Gas or Electric source for hydronic Radiant Heat?

Hi All,

I am finalizing plans for a gut renovation for a fully detached three-story plus basement townhouse. My architect is recommending electricity as the heating source of the hydronic radiant heating throughout the house. We would not install a boiler. We would have a gas line for some appliances. Thoughts? Concerned about my electric bill.

InBklyn76

in Renovation 4 years and 3 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years and 3 months ago

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InBklyn76 is asking about “electricity as the heating source of the *hydronic* radiant heating throughout the house,” not electric radiant floor heating. Does the architect recommend a heat pump? Will you have solar panels?

greenworks | 4 years and 3 months ago

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@Master Plumber, What do you consider small and what is large?

Master Plvmber | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Electric radiant floor heating works and makes sense for small spaces or where no hydronic (water based) heat source is practical. Large areas, not so much.

Lurker | 4 years and 3 months ago

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It’s possible they intend for your to have mini-splits as a supplemental heating. But those are electric too (and there are lots of threads here about whether those have the ability to adequately heat a home in our region–I have no idea).
I am forever afraid of electric as a heat source for a home of size as we have friends who bought in winter and then were shocked to receive an $800 heating bill after the first month.

InBklyn76 | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Oops! I meant fully attached. Thank you for this, Lurker.

Lurker | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Unless your home is insulated to the level of being passive, or you’re installing a lot of solar panels, I suspect it would cost you a fortune to heat in NYC, especially since it’s a detached home.
Before deciding you should get the architect or an engineer or heating plumber to show you the results of a heat loss calculator, which takes into consideration glass surfaces, insulation, square footage and so on, and then spits out how much heat your building loses per hour, and then lets you calculate what it would cost to raise temps to your comfort level based on differing heat sources.

It is completely knowable roughly how much each type of heating system will cost you to run each month, in addition to install and hardware costs.

Make sure your architect fully explain why they think electric is the way to go with calculations, not just their opinion, because you really have to get it right the first time.