Heating...? Front is all window!

[ApS]

Upthesaukee brought up the topic at the "visitor at our front yard" thread, and suggested that it needed to be a new thread.

Here it is! :)

To extend my place's usefulness into the colder seasons -- maybe all year -- I'm thinking of adding a poured concrete 1st floor to be used independently of the raised cottage above. (Some would call it a basement, but it's on a steep hill).

If I get my way, it would have tall windows all across the front for light-gathering and view-gathering -- but for the heating concern.

How does one start off today with heat?

(The windows would face NE, and may include a small bay-window extension).

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Choose your windows and their features carefully!
Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings (http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/windo.htm)
Cellular blinds work very well on the super cold days and nights.
We have triple cells on our four 8' x 8' custom commercial windows in our home and are quite happy.
American Blinds & Wallpaper (http://www.decoratetoday.com/products/blinds/blinds_manuf.asp?blind_type=4&si=4) Why pay top dollar? We had good luck with this company.
Granite State Glass (http://www.granitestateglass.com/) did a wonderful job on our windows.

[Merrymeeting]

The other factor to consider is solar gain if you can get it. If so, a lot of glass can be a good thing.

My in-laws have an all glass front house. Even with the weather this past few weeks, if the sun is out, it will get amazingly warm in their house in the afternoon as they face southwest. Thankfully they have shade trees and a lot of doors that open to counteract this effect in the summertime.

[Paugus Bay Resident]

If you're going with poured concete, you definetly should consider radiant floor heating and use high e glass.

[fatlazyless]

For heating the liquid in the radiant floor tubes, I've heard that a propane fired hot water heater with a small circulator pump can be used instead of a boiler. Anyone know about this?

[Paugus Bay Resident]

Should be fine. Radiant heating systems will operate with virtually any heat source. I've seen situations where people are using solar for radiant floors. Just a circ pump(s), manifold, themostat and tank. I can send a schematic if you're interested.

Polaris makes a nice propane water heater.

Here's a couple of good links:

Radiant Floor Company (http://www.radiantcompany.com/)

RadianTec (http://www.radiantec.com/)

[ITD]

Be careful to size the heat source properly or you'll be cold in the winter. A water heater may not supply enough heat. I have many sliders in a well insulated house with forced hot water by oil. Because of limited wall space the builder installed 4 convector fans, not nearly enough for the space that needs to be heated. Also after 15 years, it sounds like 4 P-51s landing when the heat comes on. A little planning and research now will save years of aggravation in the future. Good luck...

[upthesaukee]

Acres Per Second --- the house started out as a 40 x 8 trailer with a 22 x 8 porch. My fingers would fall off before I could tell you all the changes that have taken place, but we now have a 10 room Gambrel with a solid Oak circular staircase to get to the 3 BRs upstairs. There are 7 5'w x 4'h windows across the front, 3 across the end of the LR, and 1 1/2 across the back of the LR. There is 1 each on each end of the upstairs. There is 1 in the kitchen, 1 in the laundry room, and 4 in the DR. There is a two panel sliding door off our BR to the porch.

The whole house sits on piers, and thus there is crawl space underneath that can get mighty chilly, and the furnace ducts run under and do keep it warm enough to not freeze (knock on wood). We do have a wood stove but it needs help when it gets as cold as it is now. The windows are all circa 1980, and you can literally feel the cold soak in (all are double pane insulated glass).

All that glass was fine as a summer place, or weekend year round retreat. As a year round residence, it can get really cold in the winter.

My advise...Don't just think of now as to what kind of construction and types of windows, but look at what will happen down the road. Will those windows lose some of their efficiency? Will fuel costs make them a cash depository? Look at the long term as well as the short term. Is there a way to make it more heat efficient and energy efficient in cold weather, especially if you are not going to be around in the winter.

the coolness of our house in the summer is amazing, and we added a circular fan in the LR and on the porch, and with all those windows, we can open them and catch any breeze that may be blowing, or even just "wafting" up the hillside to our house.

Just a few thoughts for you to ponder, if you haven't already thought of these.