Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Feb 25, 2012 11:15 pm We are about to undertake an alterations and additions of our 1926 house in Adelaide and are very interested in having hydronic heating / solar evacuated tubes system throughout. We're still in the middle of trying to research more about this vs ducted reverse cycle and have yet to seek quotes. As such, would love to hear from those who have installed one what your thoughts are. Is worth it? What are the pros and cons? What did you do for cooling (we're thinking ceiling fans throughout the house and a split system unit in 2 of the living areas)? And if you're from Adelaide, who did you go with? Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 3Feb 28, 2012 4:05 pm Do a search for hydronic ... a few link come up. Good luck with that! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 4Mar 09, 2012 1:05 pm We're in the final stage of constructing a house (in SA), we looked at hydronic heating but I was against it, perhaps unfairly, on the basis that if a pipe were to rupture in the slab I figured it could cause no end of problems. Instead we opted for electric cable (in slab) floor heating. The installer was fantastic during slab pour and whilst I'm yet to test it there are many good testamonies in favour of product and service. Can't wait to be able to walk around on warmed (polished concrete) floors during the middle of winter without socks on. Another benefit of this heating is you can program it to do it's work during the night using off-peak electricity rates which will then release heat to the house during the day. I figured it's a great way of passively heating the house, and we installed solar panels to offset the cost. I rekon if you did go down path of hydronic heating that would be good also. Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 5Apr 10, 2012 10:52 am I havent installed any hydronic heating, but I am thoroughly impressed with some of the things I have heard. I will be looking at the option when building my next house in the coming months. Its definitely going to come down to costs though. Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 6Apr 10, 2012 12:42 pm Finally a cold snap here in Melbourne and a chance to turn our new Hydronic heating on for the 1st time. BLISS We have slab heating in most of the new build and panels in the old part of the house including the bedrooms. It’s going to take a little bit of experimentation to get the right balance (bedrooms were a little hot this morning). As I write this i have toasty warm feet while is drizzling and miserable outside. Just a few thoughts...and what we might have done differently. We did our research on Vacuum tubes babygirl03 and found as with most green options at the present moment, the payback equation doesn’t stack up, especially in the southern states. I shared Clio's worries about pipes rupturing in the slab (we took a thousand hyper accurate photos of the installation) but I fear the cost of electricity, even off peak, may be a burden over the life of the system. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ What would I do differently? I would invest in a condensing boiler. We have one for our HWS and the drop in gas consumption/ the bill has been dramatic, well worth the extra 100 bucks. Also at the install phase we would have now installed the insulated matting as recommended by most Hydronic installers. It costs a bit more but would pay back quite quickly, we only found out about this option when it was too late. As for the cost, yes it is expensive to install, about 13k for a 175 sqm home. However we found the slab heating was cheaper than the traditional panels. The panels work out at around $1000 per panel (more if its to heat a large room) but the slab heating is essentially plastic pipes. Running costs? Will have to get back to you on that in a few months, we have double glazing, insulated to the beejezzus and our slab is nearly 400 mm thick! (the coils are in a 100mm layer of polished concrete on the surface). Is Hydronic a luxury? Yes in the short term, but I think over the many long winters ahead, we will be glad we spent the extra few bucks. Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 7May 13, 2012 12:09 am Sorry for the lack of replies. There was silence for so long that I kinda stopped visiting and checking, so a very pleasant surprise to get some responses. sceen7 - that's a fantastic pic you posted and I'm very encouraged by the positive experience you're currently enjoying. While I'm still very, very keen on going down the hydronic path, I'm starting to have doubts as both our architect and builder (who are Italians with the latter, raised in Europe and familiar with hydronic systems) saying that the cost outweighs the benefit too much and that it'll be much more cost effective for us to go ducted reverse cycle. Regardless, we'll be getting some quotes and 2 suppliers I've since spoken with have suggested forgoing the evacuated tubes due to cost and to use natural gas boiler instead. We were also told by one of the suppliers that panels are more expensive and that we should try to go slab as much as possible so where we're needing to rip floors out, we should be going in slab and to put aside $1,000 per room although he reckons in most cases, it should come under. Please keep us updated re how effective you're finding it as the weather starts cooling down more and more now, and of course running cost. Also, how are you using it - 24hrs like in Europe, from wake up to bedtime only or less even? Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 8May 16, 2012 9:19 pm Just a couple of thoughts babygirl03 saying that the cost outweighs the benefit too much and that it'll be much more cost effective for us to go ducted reverse cycle. the cost of these systems are often way more than what I paid for our total system. That said we have a mix of things that suit our extended house. We have evap for the bedrooms and split ac for the main open plan for cooling and the Hydronic for heating the whole house in winter. This setup covers all bases for us, summers have been more humid lately, which is what the split covers. As in Adelaide we generally get a dry heat so the evap works well on those days, and can be run as a fan for next to nothing overnight. We are still playing with the settings on the Hydronic system, and received our 1st gas bill for the colder months. Our gas consumption is a little up on this time(bill) last year, but not by much. Last year we had a Vulcan wall furnace that heated two rooms, now we heat the whole house (except the guest room that is switched on when we need it). The slab heating seems to have bed in nicely. We were setting the thermostat to come on at 6am then vary during the day (wife works from home) then off at around 11. But I was concerned how hard the boiler seemed to be working during the day, so I have now set it to not go below 20 which seems much better. It hasn’t come on once since I got home 3 hours ago and its 11 degrees outside. The north glass really helps in this room, so any solar passive design you can work into your home is a real energy saver. We will have more of an idea how the gas consumption is going after the next bill but again I say go for a condensing boiler, it will be worth the extra bucks up front. Re: Hydronic Heating - Adelaide 9Jun 26, 2013 9:28 pm Hi, We are about to build in Adelaide and would like to have floor heating. We are hoping to have a polished concrete floor, and I would love to hear how your system has worked since installing, especially the cost. We are also looking to have double glazing and good wall and ceiling insulation. How have you cooled your home? Look forward to hearing from you. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good hydronic in slab heating speacialist who may be able to help me with an existing system and wether or not it may need a seperator… 0 5673 Currently renovating, and our main lounge is 5m x 10m, with a cathedral roof peaking at 6.5m high. Currently have tiles on concrete slab. Room is very hard to heat. I am… 0 5600 Building a new home, and looking for a garage builder (home builder not contracted to do this). Someone to build steel garage (double), colorbond, including supply and… 0 3607 |