HVAC Impact on House Price
You are shopping for a house and stumble upon two Park Slope 1895 brownstones that sit side by side. Each has been renovated with many historical details intact. Brownstone #1 has a completely new, energy efficient, combined forced air and cooling system with 2 zones that the owner promises you runs at 94% efficiency. Brownstone…
You are shopping for a house and stumble upon two Park Slope 1895 brownstones that sit side by side. Each has been renovated with many historical details intact. Brownstone #1 has a completely new, energy efficient, combined forced air and cooling system with 2 zones that the owner promises you runs at 94% efficiency. Brownstone #2 has a completely new, energy efficient central air conditioning system, and for heat uses the original one pipe steam system with cast iron radiators that the owner promises you run at 80% efficiency. Which house do you bid on? Why?
Run, run, run screaming from steam. Cost effective? Yes. Do Master Plumbers find it efficient? Yes. Do certain homeowners find it “charming”? Maybe, but they’re the same people who say that doing other awful things “builds character”.
My old home had forced air, and my current apartment has steam. The steam is noisy, irregular, and maintenance intensive. I’m sure if it was “well balanced” or “maintained” it would work like a charm, but that state is only reachable in theory (in my experience) and with a great deal of fuss.
If you like spending entire weekends troubleshooting your heating system, go nuts. I personally will never buy steam.
I agree that stream radiators are the best for heat. I wouldn’t make this decision based on the hvac system since they both have central a/c.
“Efficiency†has many meanings and, in this case, is misleading.
Here the word is being used to indicate the amount of energy being directly exchanged to a space-heating medium in relation to how much is being consumed by the fuel-burning appliance. That’s called “combustion efficiencyâ€.
This could be a very long and boring post but I’ll try to sum it up with the following generalizations:
It is not difficult for a warm air furnace to achieve combustion efficiency ratings in the 90% range. It is simply heating moving air with an open flame.
A steam boiler has to first heat a large, several-hundred-pound-piece of water-filled cast iron to about 215 degrees. Then it can start to send steam to its terminals.
But…!
The efficiency of any “Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) “system†must be taken into account.
A forced-air system runs more cycles per hour than a steam system. It, therefore, tends to burn more fuel.
The forced air system also tends to exploit the home’s infiltration factor. That means that all that warm moving air tends to find its way out of air leaks in the home, and may pull in cold air from outside sources and window surfaces, further increasing fuel usage.
A steam system heats a big chunk of iron in each room and leaves it there, a big, radiating thermal mass, long after the burner has stopped consuming fuel.
A circulating hot water system allows the greatest amount of system flexibility and combustion efficiency, which renders it the most cost effective in terms of fuel consumption.
Even though the forced air system claims a higher efficiency, you need to set the thermostat higher to obtain the same comfort level of radiant sources of heat. I am no fan of forced air heat. The hydronic system with old cast iron radiators is an excellent way to heat a house, especially if the system has been maintained. You can adjust those radiators in each room without ‘zones’, and you can install individual thermostats on each one if you want to go crazy. I would bid on #2.
What type of heating system does the forced air system use. If it’s a heat pump it will have difficulty heating your home on “cold” days.
Hmmmm. Assuming same cost for each and all other factors are equal? I go with the one that has the original Steam system. First of all, and I could be completely and totally wrong here, but I am skeptical of 94% efficiency. Second, I don’t really like forced hot air- unless you add a humidifier to the system, the product can be awfully dry. I think a well balanced steam system is just more comfortable. Of course, having zones is a really nice option, and I realize that some people dislike having radiators, but I really have grown to appreciate the distinct charms and comfort of my single pipe steam system. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Now if I only had central air…