Forced air heat vs. Cast iron radiator
While recent;y renovating my home, we replaced half of the cast iron radiators with forced air at our contractor’s suggestion. Now, the forced air seems to be less efficient, and I’m considering going to back to radiators for the whole house. Am I crazy? Is forced air heat really that inefficient? Is cast iron radiator…
While recent;y renovating my home, we replaced half of the cast iron radiators with forced air at our contractor’s suggestion. Now, the forced air seems to be less efficient, and I’m considering going to back to radiators for the whole house. Am I crazy? Is forced air heat really that inefficient? Is cast iron radiator heat really that good? Please help!
One thing that I like about forced air is that the room heats up instantly — you don’t have to wait the 30 minutes that you do with radiators.
I find forced air very dry, however. Don’t know about its (in)efficiency.
Forced hot air is not recommended for our normally cold weather, winter climate. It just isn’t good enough. Also the ducts should be on the floor for heating in winter and on the top of rooms to be used as cooling vents for a/c. So using it as a double system is a compromise at best for venting; ie: heat rises.
The one advantage of hot air heat IMO is very easy maintenance. Every Fall I just change the filter, oil the motor and check and screw down the grease cups on the blower (I have to re-fill them every three years or so–I’ve been using the same pound of grease since 1974 and its still more than 3/4 full).
I’ve noticed that my heat is much more even since I replaced my old mechanical thermostat with a digital electronic one last year. Still, there’s no question that hot water heat is somewhat more comfortable, but hot air isn’t all THAT bad.
Did you have steam or hot water heat before the renovation? I know for a fact that hot water heating system are much more energy efficient than forced air or even steam. I don’t know for sure about steam systems.
I lived in house with forced hot air heat and it’s either too hot or too cold. The air blasts you then it cools quickly. The only advantage was using the ducts for central air in the summer.
I had similar questions. Search the forum. The resounding answer seems to be YES! Good luck….