Browse Forums Building A New House Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 3Jul 29, 2010 11:47 am Hi Frosty I am building a slightly bigger house than yours (21 sq), but similar number of rooms and I have 8 ducted heating points, one for each of the bedrooms/study, and 3 in the family/meals area, and one in the ensuite. I havent lived in a house with ducted heating before, but it made sense to me to have atleast one in each room - sort of like having a little fan heater in the 3 rooms in the apartment I am renting now! Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 4Jul 29, 2010 11:53 am Hi Frosty, I copied your plans into here, hope you don't mind! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I just want to ask why would you put the vents outside the kids bedrooms and not inside? You will be warming the hallway and not their bedrooms where it it more likely needed (especially being in Melbourne!). This is what I would do: 1 x Master bedroom 1 x living/study (but may depend on the size of the room) 2 x family 1 x meals 1 x bed 2 1 x bed 3 1 x bed 4 Possibly: 1 x laundry (if you want to hide your washing in there to dry) 1 x bathroom 1 x ensuite Maybe that's overkill, but if you have them zoned so not all are on at once...particually the bathroom/ensuite and laundry I added ones in the bathroom and ensuite as they were not included in our house plans and it was the best decision! I would have loved one in the laundry as well to help dry clothes 'out of sight' but it was not possible as I have a double storey. Don't forget , you are in VIC and will most likely use your heater for a longer period than your cooling. Don't skimp on the kids bedrooms! I grew up in a house with 1 heater in the family room and almost froze as my bedroom was so cold. I had to use an electric blow heater (money waster)! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 5Jul 29, 2010 12:06 pm Stormy I just want to ask why would you put the vents outside the kids bedrooms and not inside? You will be warming the hallway and not their bedrooms where it it more likely needed (especially being in Melbourne!). This is what I would do: 1 x Master bedroom 1 x living/study (but may depend on the size of the room) 2 x family 1 x meals 1 x bed 2 1 x bed 3 1 x bed 4 Possibly: 1 x laundry (if you want to hide your washing in there to dry) 1 x bathroom 1 x ensuite +1, but I'd possibly have 2 in the lounge area. At the very least I'd be zoning the minor bedrooms seperately. No need to heat them when no-one's in them, and also sometimes on those not so cold nights, they only need to be warmed and then turned off once littlies are asleep, but the rest of the house still needs warmth when people are up. But if budget allows, I'd have a couple of zones. If it came down to a choice, I'd go for zoning over extra ducts in the bathrooms/laundry. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 6Jul 29, 2010 12:17 pm With zones for ducted heating, keep in mind that at a minimum you need to have 5-6 ducts 'on', so it may or may not be worth the added expense of zoning if you decide to have 6-8 outlets. Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 7Jul 29, 2010 2:09 pm Thanks guys! Stormy, you are excellent thank you!! The reason for the kids bedrooms not having one in the room is a basic over heating paranoia. It's not a huge house, and we're going to put a door between the kids bedrooms and family room. So I thought if we put a vent in the hallway, shut the bathroom and toliet but left the rooms open then they would still get toasty, and I'd still be able to sleep at night! Also we're hoping the the 4th bedroom will be a nursery soon. Do you think that would work still? The Living room at the front isn't big either and will be DH's study. Should we look at putting a vent in that room, and in the hallway in front of the doorway? TA! ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 8Jul 29, 2010 2:15 pm just thought I'd add that I did a re-count in my head over lunch and came up with 11 this time, sorry I think you should put vents in the kids rooms, and do the extra zone thing as joles said, and not turn them on if you don't need to. in the evenings we have the living zones running but no bedrooms (I hate having the heating on while I'm in bed and think my kids would too. they are all rugged up in warm pjs and their blankets, they don't need the heater on as well). We put both zones on in the morning though. "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 9Jul 29, 2010 2:29 pm Alright, going to look at systems with zoning. Do they all come with some zoning? Or just the step up from base level systems? ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 10Jul 29, 2010 2:30 pm As well as the size of the house it depends on the layout - I would put 9 in your house - 1 in each bedroom,1 in liveing, 1 in kitchen, 1 in meals, 2 in family room. I am presuming the liveing room is around 18m2. our house is slightly bigger than yours at 23 sq's and we have 8 - 1 in each of 3 bedrooms, 1 in liveing room, 1 in meals, 1 in kitchen, 2 in family room. In other words each separate room has 1 and open space kitchen/melas/family has 4. We are not heating the hallways or the wet areas with ducted heating. The bathrooms each have a ceiling light/fan/heater. Presumably some of your rooms are smaller than ours to fit in a 4th bedroom - however each bedroom still only needs 1 - so your total is 1 less than ours, even though house is smaller. Diagram included - red circles are ducts. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We have found this is more than enough - easily heat (and cool - it is r/c) all areas. However we are in SA, winters are probably not as cold or wet as Melbourne. Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 11Jul 29, 2010 2:35 pm *frosty* Thanks guys! Stormy, you are excellent thank you!! The reason for the kids bedrooms not having one in the room is a basic over heating paranoia. It's not a huge house, and we're going to put a door between the kids bedrooms and family room. So I thought if we put a vent in the hallway, shut the bathroom and toliet but left the rooms open then they would still get toasty, and I'd still be able to sleep at night! Also we're hoping the the 4th bedroom will be a nursery soon. Do you think that would work still? The Living room at the front isn't big either and will be DH's study. Should we look at putting a vent in that room, and in the hallway in front of the doorway? TA! I would still be inclined to put a vent in all the bedrooms. Even if it is just for resale value further down the track. When you do have a baby, just turn off the vent in that room if you are concerned about over heating when the baby is asleep. If you plan on staying in the house for a long time, then think about the use of the rooms when the children are older. They will play in there, and study in there, but won't want to if the rooms are cold! Trust me, I've been there, done that and wasted a lot of electricity on the blow heater! I know with our actual vents, you can vary the flow of air coming through, so it might be a case of doing that so the rooms don't overheat. How often will the study get used? I'm in mine most days and often at night. If there wasn't a heating vent, I'd be rather annoyed! I don't have the heater running at night, as they are all tucked up, like Donuts has said. But I do turn it down to about 16C. Sometimes it clicks on at about 7ish, otherwise I turn it up when everyone gets up. Also, you don't have to have the temp very high that the rooms are hot. They just need to be warmed to take the chill off. I can't offer any suggestions about zoning a single storey, sorry! Mines a double, and I have it zoned so the top storey can be shut off separately from the bottom. Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 12Jul 29, 2010 3:16 pm Our house is not much bigger than yours. I think about 23sq, have 4 bedroom's, front living room, meals area and rumpus room (kind of similar to yours - kind of =S ) and we have 9 points. One in each bedroom, 1 in first living area, 2 in meals, and 2 in rumpus. As others have said, you can get one in the laundry to dry clothes, but personally I would not worry about it. The bathrooms and ensuite would be nice, but we didn't worry about one in there as we have those heater/light/fan's. Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 13Jul 29, 2010 6:18 pm I would agree with vents in the bedrooms, we have them in all ours and when the kids go to bed i just turn the heater down. our house is just under 25 sq and we have: 1x master 3x kids rooms 1x meals 1x family room 1x lounge room so we got away with 7 points, though i am wishing i'd put one in the laundry for the washing also since we dont have washing line yet!! No point in heating the hallways as they're just walkways, you dont hang out in them, iykwim?? Caz & Co ALL MOVED IN!! Now comes all the hard work-decorating.... [b]Blog: http://cazoraz.blogspot.com/ Settling in Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36993 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 14Jul 29, 2010 9:22 pm cazoraz I would agree with vents in the bedrooms, we have them in all ours and when the kids go to bed i just turn the heater down. our house is just under 25 sq and we have: 1x master 3x kids rooms 1x meals 1x family room 1x lounge room so we got away with 7 points, though i am wishing i'd put one in the laundry for the washing also since we dont have washing line yet!! No point in heating the hallways as they're just walkways, you dont hang out in them, iykwim?? Hows the heater going Caz? Is it warm enough with the 7 points? ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 15Jul 29, 2010 11:02 pm yeah its really good. we dont have any in any of the hallways, and my front entrance is quite large as you know, but its totally warm everywhere. only place i'd have put an extra is laundry ut with the dryer on its quite warm in there anyway Caz & Co ALL MOVED IN!! Now comes all the hard work-decorating.... [b]Blog: http://cazoraz.blogspot.com/ Settling in Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36993 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 16Jul 29, 2010 11:53 pm There are systems that you can get (my parents have one) that you set the thermostat so the heating will only come on at night if the temperature in the house drops below a certain temperature i.e mum and dads is at 16oC - this way you don't wake up with frosty ears and noses but you aren't over heating... their system also allows you to have a turn on and off time and temperature for everyday of the week - so the heating automatically turns on at 6.30am just before we all get up for work and heats the rooms to 19oC - it will then automatically turn off at 9am when we have all left and the same at night - it will turn on at 4.30pm just before we are all getting home from work - heat the house to 19oC then turn itself off - at 10.30pm it puts itself in to "sleep" (or bedtime) mode and continues on with the cycle. (the same controller is used for their refrigerated air con in summer too) And it is zoned with living and then bedrooms (only 2 zones) We have just moved in with my parents (well for me it's back in) and we didn't have ducted heating in our old place (5 years) - it has taken some adjustment to get used to going to bed with a singlet on in winter - whereas in our old place I would go to bed in flanney pjs and socks and a doona and an extra blanket over the top - but now i don't ever think of being cold and it is set at a great temperature that is always comfortable. A system (thermostat controller) such as this may be something to consider if you are concerned with over heating at night time - and its great you just turn it on and can pretty much forget about it! I know we will definitely be investing in one of these! Also - I am a big one for ducts in the bathroom/ensuite - this is the room that you are naked and wet in and getting in and out of showers/baths in winter with no heating *bbrrrrr* - it seems crazy that builders don't have these rooms as standard installs for heating - much safer than the plug in the wall fan type heaters!!! And +1 for Stormy's advice on the number/positions of ducts. Good luck with your selection Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 18Jul 30, 2010 10:50 am Quote: Also - I am a big one for ducts in the bathroom/ensuite - this is the room that you are naked and wet in and getting in and out of showers/baths in winter with no heating *bbrrrrr* - it seems crazy that builders don't have these rooms as standard installs for heating - much safer than the plug in the wall fan type heaters!!! Ours had the ceiling 3in1 fan/light/heater as standard; I find these work fine - you are in the bathroom for such short space of time, seems unnecessary to have it heating for hours on end We only use our heating at night and we mostly shower in the morning, would defeat the purpose anyway Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 19Jul 30, 2010 7:21 pm Helyn Ours had the ceiling 3in1 fan/light/heater as standard; I find these work fine - you are in the bathroom for such short space of time, seems unnecessary to have it heating for hours on end We only use our heating at night and we mostly shower in the morning, would defeat the purpose anyway +1 they are next on my list if there is any money left over from tax return Caz & Co ALL MOVED IN!! Now comes all the hard work-decorating.... [b]Blog: http://cazoraz.blogspot.com/ Settling in Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36993 Re: How many ducted heating points for a smallish home? 20Jul 30, 2010 9:12 pm We had one - wasn't enough for me - however I have showers so hot that my skin is red and blotchy! I HATE being cold and i felt that thing did nothing. Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes If you're referring to Eufy homebase, then just put a switch between a datapoint and put the homebase elsewhere near another device in your home unless you want teh… 9 13883 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 106269 They already have two well known ones (HIA & MBA) that many new home buyers mistakenly think are regulatory bodies that Joe Public can complain to. 6 18059 |