Ducted circulation and dust

Just wondering if anyone is using a ducted air circulation system in combination with passive solar design and/or a woodheater? How do you find it for dust?

My wife has huge issues with gas ducted heating and dust. It sends her into a sneezing fit. Even our current rental which was only built 3-4 years ago sets her off, and I can smell it too and have the odd sneeze.

For the house we are trying to (!!) build we have done a reasonable passive design with good insulation and are considering, for the heart of winter, a woodheater and possibly reverse cycle split system (for when the "can't be buggered" syndrome takes hold). But then, we thought, we may need to duct some warm air from the living areas to the sleeping areas.

If we do that though I suppose there's no reason why we shouldn't suffer the exact same dust issues as with ducted heating!

Or is there?

*bump*

Russell,

Thanks for alerting me to the dust issue. On Friday I've talked about a heat shifter (that's the "official" name for it) to a bloke from an A/C outfit, who's allegedly designed/installed it before. I haven't asked him about filtration, but I will on Monday. It's most likely possible to fit some sort of dust filter into such system. Will let you know what he says.

Chris

Thanks kris, looking forward to hearing.

In the meantime I've been reading about setups people have with no fan, just the duct and allow natural air flow to take place. I'd imagine these would be better in terms of not stirring up the dust! But probably not as effective at shifting heat.

The non fan ones really don't do much

I'm wondering if it's the dust or might it possibly be the gas? We have ducted reverse cycle and one member of the family can notice something unpleasant when visiting homes with ducted gas.

My son has a bad snuffles/asthma when he is anywhere near gas heaters. His eyes get soooo huge and ichy !, best thing we did was get rid of our gas heater. Poor lil mite sufferd so much.

We have ducted evap aircon and have no problem with dust, he would suffer so much tho if it was gas heating.

As the AbPstr said, could it be more a gas issue ? sounds like it may be bringing on allergy symptoms. Would you think of having ducted electric reverse cycle instead of the gas?

Are you people talking about flued or unflued gas heaters here ??

Chris

It ought not to matter that it's gas instead of A/C. The gas or its combustion products should never enter the heating air stream-- the heating takes place via a heat exchanger, basically a hunk of metal that the fire heats up on one side and the air blows over on the other.

Still, perhaps the temperature of this is higher in a gas heater vs an A/C one and as such alters the properties of the dust as it cooks it on the way through?

I popped on our wall mounted split system this morning (house temperature 14 deg) to avoid setting the missus' sneezing fits off.. and she comes out and turns it off.. "can't stand the noise!!"

on a side issue here wood burning is a pain to be honest unless you have had it before and were happy .
all our friends with wood burning heating ditch it and use something else after trying it
mess
smell
constantly stoking

what about hydronic wall panels???

I would love them... but can't afford them .