We now have a large wood fire. As there is someone home all the time it burns 24/7 for 3 months and part burn in may and September. It heats the house a treat but I use 6 ton of wood, about $1500, through winter (a bit more than what I spent on gas to barley heat the house at night). It gets the whole house hot as but can be filthy. It takes about 5 mins to get going so if your not at home in the day it would cost half what it costs me to run and the house would be toasty when you get up.

Water radiators are the best but you will need a boiler and gas is the best for this.

How long before you get town gas? A wood fire would be a waste if its only needed for a few years. If its 5 years off I would go wood. Makes a nice feature when you finally get town gas and you would use it when you have guests to give atmosphere.

I don't have air but if I did it would be evaporative.

snappy · 06-05-2009, 12:18 AM

Thanks for that , I looked in to hydronic but the cost is what i have allowed for heating and cooling . But have heard its the best way to go but cash is king and unfortunately building the house cost plenty in itself .
For cooling i would like to go evap because its cheap to run but again it comes to cost and this leaves me back on findind a heating solution again and reverse cycle is a better method but is about costs a bit more to run.
My plan is to get the reverse cycle h/c on electric with a machine with you can choose with rooms to heat or cool so im not heating the whole house if its not needed.
I will go solar down the track but not until the power company's pay you for what you put in the grid in victoria they do not.
I looked at a wood heater but the missus was against it and still cost more then electric reverse cycle because i would have to also buy my wood.

They told me it could be 2 - 30 years for gas no one actually knows .
thanks guys.

ILLaViTaR · 06-05-2009, 04:02 AM

Go with the Brivis MPS it's meant to be ahead of anything else.

We got our HE30E fitted today.

It has a 5.5 star energy rating and powers 30 squares, has the place boiling in 5min.
Doesn't take any time to heat up just works instantly. You can add zoning and refrigerated cooling to it too. We have Breezair evap and have had it for 10yrs since new was meant to be breezairs best and it's a load of rubbish, I'd strongly recommend not going evap, once temp is past 30 degress it does nothing and it's shocking on humid days, It's an old technology, it's the same thing as throwing a wet towl over a fan.

We also have a split system which is great. Thing is with ducted you can have vents everywhere and get rid of all the cold spots in the house, we got one under our towel rack in the bathroom which dries the towels too.

winkle · 06-05-2009, 11:31 AM

Hi Snappy. I'm in Ballarat - I know you don't get the cold that we do, but I'd look at getting double glazed windows as well. We built a new home 3 years ago, and getting the double glazed windows was the best decision we made. Keeps the noise out, and nowhere near as much heat transfer. Our place is 26.5 squares and we have a Fujitsu inverter reverse cycle split system which cools and heats the whole house. We also have a Coonara wood heater which is fantastic on the really cold nights ( have access to free wood, which is why we got it).

snappy · 06-05-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by winkle

Hi Snappy. I'm in Ballarat - I know you don't get the cold that we do, but I'd look at getting double glazed windows as well. We built a new home 3 years ago, and getting the double glazed windows was the best decision we made. Keeps the noise out, and nowhere near as much heat transfer. Our place is 26.5 squares and we have a Fujitsu inverter reverse cycle split system which cools and heats the whole house. We also have a Coonara wood heater which is fantastic on the really cold nights ( have access to free wood, which is why we got it).

Winkie do you know what you paid for double glazing .
Im using 13mm plasterboard in the ceilings , but just standard 3.5 celing batts and rockwool insulation in the walls . So im interested to know what it would cost at the end of the day cash is king .. Ive got a budget and im trying really hard to stick to it .