Forced air furnace vs......

[recycled sixtie]

in floor heating. I have no idea of the economics of one versus the other but I find that every Fall and Winter I get allergies from the furnace cutting in and blowing warm air around. Dust accumulates quicker than in our rented condo which has in floor heating.
I change the furnace filter frequently but does not make much difference.

Consequently I get allergies like headaches and stuffiness. Does anybody else suffer from allergies from their forced air furnace?

When you have built a new house in the past do you think much about whether to install infloor heating versus forced air? I suspect forced air is cheaper to install?

Of course those in the northern states of the US it is more of an issue. Your thoughts are appreciated on the health and economics of which you like best and what you would choose on your next home?
Cheers,
Guy

[blucille]

in floor heating, around here is mostly just floor warming. I do like it a lot, but in the cooler parts of the house (house built in the 1770's remodeled and insulated very recently)--parts especially with high ceilings and with exposure to the elements on 3 sides, the floor warming (fed by hot water under stone floors, in a mud base, heavily insulated below, built on a crawl-space) the floor warming couldn't keep the room comfortable, so we went to our fall-back and added forced air heating to that area only. If the house is existing, I expect the cost to retrofit floor heating will be excessive.

all that being said, the floor warming is wonderful, your body feels warm, even when the room/ambient air temp is fairly low, and it does a decent job of not wasting the heat by it rising up to high ceilings, etc....

in the rest of the house we have radiators, and in recently remodeled bathrooms, we have electric floor warming, the perfect compromise, good heat in the winter from the rads and warm toes from the floor heating.....of course we get hot summers, so we ducted for AC everywhere, which is how/why we were able to add the zone of forced air heat to compensate for the cool room that only had floor warming.

[oldE]

Guy,

If you want to reduce the reactions to air borne dust in a forced air system, you will have to have the system thoroughly cleaned. This probably will mean a professional. In addition an electrostatic dust filter should reduce the airborne materials.
Since in-floor is a newer system, you are probably looking at newer, better insulated construction, which lowers the overall energy costs.
When we built 35 years ago, we installed electric baseboard heat. If we had to rebuild today, we would build the house with in-floor heat with a ground-sourced heat pump.

Best
Les

[recycled sixtie]

Yes Les I think you are right re furnace and vent cleaning. Has not been done for a while.
As regards the electrostatic filter I had that choice when furnace was installed. I elected to go for a four inch filter instead as the snapping would keep me awake at night(I sleep next to the furnace room).

[bt1211]

I'm a Landlord, some of my apt have forced air, some have radiators and some have infloor heating. The radiators and infloor heating are MUCH more efficient than forced air. I can see a savings of about 20 to 40% in heating cost between radiators and infloor as compared to FA. I don't see a marked difference between radiators and infloor heating. If you are paying the heat, keep those radiators.

If I was building a house for myself it would be infloor heating. No doubt about it.

[red-beard]

If you have "forced hot water", it can be used in the floors and in ring the outside walls. It is also designed to be zoned so that each room can be individually controlled.

Slant/Fin Fine/Line 30 8 ft. Fully Assembled Enclosure and Element Hydronic Baseboard-101-401-8 - The Home Depot

Water flows through the base board and I expect you can force it through the floors.

[mreid]

We are building a home in NY and are going with in floor heating. The payback is 3-5 years.

The other upside is a/c. It is actually more efficient with smaller ductwork that is cheaper and much easier to route. All in a much better alternative for new construction.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by oldE

If you want to reduce the reactions to air borne dust in a forced air system, you will have to have the system thoroughly cleaned. This probably will mean a professional. In addition an electrostatic dust filter should reduce the airborne materials.

This. I had the rental (120+yo) cleaned twice.
There was a mouse nest completely blocking one of the vents. Get them every five years.
Been aggressive ever since: steel wool and foam on the rim joist gaps, grill covers for exhausts, ultrasonic speakers, all kinds of baited traps, etc.

With the new furnace and electrostatic cleaner, also added a UV system HVAC UV Lights for AC Systems-Do They Work? - House So Green to control spoors.
There are all types.
The box stores sell ones you can install in an hour. It needs to be located in a certain place(forgot offhand).
The bulbs only last a year or two, and have to be changed to be effective.

[LWJ]

I hang out with a bunch of very smart HVAC contractors in a trade association. Radiant heat is the bomb. I will do this if / when I build. The draw back? Air conditioning still needs to run via air. That may mean duct work.

