Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Jan 01, 2010 11:08 am Hi All, I was hoping you could give me some ideas and suggestions on a effective solution for heating my home. We do not have access to natural gas unfortunately. The house will be about 35sq living area. I am after something that is cost effective and will provide an even heat throughout the house. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks............ Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 2Jan 01, 2010 2:07 pm onedaysoon Hi All, I was hoping you could give me some ideas and suggestions on a effective solution for heating my home. We do not have access to natural gas unfortunately. The house will be about 35sq living area. I am after something that is cost effective and will provide an even heat throughout the house. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks............ Where's your property located and how energy efficient is it? I'd look at anything you can do during the design/build process to reduce energy consumption first. Some well designed homes require minimal energy inputs for cooling and heating. Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 3Jan 01, 2010 3:16 pm We don't have mains gas either . So we've installed ducted reverse cycle air conditioning.......though we have bottled gas for our kitchen cooktop & it's just as good as mains gas. Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 4Jan 01, 2010 5:51 pm Thanks Southies, What brand system did you put in. How is it to run expense wise? Do you remember what sort of price is involved buying and installing a unit like this? Cheers........ Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 6Jan 01, 2010 8:25 pm There are two main heating methods - convective (forced air) or radiant. Convective heating involves heating the air that is then circulated around the room. Radiant heat directs electromagnetic radiation (infra-red) towards objects. You need to be in line of site of the radiant source to get the full benefit. The impact decreases the further away from the source. However, there is usually some degree of indirect convective heating of the air when it contacts a heated surface. There are pros and cons for each. Convective heating systems tend to distribute the heat more evenly through the room but it also means unused areas get unnecessarily heated. We previously had ducted natural gas heating and now we have reverse cycled AC. There is no difference in the quality of heat as they are both forced air systems. Radiant heat is better when you are close to the source and does not require air movement which can stir dust around. It also doesn't make the air as dry. Radiant heating can be expensive if using a source such as electricity (electric radiator). It would be better to use wood (e.g. combustion stove). An alternative are hydronic (hot water) systems powered by natural gas or heat pump. These can be piped to special radiators or plumbed into the floor (radiant floor). The cost of heating is largely driven by the price of the energy source you use rather than whether you opt for convective or radiant heating. Generally natural gas is at least half the cost of electricity. LPG is three time as expensive as natural gas. Wood often is the cheapest. The next consideration is the efficiency of the system. Reverse cycled AC competes well with most system in running costs and GH emissions but is still not as cheap as natural gas. In conclusion I would steer away from LPG (it would be hideously expensive to run). Wood combustion stove is cheap as long as you are happy with the hassle of starting it. You may need need to combine it with a fan distribution system to transfer the heat around the house. Finally this leaves an electrical system. The main options are RCAC (convective heating) or a hydronic system powered by heat pump (radiant heating). The latter would entail a large investment. There are other options such as ground source heat pumps and solar-based system but the complexity increases. We don't have town gas so we opted for a zoned RCAC for the following reasons: - next cheapest running cost - next cheapest installation cost - can heat and cool - no hassle (push a button) - can direct heating to only occupied rooms I agree with theyetti that a well designed house can significantly reduce the heating/cooling requirements. Our passive solar house is almost twice as big as our old house but needs half the heating energy to stay comfortable and is located in a colder climatic region. Check these sites for more information: Sustainability Victoria SEDO Your Home Technical Manual Passive Solar heating Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 7Jan 01, 2010 8:43 pm onedaysoon The house will be about 35sq living area. I am after something that is cost effective and will provide an even heat throughout the house. Just to clarify, the house is not built yet? Is the house designed yet? What's the block's dimensions/orientation? Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 8Jan 01, 2010 8:55 pm The block frontage faces north. The block is 2 acres in size. No the house isn't built yet. We have a floor plan that we have put together on paper but have not yet taken it to a pro. Thanks for your help to this stage it is looking like Ducted Reverse Cycle may be the way to go. Hopefully it won't be to much higher to run than natural gas is. Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 9Jan 01, 2010 9:20 pm For us RCAC running on peak electricity cost about 80% more than Natural gas to achieve the same degree of heating. e.g. $4.50 per day versus estimated $2.45/day The difference is less pronounced if heating during the off peak period e.g. 2200-0600 Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 10Jan 01, 2010 9:26 pm We have ducted reverse cycle. It works more efficiently if you pay attention to things like orientation and insulation. As mentioned, if the house is designed properly then you won't need the heating/cooling system/s working so hard. So the starting point is the house design, and it sounds like you have the scope to get that right. Re: Help! Need suggestions for heating with no Natural Gas avail 11Jan 01, 2010 10:29 pm We were in the same situation heating wise.. Only LPG and electricity. We also opted for ducted reverse, refrigerative aircon. I'm the sort of person who really loves something with radiant heat but LPG as a house heating option wasn't possible both cost wise and also because of the openness of our house. and we would have spent 3/4 of the cost of it getting a wood fire installed as well ( on 3/4 of an acre) so this was the best option for us because it gave us cooling as well. we still might end up getting a wood fire and we've just bought 5 ceiling fans to supplement the aircon for when just having airflow will be enough as running the aircon to cool is quite expensive. . Sparky still to install when we can find one to give us a quote. Hi, planning on using the attached stone pieces in my bathroom. I want to remove stains and gloss seal. Can I get some advice on best way to remove stains and best… 0 6713 Hi, Looking to add an ensuite to one of the bedrooms and make it a Master BR. Please see the attached current floorplan. 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