Raspy
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 1,636
- Location
- Smith Valley, Nevada
- Tractor
- NH TC29DA, F250 Tremor, Jeep Rubicon
AaronS,
The radiant "cooling" idea has been discussed a lot over the years. The biggest problem is that hot air rises and a cold floor will have little affect on the room temp. A ceiling fan would help with that, but the whole idea isn't practical or very affective. In order to get the floor cold enough to be affective with a ceiling fan blowing on it you would need a heat pump and then the condensation issue comes up. Plus the floor would be very uncomfortable to walk on.
In my case I am adding air conditioning to be used as needed as a separate system to my radiant. I have kept it as simple as possible with one return air and one delivery duct to the Great Room.
Often, when people want air conditioning and radiant, the air contractor tries to upgrade them to forced air as part of the work. They say that since the ducting is going in anyway, why not add heat too? And they justify this additional sale by saying the radiant takes so long to work and will break down, so it's best to do hot air. Then later, the forced air heat is never used.
Add air conditioning as a separate system and don't worry about adding supplemental forced air heat.
The radiant "cooling" idea has been discussed a lot over the years. The biggest problem is that hot air rises and a cold floor will have little affect on the room temp. A ceiling fan would help with that, but the whole idea isn't practical or very affective. In order to get the floor cold enough to be affective with a ceiling fan blowing on it you would need a heat pump and then the condensation issue comes up. Plus the floor would be very uncomfortable to walk on.
In my case I am adding air conditioning to be used as needed as a separate system to my radiant. I have kept it as simple as possible with one return air and one delivery duct to the Great Room.
Often, when people want air conditioning and radiant, the air contractor tries to upgrade them to forced air as part of the work. They say that since the ducting is going in anyway, why not add heat too? And they justify this additional sale by saying the radiant takes so long to work and will break down, so it's best to do hot air. Then later, the forced air heat is never used.
Add air conditioning as a separate system and don't worry about adding supplemental forced air heat.