Hydronic heating

Mek, you are correct. Hydronic is the rolls royce - no dry air, dust etc.

Much more expensive than other forms of heating, usually $7000.00 + for a house. You also need to consider the gas supply line that it is big enough to deliver enough gas to the heater ie: you may also be up for an upgrade to and from your meter.

Again, and as I've said on other forums - CHECK IT FIRST, before you sign so that you eliminate these nasty extras that can easily blow your budget and put you and your builder at each others throat!

Appliances etc are usually always treated as an afterthought hence (again) why I stress that all this stuff needs to be discussed first and all these issues dealt with in the planning stage.

Builders are supposed to know but often just get swamped with the amount of information that is required and important items like this can easily get missed. Generally I think the gas line from main to meter is standard (check with a plumber) but the amount and type of appliances you want to run in your house will have a direct impact on the size of line you run from the meter to the appliance.

Classic case is instantaneous hot water systems. They need a lot of gas, fast! If the gas line feeding them is too small, especially once the hydronic boiler and the wiz-bang wok burner are both running at the same time then your hot water flow will be reduced to a dribble or merely luke warm.

Most of our work has always been in renovations where the gas line was installed years ago before all these sorts of appliances were even invented. 90% of the time, we have to upgrade the gas line because it just cannot deliver enough gas quick enough.

While you are also right that you need to trust the builder to get it right, if you haven't specified all this stuff then why would your builder install a 40mm gas line, when it may be a few hundred dollars cheaper to install a 13mm line? Again, make sure everything (appliance wise) is specified and then it IS his responsibility and he can ensure that the plumber installs the services that will do the job.

Same applies for electrical. Intense Air Con systems etc may require some larger circuits and if all these selections are made first then the builder and electrician can work out exactly how big to make the switchboard etc.

Again, hope this helps. Not trying to panic you but these are issues that designers and architects never think about but you end up paying extra for down the track!

Just noticed your question, YSSIM
Yes, we are getting hydronic heating, had a meeting a couple of weeks ago regarding positioning of panels so it's going well, but it's not in yet. Shouldn't be too much longer.

Sorry Mrs B, I seem to be missing posts frequently...

Re. cost, as we have one figure for the whole of the house, I can't exactly tell you how much of it went for the heating but I took our plan to a heating shop before we started building and they estimated around 15K, our house is about 25 squares inside. We're getting 11 panels of different strength, it's all been calculated based on size, we also requested panels for the bathrooms and hallway. Wherever possible, I requested panels to be put under a window on the outside wall, this is the way it's done in Europe.
Yes, everything gets connected to the hot water system. The panels should go in shortly, the house is being painted at the moment.

Just a word of warning: once the panels are on and further on when we need to re-paint the walls, the panels will have to come off. Might be too much hassle for some people, but I am prepared to do just about anything for the lovely heat

Hi Mek,

We are also considering Hydronic heating for the same reasons as you. If you don't mind , who are you using, as my husband and I are not quite sure where to begin. I would greatly appreciate this.

Kind regards,

Binny

PS like you I don't mind having to pull them down to repaint, anything not to have that awful hot air blowing!

Hi Mek,

Thanks for your quick reply! Yes we are in Melbourne, suffering with the horrible gas ducted heating. Oh can't wait until we build! I really appreciate this.

Kind regards,

Binny

Thanks so much Mek, will have a look at their site and call them on Monday. I really appreciate your time.

Regards,

Binny

Just a note to everyone who is thinking of putting hydronic heating into their house. I was quite surprised at how small the panels were in our house. It turns out that based on Australian standards, the size of the panels is calculated taking into consideration various things (type and size of windows, insulation and of course size of rooms, etc) delivering 21 degrees for living spaces, 18 for bedrooms, 23 for bathrooms at 4.5 degrees outside temperature. So if anyone thinks they wouldn't be happy with this, make sure you specify this to your supplier.

If anybody was wandering about actual performance, we are now in the house and on a couple of cold days the heating was working fabulously! Although 21 degrees is not really warm for me so had to rack the thermostat up.

I know Casa, I'm baaaaad. I hate being cold. I'm the coldest person I know, by far. I will try and do my bit for the environment somewhere else.