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High Velocity Air Conditioning-good Idea Or Bad?
February 26, 2010 by admin
Filed under Heating & AC FAQ
I am looking at a house that has the good old radiators for heat and the current owners use room air conditioners in each bedroom. Someone told me a solution to this would be to install high velocity air conditioning as it does not require massive installation of duct work. I am wondering how efficient it is and how expensive it is. I would be cooling an area that is about 1000 square feet–basically a living room, kitchen and 3 bedrooms. Also, how energy efficient are those old radiators. I have heard that they are very good at keeping the house warm–but are they expensive, can you put timers on them like you do with forced air heat, are they energy hogs?
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the high velocity central ac systems that use small diameter,less intrusive ductwork work well as far as i’ve seen….they can be more expensive because you have to buy the specific ductwork required from the same place you buy the indoor unit [ air handler]…usually you can use any major brand outdoor unit…the brand i’ve seen is called “unico”,,work fine……as far as the radiater heat,it isnt the radiaters that are more eff or less eff,,but the boiler itself….is it gas fired [ natural or propane /lp ] ??…if so,if its less than 20 years old its probably around 80% eff,meaning only 20% of the heat is vented to the outside…if its 25-35 years old,probably around 70% eff,,,older than that,probably 60% eff…..for the most part,gas boilers top out around 80-83% eff,,,any more eff than that and you cant vent them conventionally,,in which case the boiler and venting can cost more,,only makes sense if conventional venting [ chimney or vertical b-vent through house ] has a problem that would be cost prohibitive to repair…..most oil fired boilers are in the 70%-80% eff range as far as i know,but i dont work on oil fired furnaces/boilers……and you can use a programmable tstat with the boiler….fyi,radiater heat is the best heat…the reason most new homes dont have it is because they are running all the ductwork for the central ac anyway,,cheaper to connect a hot air furnace to the ducts than to run a lot of water pipes and radiaters with a boiler as well as having a seperate central ac system with its own ductwork,,also not everyone likes the look of radiaters,including the newer “tube in fin” baseboard type…………dan
ductless split air conditioner is what you should investigate.