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So you bought your dream house and all's right with the world... except it has electric baseboard heating, and huge utility bills. For this situation Just Homes can offer a conversion that's economical and painless... and provides air conditioning as a bonus. Our strategy is an adaptation of the whole-house mechanical system we've been discussing. In this case we install the fan/coil unit in the attic, and heat the ground floor with high-efficiency hot-water radiators. This solution brings together two different trades:
The heating contractor does the rest up in the attic: installing the fan/coil unit and duct work to the supply and return flows. Only a few small diameter holes need to be cut in the second floor ceilings. By locating the second floor fan/coil return
air over the stairwell, we can draw warm air from the ground floor
as well as the second. And cool air supplied by the attic unit to
the second floor uses the stairwell to move downwards and cool the ground
floor.
What's the hot water source supplying the radiators and fan/coil? Again, we're making the most of our old friend: the domestic hot water heater (DHW). This is generally upgraded as part of the conversion and replaced with a higher-efficiency system. (The new tank will be chosen to supply both the hot water load and the heating load.) Finally, a conventional high efficiency outdoor air conditioning unit is used to supply the air-conditioning coil in the attic. The controls for the conversion are simple:
There are no large ducts to install and hide, and far less disruption to the space -- most of the work takes place either in the basement or attic space. That can translate to significant savings in construction expense! |