[Charles Freeborn]

Yes, clean all ductwork thoroughly and annually if need be. Then get a really good electronic air filter system.
But yes, radiant is fabulous. Even better is old fashioned hot water radiators, but those systems are about gone now.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I hang out with a bunch of very smart HVAC contractors in a trade association. Radiant heat is the bomb. I will do this if / when I build. The draw back? Air conditioning still needs to run via air. That may mean duct work.

Two words: Mini-Split

[billybek]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I hang out with a bunch of very smart HVAC contractors in a trade association. Radiant heat is the bomb. I will do this if / when I build. The draw back? Air conditioning still needs to run via air. That may mean duct work.

This is true.
You may be able to go with multi head systems in a mini split to eliminate the ductwork issue in a home with radiant floor heat.

Floor heat you still need to get fresh air into the building. For new construction or large renovation projects, look at a good quality heat recovery ventilator or energy recovery ventilator. All the exhaust air from the home is piped through to pre heat or cool outdoor air entering the space. Example below.
Heat & Energy Recovery Ventilators | Zehnder America

Guy, you may have very poor filtration on your furnace system. Have a sheet metal contractor build a filter box that will hold a common filter size for the commercial HVAC industry.
When I renovated a few years back I re routed the ductwork changed the aspect ratio for clearance height in the basement and added new returns to all the rooms upstairs at the time. As part of that I asked for canvas connectors for the ductwork to reduce noise transmission, and a filter box.
The filter box has rails and a hinged door. I first tried the commonly available 20x24x2 inch thick 40% high density pleated filter. It is not quite hepa quality of filtration. The filters are dirt cheap though through a commercial supplier and I buy them a box a time. I have found this to be a good economical solution. The box was sized so that if the two inch thick filters were not enough, I could switch to a 4 inch thick pleated filter. More pleats and more thickness = more filter area and less air pressure restriction through the filter.
The hepa filters available at the big box stores are usually 1" thick and load incredibly fast and are very expensive. These can also increase the temperature of the air off the furnace too much due to flow restriction.

Look into how much fresh air you have coming in and also have the system checked for exchanger cracks.

I put one of the UV lamps into my return ducting.
I think it works... Maybe that is all that matters!

Sorry for the long reply but I would look at infloor if I was going to build and would make sure to have a fresh air HRV.

[VincentVega]

Thats what I was thinking, especially for a restrofit.

In floor heating is great but how are you generating the heat? Electric resistance is the simplest to install and can be $$, what are your power rates? To me its comfort vs cost.

[flipper35]

A friend of ours heats his shop with overhead radiant heating. Works very well. I have talked to a couple people that have it in their house and they like the fact it warms the bed sheets for them.

Cousin had in floor heating that extended out his garage to his driveway. I don't know how efficient it was but he loved it.

[MRM]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

in floor heating. I have no idea of the economics of one versus the other but I find that every Fall and Winter I get allergies from the furnace cutting in and blowing warm air around. Dust accumulates quicker than in our rented condo which has in floor heating.
I change the furnace filter frequently but does not make much difference.

Consequently I get allergies like headaches and stuffiness. Does anybody else suffer from allergies from their forced air furnace?
Guy

What you are experiencing is a real issue, but it is not dust allergies caused by the blowing fan and circulating dust. You are experiencing the effects of low humidity. Winter air is dry anyway. Combine that with the fan from a forced air furnace and the humidity level drops to a point where you experience exactly the symptoms you describe. The dry air causes irritation and inflammation which make you feel exactly like you have allergies. Lots of people also develop post-nasal drip from the dry air which causes a cough which also mimics allergies.

Managing humidity in a modern house is tricky. You could put a humidifier in, get the humidity level up to 70% and start feeling better overnight. But you'd have water dripping from your ceilings like it was raining and your windows would condense like someone was spraying a water hose on them.

You should have a whole house air exchanger. That mixes a little outside air into the inside air and manages your humidity level. If you don't have one, get one. If you do, manage the settings until you reach a happy medium where you have enough humidity in the air to feel good but not so much that condensation is a problem.

[cabmandone]

Just for the purpose of clearing the air (pun intended), An electrostatic filter uses no electricity. I'd strongly suggest a good filtration system and running your fan continuously. Running the fan has two benefits. 1: Better filtration of the air, 2: More even temperatures throughout the home. If you have metal duct have it cleaned and make sure they do each run off of the main trunk not just the main trunk itself. If you have the lazy installer duct (flex duct) you're probably best to get rid of it as it has a lot of static electricity and tends to catch a lot of dust. For best filtration your home should have one "return" duct in each room.

BTW, MRM great catch! After reading again it does appear he could stand to check humidity.