Re: How to AC with Hydronic or Steam?


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Posted by Harold Kestenholz - Hydronic Network on August 25, 2001 at 10:00:38:

In Reply to: Re: How to AC with Hydronic or Steam? posted by jtown on August 25, 2001 at 06:44:02:

This is where good intentions go wrong. The building will be left in brick, so this is a 1900's concept of living, where energy costs mean nothing and the utility company is a major profit-center. Leaving the walls in brick with no insulation means turn of the last-century energy bills 4 times that of a modern home. The R1 walls mean that the walls will be 35F while the inside is 72F and the outside is 0F, so the moisture will settle on the cold walls, leaving the room bone dry to blast the cat off the couch with static when you move acroos the room to pet her. Ah, the charm of the good old days.

To compensate for the refrigerator walls, a steam system is definitely the best way to go, because the 215F radiators (you can bet the cat won't jump up on them) will radiate the heat to the body to compensate for the heat lost from your 91F body to the cold, damp walls. I am sure JTown can install a great-working, quiet steam system, not too sure about the other folks who didn't read the writings from the "Dead Men.'

I would engage the services of an architect, to learn how to bind insulation to the walls to keep them at least 65F and then cover them with face brick to get the effect. The insulation would mean I could hang my Picasso on the wall without it getting soaked - it would also mean I could afford the Rembrandt from the savings from my fuel bill and I wouldn't have to buy new furniture every 4 years as the wood alternately dries and soaks moisture from the air.

But, maybe this is a pipedream - the building owner may be paying the fuel bills, so why worry?




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